setback

See also: set back

English

Etymology

Deverbal from set back. Compare drawback.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɛtbæk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛtbæk

Noun

setback (plural setbacks)

  1. An obstacle, delay, disadvantage, or blow (an adverse event which slows down, or prevents progress towards a desired outcome).
    After some initial setbacks, the expedition went safely on its way.
    • 1996, “Return to Grace”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 14 (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
      DUKAT: I blame no one but myself. I was indiscreet. I compromised myself and have been punished accordingly. If someone under my command had behaved so outrageously, I would do the same thing to him. Besides, I assure you, this is only a temporary setback. Everything I have lost, I will regain. It's only a matter of time.
    • 2021 November 17, Nop Meechukhun, “Thailand’s Constitutional Court rules Section 1448 of heterosexual marriages lawful, LGBTQ rights groups ‘disappointed’”, in The Pattaya News‎[1], Bangkok: The Pattaya News Company Limited, retrieved 17 November 2021:
      The Constitutional Court has ruled today, November 17th, that Section 1448 of the Thai Civil and Commercial, stating that “a marriage can take place only between a man and a woman”, is constitutional under the Thai constitutional law. This decision could be a major setback for many Thai LGBTQ activist groups’ continued journey of what they call basic human rights to legally allow same-sex marriages in Thailand.
  2. (by extension) Any adverse event, defeat, or impediment of progress.
  3. (US) The required distance between a structure and a road.
  4. (architecture) A step-like recession in a wall.
    Synonym: stepback
    Setbacks were initially used for structural reasons, but now are often mandated by land use codes.
  5. An offset to the temperature setting of a thermostat to cover a period when more or less heating is required than usual.
    • 1980, Popular Science, volume 217, number 4:
      Fuel savings from thermostat setbacks have long been accepted as fact, but little documentation existed to support it.
  6. (possibly archaic) A backset; a countercurrent; an eddy.[1]
  7. (archaic) A backset; a check; a repulse; a relapse.[1]

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “setback”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

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