4. To fix firmly; to make fast, permanent, or stable; to render motionless; to give an unchanging place, form, or condition to. Specifically: — (a) To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fsten to a spot; hence, to occasion difficulty to; to embarrass; as, to set a coach in the mud. They show how hard they are set in this particular. Addison.
(b) To fix beforehand; to determine; hence, to make unyielding or obstinate; to render stiff, unpliant, or rigid; as, to set one's countenance. His eyes were set by reason of his age. 1 Kings xiv. 4. On these three objects his heart was set. Macaulay. Make my heart as a millstone, set my face as a flint. Tennyson.
(c) To fix in the ground, as a post or a tree; to plant; as, to set pear trees in an orchard. (d) To fix, as a precious stone, in a border of metal; to place in a setting; hence, to place in or amid something which serves as a setting; as, to set glass in a sash. And him too rich a jewel to be set In vulgar metal for a vulgar use. Dryden.
(e) To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle; as, to set milk for cheese.
5. To put into a desired position or condition; to adjust; to regulate; to adapt. Specifically: — (a) To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare; as, to set (that is, to hone) a razor; to set a saw. Tables for to sette, and beddes make. Chaucer.
(b) To extend and bring into position; to spread; as, to set the sails of a ship. (c) To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote; as, to set a psalm. Fielding. (d) To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state; to replace; as, to set a broken bone. (e) To make to agree with some standard; as, to set a watch or a clock. (f) (Masonry) To lower into place and fix silidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
6. To stake at play; to wager; to risk. I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die. Shak.
7. To fit with music; to adapt, as words to notes; to prepare for singing. Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute. Dryden.
8. To determine; to appoint; to assign; to fix; as, to set a time for a meeting; to set a price on a horse.
9. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there. High on their heads, with jewels richly set, Each lady wore a radiant coronet. Dryden. Pastoral dales thin set with modern farms. Wordsworth.