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Glite Dictionary
⏳ To delay 💸 To cost money
to set back

to set back

12 5.8
To cost someone a lot of money
  • phrasal verb
  • /sɛt bæk/
  • Informal
translation icon : salir por
  • And this, I think, set back Price's research by a huge amount.
  • set us back months
  • set you back a year
  • set us back one week

Examples

  • Even just renting access to a mainframe for a month would set you back as much as it cost to own a Programma 101.

    Blog text (34)

  • In the end, it might set me back a few hundred.

    Blog text (3)

  • All together, they set me back $30.

    Blog text (9)

  • What would it set you back?

    Blog text (3)

  • The weekend would set me back a thousand dollars, I figured.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Yeah, custom designs are always going to set you back.

    Blog text (27)

  • "In the liquor store, that would set you back forty bucks."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Navigon will set you back $50.

    Blog text (20)

  • He said it would set back America considerably.

  • The unexpected repairs to my car set back a lot more than I planned.

Antonyms

to reduce
∞ 1.6

To make something smaller in amount, size, or number

to save
842 1.0

Prevent the need to spend time or money

How Damaging

to destroy
∞ 1.0
to bankrupt
57 4.1
to harm
738 1.0
to set back
  • Informal
12 5.8

Surface Forms

set back infinitive
set back past
set back past participle
setting back present participle
sets back third person singular

Morphology

set + back

The sense 'to cost someone X' is not directly derivable from the provided literal meanings: 'set' (to initiate) plus 'back' (undefined here) do not transparently compose to a monetary cost. There is a recognisable metaphorical extension (being 'set back' financially, i.e. pushed back or deprived of funds) so the relation is partially inferable but still requires prior exposure to this idiomatic usage.

Etymology

Set back may come from the picture of paying for something and having your money pushed back; when you pay, you are 'set back' that amount of money. So, the phrase is used to mean 'to cost' someone a certain sum.