different between setdown vs placedown

English

Alternative forms

• set down
• set-down

Etymology

set +? down

Noun

setdown (plural setdowns)

1. The act of setting down something or someone.
   • 1980, Brian O’Connor, The One-Shot War, New York: Times Books, Chapter 23, p. 149,^[1]

     The [tour] bus brought them to the next setdown point, the gravesites of John and Robert Kennedy.

   • 2003, Nancy Kerrigan and Mary Spencer, Artistry on Ice, Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, Chapter 18, p. 141,^[2]

     […] lifts are an equal relationship, with both [figure skating] partners starting the lift, maintaining its position in the air, and executing a smooth setdown.

2. The act of descending onto a surface (of an aircraft or spacecraft).

   Synonym: landing

   • 1957, Lester Del Rey, Rockets through Space, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, Chapter 11, p. 62,^[3]

     The platforms [at the rear of the spaceship] will also have legs for landing—designed to cushion the setdown and also to help level off the ship.

   • 1969, Andre Norton, Postmarked the Stars, New York: Ballantine, 1985, Chapter 13, p. 132,^[4]

     The medic would have to hold them on hover and watch the radar for a clear setdown.

   • 1986, James Clavell, Whirlwind, New York: William Morrow, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 110,^[5]

     You had almost no time, yet you autorotate at barely three hundred feet to make a perfect setdown on this flyspot. That was incredible flying.

3. (dated) The humbling of a person by act or words.
   • 1931, E. F. Benson, Mapp and Lucia, London: Hesperus, 2014, Chapter 6, p. 143,^[6]

     Diva fell quietly asleep, and presently there were indications that she would soon be noisily asleep. Miss Mapp hoped that she would begin to snore properly, for that would be a good set-down for Lucia […]

4. (dated) A retort or a reproof that has a humbling effect.

   Synonym: put-down

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, London: T. Egerton, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 26,^[7]

     He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! […] I wish you had been there my dear, to have given him one of your set downs.

   • 1907, Beatrice Grimshaw, In the Strange South Seas, London: Hutchinson, Chapter 15, p. 314,^[8]

     To see a family taking deck passage on the boat […] is an interesting spot in the day’s experience, especially when some patronising passenger, accustomed to “natives” in other countries, gets one of the delightful set-downs the Maori can give so effectively.

5. (slang, obsolete) A sit-down meal eaten by a tramp; a charitable meal provided to a tramp in the giver's home.
   • 1899, Josiah Flynt, Tramping with Tramps, New York: Century, 1901, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 146, footnote 1,^[9]

     In Germany and England the tramps usually eat their set-downs in cheap restaurants or at lodging-houses.

   • 1907, Jack London, The Road, New York: Macmillan, “Holding Her Down,” p. 28,^[10]

     They had just finished eating, and I was taken right into the dining room—in itself a most unusual happening, for the tramp who is lucky enough to win a set-down usually receives it in the kitchen.

6. (US, slang, obsolete) A person’s buttocks.
   • 1915, Clifton Johnson, Highways and Byways of New England, New York: Macmillan, Chapter 11, p. 218,^[11]

     “If we [boys] did get caught the watchman would take the wooden end of his hood, slap our setdowns, then give us a kick and say, ‘Get out!’ […] ”

Anagrams

• down-set, downest, downset