setdown

• set-down

• Deverbal from set down.
• (buttocks): See set as US regional form of sit, and see sit down.

setdown (countable and uncountable, plural setdowns)

1. The act of setting down something or someone.

   setdown areas in a factory for materials unloaded from incoming vehicles

   • 1980, Brian O’Connor, chapter 23, in The One-Shot War,‎, New York: Times Books, page 149:

     The [tour] bus brought them to the next setdown point, the gravesites of John and Robert Kennedy.

   • 2003, Nancy Kerrigan and Mary Spencer, Artistry on Ice, Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, Chapter 18, p. 141,

     […] lifts are an equal relationship, with both [figure skating] partners starting the lift, maintaining its position in the air, and executing a smooth setdown.

2. The act of descending onto a surface (of an aircraft or spacecraft).

   Synonyms: landing, touchdown

   • 1957, Lester Del Rey, chapter 11, in Rockets through Space‎, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 62:

     The platforms [at the rear of the spaceship] will also have legs for landing—designed to cushion the setdown and also to help level off the ship.

   • 1969, Andre Norton, chapter 13, in Postmarked the Stars‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1985, page 132:

     The medic would have to hold them on hover and watch the radar for a clear setdown.

   • 1986, James Clavell, Whirlwind‎, New York: William Morrow, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 110:

     You had almost no time, yet you autorotate at barely three hundred feet to make a perfect setdown on this flyspot. That was incredible flying.

3. (dated) The humbling of a person by act or words.
   • 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 6, in Mapp and Lucia‎, London: Hesperus, published 2014, page 143:

     Diva fell quietly asleep, and presently there were indications that she would soon be noisily asleep. Miss Mapp hoped that she would begin to snore properly, for that would be a good set-down for Lucia […]

4. (dated) A retort or a reproof that has a humbling effect.

   Synonym: put-down

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 3, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 26:

     He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! […] I wish you had been there my dear, to have given him one of your set downs.

   • 1907, Beatrice Grimshaw, chapter 15, in In the Strange South Seas,‎, London: Hutchinson, page 314:

     To see a family taking deck passage on the boat […] is an interesting spot in the day’s experience, especially when some patronising passenger, accustomed to “natives” in other countries, gets one of the delightful set-downs the Maori can give so effectively.

5. (slang, obsolete) A sit-down meal eaten by a tramp; a charitable meal provided to a tramp in the giver's home.
   • 1899, Josiah Flynt, Tramping with Tramps‎, New York: Century, published 1901, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 146, footnote 1:

     In Germany and England the tramps usually eat their set-downs in cheap restaurants or at lodging-houses.

   • 1907, Jack London, “Holding Her Down”, in The Road‎, New York: Macmillan, page 28:

     They had just finished eating, and I was taken right into the dining room—in itself a most unusual happening, for the tramp who is lucky enough to win a set-down usually receives it in the kitchen.

6. (US, slang, obsolete) A person’s buttocks.
   • 1915, Clifton Johnson, chapter 11, in Highways and Byways of New England‎, New York: Macmillan, page 218:

     “If we [boys] did get caught the watchman would take the wooden end of his hood, slap our setdowns, then give us a kick and say, ‘Get out!’ […] ”

• down-set, downest, downset