set in motion

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

set in motion (third-person singular simple present sets in motion, present participle setting in motion, simple past and past participle set in motion)

1. (idiomatic) To trigger movement or progress; to get going.
   • 1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469:

     Considerable excitement was caused on the L.M.S.R. Aberdeen line out of Perth recently when a shunting engine in Perth North goods yard, whose driver and fireman were absent, was accidentally set in motion by a shunter and set off unattended on to the main line.

• put in motion