to set foot
99
3.2
- phrasal verb
- /sɛt fʊt/
:
pisar
- And so lots of us ended up going to college where none of our parents or grandparents had ever set foot in a college.
- never set foot
- set foot on soil
- ever set foot
And someone like me, I'd like to remind our people they were Africans on that great continent before the white man ever set foot on the continent.
- And someone like me, I'd like to remind our people they were Africans on that great continent before the white man ever set foot on the continent.
- And he says every instance since I've set foot in the cavern under the tombstones, I have striven to keep them still, to keep them unaware.
- Presumably they did this to spare Equus owners from ever having to set foot inside a Hyundai dealership.
- The first set foot on the moon.
- What was it that you were experiencing that that you could describe to people that have never set foot into it?
Examples
-
Privately educated throughout her life, she had never before set foot in an urban public school.
Academic text (2010) -
I'll never set foot in here again.
-
Just like before I ever set foot in front of a camera.
-
Too bad we'll never set foot on her again.
-
The place looks as though no living soul has set foot there since the beginning of time.
Academic text (2002) -
And there you have three good reasons not to set foot in the palace even if you could.
Fiction book (1995) -
But you can never again set foot on your native soil.
-
In November, President Clinton will become the first U.S. president to set foot in a unified Vietnam.
Academic text (2000) -
It is almost a month since I first set foot in this glorious land.
-
For the first time, she will set foot in a foreign country next month.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To enter a room or building
∞
1.0
To move from outside into a place or room
∞
1.0
To go into a building, room, or area
∞
1.0
To move into a place, area, or state
396
1.6
To enter a room or building by walking without knocking
319
2.0
Move into or enter a place
211
3.5
To accidentally become involved in a situation you did not plan
2
3.7
To enter a place directly and confidently without hesitation
1
3.8
To come into a situation and begin to take part or change it
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to enter or go into a place' can be plausibly inferred from combining 'set' (to put/place) with 'foot' (a body part you place when entering) — the image of placing a foot into a location maps onto entering. However, the phrase is a conventionalized collocation typically used with a preposition (e.g., 'set foot in') and functions idiomatically in some contexts, so while learners can often guess the sense, it is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Set foot comes from the simple image of set + foot: putting your foot down in a place shows you have arrived. So set foot means 'to enter or be present' somewhere, often for the first time or to show you will not go there.