SET 
70 
SET 
In gard'ning ne’er this rule forget. 
To sow dry, and set wet. Old Proverb. 
It is commonly used in conversation for sit, and, though 
barbarous, is sometimes fouud in good authors. 
If they set down before’s, ’fore they remove, 
Bring up your army. Shale,speare . 
To apply one’s self.—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. Ham¬ 
mond. 
To Set about. To fall to; to begin.—How preposterous 
is it, never to set about works of charity, whilst we ourselves 
can see them performed. Atterbury. 
To Set in. To become settled in a particular state.— 
When the weather was set in tb be very bad, I have taken a 
whole day’s journey to see a gallery furnished by great mas¬ 
ters. Addison. 
To Set off. To set out on any pursuit; to set out from 
the barrier at a race; to start. 
To Set on or upon. To begin a march, journey, or en- 
terprize. 
Be it your charge 
To see perform’d the tenor of our word : 
Set on. Sha/cspeare. 
He that would seriously set upon the search of truth, 
ought to prepare his mind with a love of it. Locke. 
To Set on. To make an attack. 
Hence every leader to his charge; 
For on their answer we will set on them. Shakspeare. 
To Set out. To have beginning.—If an invisible casualty 
there be, it is questionable whether its activity only set out 
at our nativity, and began not rather in the womb. Brown. 
To Set out. To begin a journey or course.—These doc¬ 
trines, laid down for the foundations of any science, were 
called principles, as the beginnings from which we must set 
out, and look no farther backwards. Locke. 
To Set out. To begin the world.—He, at his first 
setting out, threw himself into court. Addison. —Eugenio 
set out from the same university, and about the same time 
with Corusodes. Swift. 
To Set to. To apply himself to. I may appeal to some, 
who have made this their business, whether it go not 
against the hair with them to set to any thing else. Gov. 
of the Tongue. 
To Set up. To begin a trade openly.—A man of a 
clear reputation, though his bark be split, yet he saves his 
cargo; has something left towards setting up again, and 
so is in capacity of receiving benefit not only from his own 
industry, but the friendship of others. Gov. of the Tongue. 
To Set up. To begin a scheme in life.—A severe treat¬ 
ment might tempt them to set up for a republic. Addison. 
To Set up. To profess publicly. 
Scow’ring the watch grows out-of-fashion wit; 
Now we set up for tilting in the pit. Dry den. 
Those who have once made their court to those mistresses 
without portions, the muses, are never like to set up for for- 
which one cannot conveniently be separated from the rest.— 
Sensations and passions seem to depend upon a particular set 
of motions. Collier. 
’Tis not a set of features or complexion. 
The tincture of a skin, that I admire. Addison. 
He must change his comrades; 
In half the time he talks them round. 
There must another set be found. Swift. 
They refer to those critics who are partial to some parti¬ 
cular set of writers to the prejudice of others. Pope. —Any 
thing not sown, but put in a state of some growth into the 
ground.—’Tis raised by sets or berries, like white thorn, and 
hes the same time in the ground. Mortimer .—The appa¬ 
rent fall of the sun, or other bodies of heaven, below the 
horizon. 
When the battle’s lost and won. 
—That will be ere set of sun. Shakspeare. 
A wager at dice. 
That was but civil war, an equal set. 
Where piles with piles, and eagles eagles fight. Dryden. 
A game. 
When we have match’d our rackets to these balls. 
We will, in France, play a set 
Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard. Shakspeare. 
SET-OFF, s. [in Law.] To this head may be referred 
the practice of what is called a set-off, whereby the defend¬ 
ant acknowledges the justice of the plaintiff’s demand on the 
one hand ; but on the other sets up a demand of his own, to 
counterbalance that of the plaintiff, either on the whole or in 
part. Blackstone. —Any counterbalance.—A recommenda¬ 
tion ; a decoration. See To Set off. —Used chiefly in con¬ 
versation. 
SETA'CEOUS, adj. [seta, Latin.] Bristly; set with 
strong hairs; consisting of strong hairs —The parent insect, 
with its stiff setaceous tail, terebrates the rib of the leaf 
when tender, and makes way for its egg into the very pith. 
Derkam. 
SETAH, a name used by the oldest writers for the acacia. 
It is an original Hebrew word, and is explained by the lexi¬ 
cographers, by a thorn growing in the desert. 
SETAPORE, the name of several towns in Hindostan, 
but none of any consequence. 
SETARIA, in Botany [from seta, a bristle], a name 
given by Acharius, in his Prodromus Lichen ographiaa 
Suecicae, to the 27th tribe of the great genus Lichen. It 
comprehends seven species, of what have usually been 
termed filamentous lichens, as jubatus, chalybeiformis, &c. 
See Lichenes. 
SETBY, a village of England, in Lincolnshire; 4 miles 
from Wragby. 
SETCHEOU, a city of China, of the first rank, in the 
province of Koeitchoo. The surrounding district is full of 
mountains, which yield cinnabar and mercury. The in¬ 
habitants are rude in their manners, and almost wholly 
ignorant of the Chinese sciences. Lat. 27. 10. N. long. 
108. E. 
tunes. Pope. 
SET, part. adj. Regular; not lax; made in consequence 
of some formal rule. 
Rude am I in my speech, 
And little bless’d with the set phrase of peace. Shakspeare. 
The indictment of the good lord Hastings, 
In a set hand fairly is ingross’d. Shakspeare. 
Set speeches, and a formal tale, 
With none but statesmen and grave fools prevail. Dryden. 
In ten set battles have we driven back 
These heathen Saxons, and regain’d'our earth. Dryden. 
SET, s. A number of things suited to each other; 
considered as related to each other; a number of things of 
SETCHIN, a city of China, of the second rank, in 
Quangsee. Lat. 22. 48. N. long. 136. 31. E. 
SETCHING, a city of China, of the first rank, situated in 
a mountainous district of the province of Quangsee. 
bordering on Yunan. Lat. 24. 17. N. long. 105. 54. E. 
SETCHLEY, a village of England, in Norfolk; 5 miles 
south of Lynn Regis. 
SETCHUEN, a province of China, on the western 
frontier, bounded on the north by Chen-si, on the east and 
south by Houquang and Yunan, and on the west by Thi¬ 
bet. This province is mountainous, yet being traversed from 
west to east by the great river Yang-tse-kiang, it is highly 
fertile, and in a state of complete cultivation. It is 
particularly noted for its sugar cane, silk, orange and lemon 
trees, and its rhubarb is the best in China. The mountains 
produce 
