Dictionary

setdown en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

* Deverbal from set down. * (buttocks): See set as US regional form of sit, and see sit down.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The act of setting down something or someone.
   • The [tour] bus brought them to the next setdown point, the gravesites of John and Robert Kennedy. 1980, Brian O’Connor, chapter 23, in The One-Shot War,, New York: Times Books, page 149:
   • 2003, Nancy Kerrigan and Mary Spencer, Artistry on Ice, Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, Chapter 18, p. 141, […] lifts are an equal relationship, with both [figure skating] partners starting the lift, maintaining its position in the air, and executing a smooth setdown.
   • setdown areas in a factory for materials unloaded from incoming vehicles
2. (countable, uncountable) The act of descending onto a surface (of an aircraft or spacecraft).
   • You had almost no time, yet you autorotate at barely three hundred feet to make a perfect setdown on this flyspot. That was incredible flying. 1986, James Clavell, Whirlwind, New York: William Morrow, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 110:
   • The platforms [at the rear of the spaceship] will also have legs for landing—designed to cushion the setdown and also to help level off the ship. 1957, Lester Del Rey, chapter 11, in Rockets through Space, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 62:
   • The medic would have to hold them on hover and watch the radar for a clear setdown. 1969, Andre Norton, chapter 13, in Postmarked the Stars, New York: Ballantine, published 1985, page 132:
3. (countable, dated, uncountable) The humbling of a person by act or words.
   • Diva fell quietly asleep, and presently there were indications that she would soon be noisily asleep. Miss Mapp hoped that she would begin to snore properly, for that would be a good set-down for Lucia […] 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 6, in Mapp and Lucia, London: Hesperus, published 2014, page 143:
4. (countable, dated, uncountable) A retort or a reproof that has a humbling effect.
   • He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! […] I wish you had been there my dear, to have given him one of your set downs. 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 3, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 26:
   • To see a family taking deck passage on the boat […] is an interesting spot in the day’s experience, especially when some patronising passenger, accustomed to “natives” in other countries, gets one of the delightful set-downs the Maori can give so effectively. 1907, Beatrice Grimshaw, chapter 15, in In the Strange South Seas,, London: Hutchinson, page 314:
5. (countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) A sit-down meal eaten by a tramp; a charitable meal provided to a tramp in the giver's home.
   • They had just finished eating, and I was taken right into the dining room—in itself a most unusual happening, for the tramp who is lucky enough to win a set-down usually receives it in the kitchen. 1907, Jack London, “Holding Her Down”, in The Road, New York: Macmillan, page 28:
   • In Germany and England the tramps usually eat their set-downs in cheap restaurants or at lodging-houses. 1899, Josiah Flynt, Tramping with Tramps, New York: Century, published 1901, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 146, footnote 1:
6. (US, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) A person’s buttocks.
   • “If we [boys] did get caught the watchman would take the wooden end of his hood, slap our setdowns, then give us a kick and say, ‘Get out!’ […]” 1915, Clifton Johnson, chapter 11, in Highways and Byways of New England, New York: Macmillan, page 218:

Forms

Synonyms

landing · touchdown · put-down