setback

«setback» in Mova's school dictionary: Something that stops progress or makes things worse for a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a setback, setbacks)

meaning for a pupil

Something that stops progress or makes things worse for a while; a problem that sets you back. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories and sport, heroes face setbacks before they win. In PSHE, learning from setbacks builds resilience. In maths problems, a setback can mean a loss: «after a setback of 3 points». Phrases: suffer a setback, a minor setback, overcome setbacks.

examples

• Losing the first match was a setback, but we still won the cup. tree →
• The rain was a setback for the builders. tree →
• Her injury was a big setback. tree →
• Don't give up after one setback. tree →
• The plan had a few setbacks. tree →
• Every setback teaches you something. tree →

note

Countable; one word as a noun. Verb phrase: set back (two words): «The storm set us back a week.»

In the corpora

• "A setback" means a failure, made to sound like a small step back.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «setback» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.