Definition of "set back"

set back

verb
third-person singular simple present sets back, present participle setting back, simple past and past participle set back
1. (transitive) To delay or obstruct.
  Quotations
  “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 51
2. (transitive) To remove from or allow distance.
3. (transitive) To install or position behind a boundary or surface, or in a recess.
4. (transitive, idiomatic) To cost money.
5. To reverse, go backwards.
  Quotations
  Before the platforms were extended up to the actual junction, branch trains had to set back into a bay.
  1939 December, John D. Hewitt, “Some Notable British Main Lines: II. Salisbury and Exeter, S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 412