set in motion

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

set in motion (third-person singular simple present sets in motion, present participle setting in motion, simple past and past participle set in motion)

1. (idiomatic) To trigger movement or progress; to get going.
   • 1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469:

     Considerable excitement was caused on the L.M.S.R. Aberdeen line out of Perth recently when a shunting engine in Perth North goods yard, whose driver and fireman were absent, was accidentally set in motion by a shunter and set off unattended on to the main line.

   • 2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time‎^[1]:

     She was seen as a gifted pop-country ingenue when, in a now infamous moment, Kanye West interrupted Swift onstage at the 2009 VMAs while she was accepting an award. The incident set in motion a chain of events that would shape the next decade of both artists’ lives.

Synonyms

• put in motion

Translations

trigger movement or progress

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 掀動／掀动 (zh) (xiāndòng)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: laittaa liikkeelle, laittaa liikkeeseen
• French: mettre en branle (fr), mettre en mouvement
• German: in Bewegung setzen
• Hungarian: mozgásba hoz (hu)
• Ido: movar (io)
• Italian: mettere in moto (it)
• Latin: commoveō (la), agitō (la), cieō
• Maori: whakawaha
• Polish: nadawać bieg impf, nadać bieg pf
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: приводи́ть в де́йствие (privodítʹ v déjstvije)
• Sanskrit: सुवति (sa) (suvati)
• Spanish: poner en marcha