set out

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit] English

(transitive) To explain something, or give exact details, usually in writing.

This contract sets out all the terms of the agreement as we discussed.
To go out, leave.

Tomorrow we set out for America.
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter V
  
  I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out in search of him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I find him mangled and dead among the trees of the acacia grove, when he suddenly emerged from among the boles, his ears flattened, his tail between his legs and his body screwed into a suppliant S. He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most chastened dog I have ever seen.
To start an activity with the intention of finishing it.

He set out with the aim of writing the book in less than 3 months.

Many young people set out to change the world.

In the transitive sense 1, the object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.

to explain

to leave

to start an activity