Wiktionary
vb. (context transitive English) To delay or obstruct.
WordNet
v. hold back to a later time; "let's postpone the exam" [syn: postpone, prorogue, hold over, put over, table, shelve, defer, remit, put off]
slow down the progress of; hinder; "His late start set him back"
cost a certain amount; "My daughter's wedding set me back $20,000" [syn: knock back, put back]
Usage examples of "set back".
Besides my detailed knowledge of the lake and the geography surrounding it, I know that I am eleven years old, that my given name is Andrea Gage, and that I live in a cottage set back in the woods behind me.
The immediate result of this set back was to effect a rapprochement between Julius Hersheimmer and the Young Adventurers.
The screen had not been set back, and a blank space was visible on the wall.
It was set back from the road, surrounded by tall, broad-limbed trees that screened its windows.
If this little meeting exposed him it would set back the work a decade.
In his lonely house, set back from Martense Street amidst a yard of venerable trees, Suydam had read and brooded for some six decades except for a period a generation before, when he had sailed for the old world and remained there out of sight for eight years.