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Glite Dictionary
Irish setter

Irish setter

2 3.6
A large red dog from Ireland with silky fur that is friendly and active
  • noun
  • /ˈaɪrɪʃ ˈsɛtər/
translation icon : setter irlandés
  • I took the young Irish setter for a little walk up the road and along a frozen creek, but it was difficult to stand or walk on the glassy surface, and the red dog slipped and slithered, and I fell twice, hard, once dropping my gun and having it slide away over the ice.
  • an old Irish setter

Examples

  • Jed, a ten-year-old Irish setter, looks at me like he never believed that propaganda about dogs being man's best friend.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • "It looks like it came from an Irish setter."

    Fiction book (1995)

  • You have an Irish setter? - Yeah!

    Failure to Launch (2006)

  • "No, an Irish setter, I think.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I thought they were Irish Setters, and I couldn't figure it out.

    Blog text (13)

  • His long, russet Irish setter hair fell in elegant waves down his back.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Looking over his shoulder, Tim caught sight of his Irish setter, loping wildly toward him.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • I raced to the kitchen and was relieved to see my big Irish setter simply trotting around, smelling every corner of our new house.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family's hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon's roof rack.

    Blog text (22)

  • My family adopted an Irish setter, and he quickly became our best friend.

Synonyms

red setter
vsIrish setter
1 3.6

A dog breed from Ireland with a reddish-brown coat and friendly nature

is the same breed but labeled with the other common name

Surface Forms

Irish setter singular
Irish setters plural

Morphology

Irish + setter

The meaning is directly compositional: 'Irish' denotes origin (from Ireland) and 'setter' names a type of sporting dog, so a learner who knows both words can infer 'a setter breed from Ireland.' Naming breeds with a national adjective plus breed type is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward English noun phrase composition, making the expression immediately understandable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Irish setter comes from the old hunting verb set, which meant 'to crouch' or 'to freeze' near birds. The dogs would quietly set by game so hunters could find them, so the name came to mean this red hunting dog from Ireland.