setdown

See also: set down

English

Alternative forms

• set-down

Etymology

• Deverbal from set down.
• (buttocks): See set as US regional form of sit, and see sit down.

Noun

setdown (countable and uncountable, plural setdowns)

1. The act of setting down something or someone.

   setdown areas in a factory for materials unloaded from incoming vehicles

   • 1980, Brian O’Connor, chapter 23, in The One-Shot War,‎^[1], New York: Times Books, page 149:

     The [tour] bus brought them to the next setdown point, the gravesites of John and Robert Kennedy.

   • 2003, Nancy Kerrigan and Mary Spencer, Artistry on Ice, Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, Chapter 18, p. 141,^[2]

     […] lifts are an equal relationship, with both [figure skating] partners starting the lift, maintaining its position in the air, and executing a smooth setdown.

2. The act of descending onto a surface (of an aircraft or spacecraft).

   Synonyms: landing, touchdown

   • 1957, Lester Del Rey, chapter 11, in Rockets through Space‎^[3], Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 62:

     The platforms [at the rear of the spaceship] will also have legs for landing—designed to cushion the setdown and also to help level off the ship.

   • 1969, Andre Norton, chapter 13, in Postmarked the Stars‎^[4], New York: Ballantine, published 1985, page 132:

     The medic would have to hold them on hover and watch the radar for a clear setdown.

   • 1986, James Clavell, Whirlwind‎^[5], New York: William Morrow, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 110:

     You had almost no time, yet you autorotate at barely three hundred feet to make a perfect setdown on this flyspot. That was incredible flying.

3. (dated) The humbling of a person by act or words.
   • 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 6, in Mapp and Lucia‎^[6], London: Hesperus, published 2014, page 143:

     Diva fell quietly asleep, and presently there were indications that she would soon be noisily asleep. Miss Mapp hoped that she would begin to snore properly, for that would be a good set-down for Lucia […]

4. (dated) A retort or a reproof that has a humbling effect.

   Synonym: put-down

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 3, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 26:

     He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! […] I wish you had been there my dear, to have given him one of your set downs.

   • 1907, Beatrice Grimshaw, chapter 15, in In the Strange South Seas,‎^[7], London: Hutchinson, page 314:

     To see a family taking deck passage on the boat […] is an interesting spot in the day’s experience, especially when some patronising passenger, accustomed to “natives” in other countries, gets one of the delightful set-downs the Maori can give so effectively.

5. (slang, obsolete) A sit-down meal eaten by a tramp; a charitable meal provided to a tramp in the giver's home.
   • 1899, Josiah Flynt, Tramping with Tramps‎^[8], New York: Century, published 1901, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 146, footnote 1:

     In Germany and England the tramps usually eat their set-downs in cheap restaurants or at lodging-houses.

   • 1907, Jack London, “Holding Her Down”, in The Road‎^[9], New York: Macmillan, page 28:

     They had just finished eating, and I was taken right into the dining room—in itself a most unusual happening, for the tramp who is lucky enough to win a set-down usually receives it in the kitchen.

6. (US, slang, obsolete) A person’s buttocks.
   • 1915, Clifton Johnson, chapter 11, in Highways and Byways of New England‎^[10], New York: Macmillan, page 218:

     “If we [boys] did get caught the watchman would take the wooden end of his hood, slap our setdowns, then give us a kick and say, ‘Get out!’ […] ”

Anagrams

• down-set, downest, downset