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Definition of "set" []

  • To put in a specified position; place: set a book on a table. (verb-transitive)
  • To put into a specified state: set the prisoner at liberty. (verb-transitive)
  • To put into a stable position: set the fence post into a bed of concrete. (verb-transitive)
  • To fix firmly or in an immobile manner: He set his jaw and concentrated on flying the plane through the storm. (verb-transitive)
  • To restore to a proper and normal state when dislocated or broken: set a broken arm. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "set" in a sentence
  • "If we remember that the extension of a concept is something like the set of objects that fall under the concept, then we could replace Frege's talk of ˜extensions™ by talk of ˜sets™ and use the following ˜set notation™ to refer to the set of objects that when added to 4 yield 5 and the set of objects that when added to 22 yield 5, respectively:"
  • "According to naïve set theory, the functional expression ˜set of™ is indeed characterized by a putative abstraction principle."
  • "In some parts of Bavaria such bushes are set up also at the houses of newly-married pairs, and the practice is only omitted if the wife is near her confinement; for in that case they say that the husband has “set up a May-bush for himself."