"set one's sights" meaning in English

See set one's sights in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-set one's sights on.ogg [Australia] Forms: sets one's sights [present, singular, third-person], setting one's sights [participle, present], set one's sights [participle, past], set one's sights [past], set sights [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,set>}} set one's sights (third-person singular simple present sets one's sights, present participle setting one's sights, simple past and past participle set one's sights)
  1. To give one's close attention to, especially as a goal, objective, or other object of special interest. [with on]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sets one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "setting one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set sights",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,set>"
      },
      "expansion": "set one's sights (third-person singular simple present sets one's sights, present participle setting one's sights, simple past and past participle set one's sights)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
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          "source": "w"
        },
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              3,
              19
            ]
          ],
          "text": "to set one's sights high",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              17,
              31
            ]
          ],
          "text": "His daughter has set her sights on becoming a popular artist.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              141,
              160
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1984 October 30, “Pocket of Atlanta Fights Developers”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Spurred by a real estate boom in which houses that sold for $15,000 just six years ago now sell for upwards of $150,000, the developers have set their sights on Cabbagetown.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              61,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2006 November 1, Steve Rosenbush, “Is a Google-Clear Channel deal at hand?”, in Businessweek, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Google, known for its cutting-edge Internet software, may be setting its sights on the low-tech radio market.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              32
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2008 June 27, “Blair Campaigns for Climate Action”, in Time, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Blair has also set his sights on solving another insolvable problem during his retirement: climate change.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              106
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Will devolution deliver real local control?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 44:",
          "text": "Mayor Andy Burnham's Bee Network already encompasses the buses and trams, and now he has his sights set on the railways.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give one's close attention to, especially as a goal, objective, or other object of special interest."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_one's_sights-en-verb-KpxfS0UN",
      "info_templates": [
        {
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            "1": "en",
            "2": ":on"
          },
          "expansion": "[with on]",
          "extra_data": {
            "words": [
              "on"
            ]
          },
          "name": "+obj"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
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          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
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          "goal"
        ],
        [
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          "objective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "To give one's close attention to, especially as a goal, objective, or other object of special interest. [with on]"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-set one's sights on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/69/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set one's sights"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sets one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "setting one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's sights",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set sights",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,set>"
      },
      "expansion": "set one's sights (third-person singular simple present sets one's sights, present participle setting one's sights, simple past and past participle set one's sights)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English light verb constructions",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              3,
              19
            ]
          ],
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          "type": "example"
        },
        {
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            [
              17,
              31
            ]
          ],
          "text": "His daughter has set her sights on becoming a popular artist.",
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        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              141,
              160
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1984 October 30, “Pocket of Atlanta Fights Developers”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Spurred by a real estate boom in which houses that sold for $15,000 just six years ago now sell for upwards of $150,000, the developers have set their sights on Cabbagetown.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              61,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2006 November 1, Steve Rosenbush, “Is a Google-Clear Channel deal at hand?”, in Businessweek, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Google, known for its cutting-edge Internet software, may be setting its sights on the low-tech radio market.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              32
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2008 June 27, “Blair Campaigns for Climate Action”, in Time, retrieved 01 Aug 2015:",
          "text": "Blair has also set his sights on solving another insolvable problem during his retirement: climate change.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              106
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Will devolution deliver real local control?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 44:",
          "text": "Mayor Andy Burnham's Bee Network already encompasses the buses and trams, and now he has his sights set on the railways.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give one's close attention to, especially as a goal, objective, or other object of special interest."
      ],
      "info_templates": [
        {
          "args": {
            "1": "en",
            "2": ":on"
          },
          "expansion": "[with on]",
          "extra_data": {
            "words": [
              "on"
            ]
          },
          "name": "+obj"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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        [
          "goal",
          "goal"
        ],
        [
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          "objective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "To give one's close attention to, especially as a goal, objective, or other object of special interest. [with on]"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-set one's sights on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/69/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/En-au-set_one%27s_sights_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set one's sights"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.