set in motion

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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:

     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.

• put in motion