setter

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛt.ə/

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈset.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛt.ɚ/, /-ɾɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: set‧ter

From Middle English settere, equivalent to set +‎ -er. Compare West Frisian setter, Dutch zetter, German Low German Setter, German Setzer.

setter (plural setters)

1. A typesetter.
2. One who sets something, such as a challenge or an examination.

   The exam was so hard we assumed the question setter must have been in a bad mood.

   Some crossword setters work for various newspapers under different pseudonyms.

   • 2013 November 26, John Plunkett, “Rev John Graham, aka crossword setter Araucaria, dies aged 92”, in The Guardian‎:

     One of the most admired and best-known crossword setters in the English language, Graham was known for his idiosyncratic style and extended anagrams.

3. A long-haired breed of gundog.

   She has a spaniel and a red setter.

   • 1931, Francis Beeding, “7/2”, in The Norwich Victims‎:

     The two Gordon setters came obediently to heel. Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago.

4. (volleyball) The player who is responsible for setting, or passing, the ball to teammates for an attack.
5. (object-oriented programming) A function used to modify the value of some property of an object, contrasted with the getter.

   Synonym: mutator

   Coordinate term: getter

6. (sports, in combinations) A game or match that lasts a certain number of sets.
   • 2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 15 November 2016:

     It was desperately close until all but the closing moments, and for that we had the 32nd-ranked [Julien] Benneteau to thank for bringing the fight out in [Roger] Federer, whose thirst for these long battles has waned over the past couple of years. For a player regarded by many as the greatest of all time his record in completed five-setters is ordinary: now 20 wins, 16 losses.

7. One who hunts victims for sharpers.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     O, 'tis our setter. I know his voice

8. One who adapts words to music in composition.
9. A shallow seggar for porcelain.[1]

• “setter”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

setter (third-person singular simple present setters, present participle settering, simple past and past participle settered)

1. (UK, dialect, transitive) To cut the dewlap (of a cow or ox), and insert a seton, so as to cause an issue.

• setter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• Street, Tester, Teters, retest, street, tester

Borrowed from English setter.

• IPA^(key): /sɛ.tɛʁ/, /se.tɛʁ/

• Audio

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setter m (plural setters)

1. setter (dog)

• setter irlandais

• “setter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English setter.

setter m (invariable)

1. setter (dog)

• setter in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

setter

1. present of sette

setter c

1. setter (dog)

• setter in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• setter in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• setter in Svensk ordbok (SO)