"set a spell" meaning in English

See set a spell in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-set a spell.ogg [Australia] Forms: sets a spell [present, singular, third-person], setting a spell [participle, present], set a spell [participle, past], set a spell [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|set<,,set> a spell}} set a spell (third-person singular simple present sets a spell, present participle setting a spell, simple past and past participle set a spell)
  1. (US, idiomatic, countrified dialect) To sit down for a period of time, especially in the company of other people and in order to relax or to engage in casual conversation. Tags: US, idiomatic Categories (topical): Sitting
    Sense id: en-set_a_spell-en-verb-mntTvc6r Disambiguation of Sitting: 92 8 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English light verb constructions, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 98 2 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 97 3 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 97 3 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 96 4
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see set, a, spell.
    Sense id: en-set_a_spell-en-verb-55ogssVY

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for set a spell meaning in English (4.0kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sets a spell",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "setting a spell",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set a spell",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set a spell",
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        "past"
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      "args": {
        "1": "set<,,set> a spell"
      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "98 2",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "97 3",
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        {
          "_dis": "97 3",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "96 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sitting",
          "orig": "en:Sitting",
          "parents": [
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            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, Louisa May Alcott, “The Romance of a Summer Day”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence",
          "text": "[S]he declined his invitation to \"Come up and see the old woman and set a spell.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Myrtle Reed, chapter 2, in A Spinner in the Sun",
          "text": "\"You might as well set down,\" remarked Miss Hitty, with a new gentleness of manner. \"I'm going to set a spell.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 January 30, Steve Strunsky, “New Jersey and Co.: Inside 'Big Box' Project, Threats to 'Little Boxes'”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-06-25",
          "text": "Hank's Hardware is one of those quintessentially American places. . . . Hank's is a place where people can set a spell, but it is also a business, competing in the ever-tightening hardware marketplace.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 24, Jean Parks, “Opinion: Retirement fulfills”, in USA Today, retrieved 2011-06-25",
          "text": "In this country community, we enjoy our neighbors as we never could before. There is time to set a spell and talk about the weather, family and days gone by.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To sit down for a period of time, especially in the company of other people and in order to relax or to engage in casual conversation."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_a_spell-en-verb-mntTvc6r",
      "links": [
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          "countrified",
          "countrified"
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        [
          "sit down",
          "sit down"
        ],
        [
          "relax",
          "relax"
        ],
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "countrified dialect",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, countrified dialect) To sit down for a period of time, especially in the company of other people and in order to relax or to engage in casual conversation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006 May, Stobie Piel, Prince of Ice, New York, N.Y.: Love Spell, Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., page 84",
          "text": "Did the witch set a spell on you, too, Bodvar?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see set, a, spell."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_a_spell-en-verb-55ogssVY",
      "links": [
        [
          "set",
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        ]
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  "sounds": [
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-set_a_spell.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "word": "set a spell"
}
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    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs",
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      "form": "sets a spell",
      "tags": [
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      "form": "setting a spell",
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    },
    {
      "form": "set a spell",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "set a spell",
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      },
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          "ref": "1876, Louisa May Alcott, “The Romance of a Summer Day”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence",
          "text": "[S]he declined his invitation to \"Come up and see the old woman and set a spell.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Myrtle Reed, chapter 2, in A Spinner in the Sun",
          "text": "\"You might as well set down,\" remarked Miss Hitty, with a new gentleness of manner. \"I'm going to set a spell.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 January 30, Steve Strunsky, “New Jersey and Co.: Inside 'Big Box' Project, Threats to 'Little Boxes'”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-06-25",
          "text": "Hank's Hardware is one of those quintessentially American places. . . . Hank's is a place where people can set a spell, but it is also a business, competing in the ever-tightening hardware marketplace.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 24, Jean Parks, “Opinion: Retirement fulfills”, in USA Today, retrieved 2011-06-25",
          "text": "In this country community, we enjoy our neighbors as we never could before. There is time to set a spell and talk about the weather, family and days gone by.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To sit down for a period of time, especially in the company of other people and in order to relax or to engage in casual conversation."
      ],
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        [
          "sit down",
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          "relax",
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          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
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      ],
      "qualifier": "countrified dialect",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, countrified dialect) To sit down for a period of time, especially in the company of other people and in order to relax or to engage in casual conversation."
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        "idiomatic"
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        {
          "ref": "2006 May, Stobie Piel, Prince of Ice, New York, N.Y.: Love Spell, Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., page 84",
          "text": "Did the witch set a spell on you, too, Bodvar?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see set, a, spell."
      ],
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          "set",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-set_a_spell.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "set a spell"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.