Dictionary

set to en · VERB

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To begin something with determination; to commence a long and difficult task or project.
   • Having laid out the picnic, the hungry boys set to with gusto.
   • Hungrily, by firelight, we set to with damper and cold goat washed down by hot tea. 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 239:
   • VVhen thou ſetſt to the vvork, look up tovvard Heaven, let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can; remember that there is thine Everlaſting Reſt; […] 1649, Richard Baxter, “The Abstract or Sum of All, for the Use of the Weak”, in The Saints Everlasting Rest: Or, A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Glory. […], London: […] Rob[ert] White, for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, part IV (Containing a Directory for the Getting and Keeping of the Heart in Heaven: […]), section 1, page 788:
2. (archaic, intransitive) To fight.
   • I set to with the rude man.

Forms

Translations (4)

pl zabierać się za (to commence a long and difficult task or project) · pl wziąć się do (to commence a long and difficult task or project) · pl brać się do (to commence a long and difficult task or project) · pl zabrać się za (to commence a long and difficult task or project)