▪ I. foreset, v.
(fɔəˈsɛt)
[OE. fore-sęttan, f. fore- prefix + sęttan to set.]
† 1. To set in front, put to the front. Obs.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter lxxxv[i]. 14 Ða unrehtwisan..na [MS. non] foresetton þec beforan ᵹesihþe his. a 1300 E.E. Psalter cxxxvi[i]. 6 If I for-set Þe noght Ierusalem, ai, In biginning of mi fainenes al dai. |
2. To set, arrange, or settle beforehand; to prearrange, predetermine. Now rare.
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 143 b, Hereby is the tyme betokened and foreset. 1587 Misfort. Arth. ii. iii, No Fate But is foreset. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 150 To foresee and foreset the daies and times for his judgments. 1839 Bailey Festus iv. (1848) 35 No man can foreset thy coming. |
Hence foreˈsetting vbl. n., the action of setting or arranging beforehand; also quasi-concr. a purpose. † ˈforeset n., set purpose.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xlviii. 5 [xlix. 4], I sal open in sauter mi forsettinge. 1561 Norton & Sackv. Gorboduc ii. ii, Whan kinges of foreset wyll neglecte the rede Of best aduise. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxv. 3 The foresettinge of ende and measure untoo mischaunces. |
▪ II. foreset, ppl. a.
[f. the vb.]
1. (fɔəˈsɛt) Set or determined beforehand.
| 1550 Bale Image Both Ch. ii. xiv. §11 H viij b, To committe theym by faythfull prayer to his purposed decrees or for set ordinaunces. 1669 Woodhead St. Teresa i. Pref. 2 Rigidly exacting of herself the foreset portion of time for it. |
2. (ˈfɔəsɛt). Geol. [directly f. fore- prefix + set ppl. a.] In a delta or similar deposit, designating a series of inclined layers of sediment formed by successive deposition on the advancing forward slope and usu. situated between bottom-set beds and top-set beds. Also ellipt.
| 1905, 1942 [see bottom-set bed s.v. bottom n. 20]. 1939 W. H. Twenhofel Princ. Sedimentation xiv. 507 Foreset lengths are largely directly controlled by quantity of sands and inversely by velocity of currents. Foresets may range in length to 30 meters or more but about 3 meters is an average high maximum. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. ii. 183 As more and more foreset beds are laid down, the mouth of the river is carried out into the lake. 1971 Nature 13 Aug. 448/1 The foreset slopes of major deltas. |
▪ III. foreset
see forset, to obstruct, waylay.
▪ IV. foreset
var. f. of forcet, Obs.