Set \Set\ (s[e^]t), v. i.

1. To pass below the horizon; to go down; to decline; to sink out of sight; to come to an end.

Ere the weary sun set in the west. --Shak.

Thus this century sets with little mirth, and the next is likely to arise with more mourning. --Fuller.

2. To fit music to words. [Obs.]

--Shak.

3. To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant. ``To sow dry, and set wet.'' --Old Proverb.

4. To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form; as, cuttings set well; the fruit has set well (i. e., not blasted in the blossom).

5. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.

A gathering and serring of the spirits together to resist, maketh the teeth to set hard one against another. --Bacon.

6. To congeal; to concrete; to solidify.

That fluid substance in a few minutes begins to set. --Boyle.

7. To have a certain direction in motion; to flow; to move on; to tend; as, the current sets to the north; the tide sets to the windward.

8. To begin to move; to go out or forth; to start; -- now followed by out.

The king is set from London. --Shak.

9. To indicate the position of game; -- said of a dog; as, the dog sets well; also, to hunt game by the aid of a setter.

10. To apply one's self; to undertake earnestly; -- now followed by out.

If he sets industriously and sincerely to perform the commands of Christ, he can have no ground of doubting but it shall prove successful to him. --Hammond.

Note: [Colloquially used, but improperly, for sit.]

Note: The use of the verb set for sit in such expressions as, the hen is setting on thirteen eggs; a setting hen, etc., although colloquially common, and sometimes tolerated in serious writing, is not to be approved.

To set about, to commence; to begin.

To set forward, to move or march; to begin to march; to advance.

To set forth, to begin a journey.

To set in.
   (a) To begin; to enter upon a particular state; as, winter set in early.
   (b) To settle one's self; to become established. ``When the weather was set in to be very bad.'' --Addison.
   (c) To flow toward the shore; -- said of the tide.

To set off.
   (a) To enter upon a journey; to start.
   (b) (Typog.) To deface or soil the next sheet; -- said of the ink on a freshly printed sheet, when another sheet comes in contact with it before it has had time to dry.

To set on or upon.
   (a) To begin, as a journey or enterprise; to set about.

He that would seriously set upon the search of truth. --Locke.
   (b) To assault; to make an attack. --Bacon.

Cassio hath here been set on in the dark. --Shak.

To set out, to begin a journey or course; as, to set out for London, or from London; to set out in business;to set out in life or the world.

To set to, to apply one's self to.

To set up.
   (a) To begin business or a scheme of life; as, to set up in trade; to set up for one's self.
   (b) To profess openly; to make pretensions.

Those men who set up for mortality without regard to religion, are generally but virtuous in part. --Swift.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)