set to work | Idiomator

Meaning: (intransitive,idiomatic)To begin working.As soon as he got home, he went to his desk andset to work.Every day hesets to workat the new assignments.1950January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, inRailway Magazine, page53:Accordingly, Mitchell and his fireman, apparently without removing the engine from the up line,set to workand disconnected the motion on the defective side, after which Fireman Richardson, who probably had done the lion's share of the work, betook himself to the refreshment room and had a cup of coffee.; (intransitive,idiomatic,with gerund)To begin working at.As soon as I could, Iset to workmaking the entries.2023March 8, Paul Salveson, “Fond farewells to two final trains...”, inRAIL, number978, page55:The Crescent Road sheds had a favourite locomotive - Stanier 4MT tank engine 42626 (known by Bolton locomen as 'two half-dollars') - and the shed authorities quietly arranged for it to be put to one side for a few days, while the ardent schoolboysset to workcleaning it.; (transitive)To cause to begin working.Synonym:put to workI will immediatelysetthemto work.I wassettingthe childrento workcleaning their rooms.Isetthe pumpto workgetting the water out of the basement.1940December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, inRailway Magazine, page640:The 13th class were the first Garratts on the line and on arrival wereset to workon the Villa [sic: Vila] Machado-Umtali section, increasing the train load from the 350 tons hauled by the 9th class to 450 tons.

Examples:

EN: It's a very urgent job and I want you all to set to work at once.
ES: Es un trabajo urgente y quiero que todos trabajéis a la vez.
EN: So when the stationmaster couldn't get rid of us, they set to work, scaring us out!
ES: El jefe de estación no pudo desalojarnos, y trataron de asustarnos.
EN: So I set to work.
ES: Así que me puse a trabajar.
EN: - Fetch your tools and set to work.
ES: - Coged las herramientas y empezad.
EN: [Don Camillo set to work:
ES: DonCamillose pusoaatrabajar:
EN: No, we must set to work to find out all we can about the entire family.
ES: Hay que ponerse a trabajar y averiguar todo lo posible de la familia.
EN: You picture it all in your mind, even before you set to work.
ES: Están en tu espíritu antes de que empiece el trabajo.
EN: So Pelikán became the director of the gaiety park. He set to work enthusiastically...
ES: Así que Pelikán se entregó con entusiasmo a su nueva labor...
EN: Now, we've all had our fun, let's set to work.
ES: Ahora que ya nos hemos divertido... ¿Qué tal si nos ponemos a trabajar?
EN: So, with typical mid-Victorian zeal, he set to work.
ES: Así que, con típico fervor victoriano, se puso a ello.
EN: Out with you, and set to work!
ES: - Fuera y manos a la obra.
EN: German workers, set to work!
ES: Trabajadores alemanes, ¡comenzad a trabajar!
EN: It's no good your laughing, Zakhar, you had better set to work and clean the place.
ES: Eso no es motivo para reírse, Zajar, sino para limpiar mejor.
EN: And so youth stands aside because it has no other choice, and we set to work.
ES: Y por eso la juventud se mantiene apartada, porque no tienen otra opción.
EN: So let me set to work.
ES: Entonces empecemos a trabajar.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).