set against

verb

1. to balance or compare

   to set a person's faults against his virtues

2. to cause to be hostile or unfriendly to

Idioms and Phrases

Be or cause someone to be opposed to, as in Civil wars often set brother against brother, or The police chief's critics were set against his officers. [Late 1200s] Also see dead set against.

Example Sentences

After dropping Game 1 in their best-of-three set against the Red Sox, their World Series aspirations were left hanging by a thread before the calendar even turned to October.

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Because of this, Sam’s gay awakening story, set against the Nazis and Holocaust, never comes into emotional focus and just makes the show feel longer.

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In this production, the stranger brings outside ideas to this closed environment—he arrives by climbing down a ladder set against the wall and has a suitcase full of unfamiliar objects like a globe, a newspaper and a camera.

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Rune broke in the third and seventh games to comfortably win the first set against the 26-year-old.

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With criticism of his leadership boiling over into an open challenge from Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, Sir Keir will argue that his is a "hard path" but one of "renewal" and "decency", starkly set against an alternative he portrays as decline and division.

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Related Words

• analyze 
• contrast 
• correlate 
• equal 
• match 
• measure 
• study