set-to
a usually brief, sharp fight or argument.
Origin of set-to
1Words Nearby set-to
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use set-to in a sentence
Now that sets up an interesting little potential set-to in 2016, no?
If they were to set-to to shout as soon as we had landed, our chance of getting back again would be at an end.
A Chapter of Adventures | G. A. HentyWhy, I used to be once close to the kennel where they kept the foxhounds, and they used to set-to and sing sometimes all at once.
!Tention | George Manville FennSo he came again, and they had another regular set-to, and the boy had another good sound thrashing.
Algonquin Indian Tales | Egerton R. YoungSo was his successful set-to in the brewery yard with Lefty Dinan, the Tenth street cock-of-the walk.
The Incendiary | W. A. (William Augustine) Leahy
She was as sure of that as she was sure that the sun would set to-night in the west and would rise again to-morrow in the east.
The Moving Finger | Mary Gaunt
British Dictionary definitions for set to
to begin working
to start fighting
informal a brief disagreement or fight
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with set-to
Apply oneself, begin, work energetically, as in We set to revamping our policy on child care, or She set to studying for the bar exam. [Early 1400s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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