set about
Britishverb
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to start or begin
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to attack physically or verbally
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By day three the flip is gone, “and there is no beseeching the island for more. It is time instead to set about the business of surviving.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
"I'd heard on the grapevine that she was looking for a song or two, so I set about writing some."
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Feeling like finding this 950-square-foot apartment was kismet, Miranda-Martin signed the lease and set about creating a sophisticated and color-saturated sanctuary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The company found them at Princeton University, where it set about amplifying their work by donating $15 million to start the Carbon Mitigation Initiative.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
So she set about clearing out the house, arguing with the intruders as she shouted at them, and by four in the afternoon she was successful.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
