How to Use set about in a Sentence

set about

verb
  • So Cox set about to change that.
    — Meg Anderson, NPR, 18 Jan. 2026
  • As did his young wife, now Betty Davis, who set about giving him a makeover.
    — Andy Beta, Pitchfork, 31 May 2026
  • To begin with, Letang set about trimming the size of Lille’s bloated squad.
    — Tom Burrows, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2026
  • Smith, a friend of Gibson for years, recognized this and set about convincing her to try for the Olympic team.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Twenty-five years of honest journaling is an uncommon data set about one person.
    — Paul Baier, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
  • Now the draft process is finished and Joly can set about trying to add a dimension to the Broncos offense.
    — Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 26 Apr. 2026
  • Ladeira had studied permaculture, and set about shaping the land to capture and slow waterflow.
    — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 17 June 2026
  • Homosassa Springs, named for the river that flows through the town, is set about 75 miles north of Tampa.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 22 June 2026
  • Reading about how Austen set about writing and publishing her novels is delightful.
    — The Week Us, TheWeek, 1 July 2026
  • There were a lot of conversations on set about how to ensure that Mary felt like an everyday hero and remained grounded.
    — Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Ricard, a man of boundless energy and optimism, set about transforming the place.
    — Flora Stubbs, Travel + Leisure, 6 June 2026
  • The team always wanted to cast in a diverse manner and set about assembling groups of students, families and friends from across the country.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 23 Apr. 2026
  • Crymes set about to clarify what physicians would need to replicate and locally adapt projects like HealthScripts.
    — Ginny Whitelaw, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • In 2023, the couple, who have long-term talent visas, bought the three-story building and set about transforming it.
    — Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Abramovich then opened new businesses in Anadyr and set about spending more of his own money on bettering the lives of local residents.
    — Ian Frazier, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026
  • It was found there, nearly submerged, by Costas Karabela, a shipbuilder who set about rescuing and restoring it.
    — Michael Ballaban, CNN Money, 9 May 2026
  • After the war, the two of them set about establishing a utopian farming colony, based on equality and reclaiming the land for common use.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 6 May 2026
  • About two weeks ago, Gu set about reworking her rails portion — the four features on the more-technical top of the slope — to juice up her Olympic routine.
    — Eddie Pells, Mercury News, 10 Feb. 2026
  • At the time, the property was badly neglected, and the couple set about to rehabilitate the vineyards and cellars.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 May 2026
  • Long ago, the bright-eyed Disney Channel star Shia LaBeouf entered adulthood and set about to become a great man.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2026
  • After Djokovic’s level dropped in the second set, Alcaraz set about asking his opponent awkward questions in the third, testing his legs and mind.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2026
  • Spain quickly set about flooding players forward, often dropping midfielder Rodri into defence to allow both full-backs to push on.
    — Thom Harris, New York Times, 15 June 2026
  • They were soon gone and Williams set about building a new flock among the night workers, street walkers, addicts and assorted characters in the Tenderloin.
    — Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Apr. 2024
  • Wilson has set about buttressing football operations.
    — Chris Waugh, New York Times, 16 Mar. 2026
  • And Yas, having studied the methods of those villains, divorces him to set about ushering young—possibly underage—escorts to the men who would run the world.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026
  • When a corpse turns up and evidence of a malevolent presence emerges, the detective sets about piecing together what the cabin is hiding while the others desperately seek a way out.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 17 Mar. 2026
  • The owners of Prospect set about running those three hospitals and ignoring the conditions of their purchase while state regulators paid no attention.
    — Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 9 May 2026
  • Only in 2012 did the legislature set about toughening up the accountability regime.
    — Rachel Canter, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2026
  • There was little pretense at closing time on Tuesday night, when the Milwaukee Bucks set about closing out the Miami Heat.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 25 Feb. 2026
  • With a 22-piece collection about to launch exclusively at Sephora, the small but mighty team based in a tiny WeWork room set about doing much of the work themselves.
    — Kathryn Hopkins, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'set about.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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