set the table

Idioms  

1. Also, lay the table. Arrange a cloth, plates, glasses, silverware and the like for a meal, as in Please set the table for eight tonight. [Late 1300s]

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Example Sentences

Once inside, I light the stove while my sisters set the table.

From Literature

Then he helped Hannah clean up the mess and set the table in the dining room under her careful instruction.

From Literature

Explain Bivens doctrine now, to set the table for what follows.

From Slate

Wall Street banks set the table for a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings season overall following a series of upbeat outlooks that bode well for the wave of industrial, consumer, healthcare, and tech reports expected over the coming weeks.

From Barron's

Wall Street set the table for a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings season following a series of upbeat outlooks from the country’s biggest banks that bode well for the wave of industrial, consumer, healthcare and tech reports expected over the coming weeks.

From Barron's