set in motion

present singular third person sets in motion · participle present setting in motion

1. idiomaticTo trigger movement or progress; to get going.

   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.

   1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469

   2 more examples

   She was seen as a gifted pop-country ingenue when, in a now infamous moment, Kanye West interrupted Swift onstage at the 2009 VMAs while she was accepting an award. The incident set in motion a chain of events that would shape the next decade of both artists’ lives.

   2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2023

   In 1825, the first public railway carried passengers across the English countryside, setting in motion not just an engineering revolution, but an industrial one too. Imagine the awe and excitement of those first passengers as they boarded the train, unaware that they were witnessing the dawn of a new era.

   2025 October 1, Richard Evans, “The value of the railway effect”, in RAIL, number 1045, page 58

   Synonyms: put in motion, animate, actuate, drive, force, get going, impel, motivate