set the bar

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

set the bar (third-person singular simple present sets the bar, present participle setting the bar, simple past and past participle set the bar)

1. (idiomatic) To set specific standards or expectations.

   Synonym: put the bar

   to set the bar high; to set the bar low

   She set the bar at an hour of exercise a day.

   • 2023 May 18, Christina Jewett, “F.D.A. Panel Recommends R.S.V. Vaccine to Protect Young Infants”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     “I do feel like we should be setting the bar higher for review,” said one adviser, Dr. Amanda Cohn, the director of the division of birth defects and infant disorders at the C.D.C., adding that more data might help clarify questions about the effects on preterm birth.

Related terms

• raise the bar

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: asettaa rima
• French: placer la barre, mettre la barre
• Polish: ustawiać poprzeczkę impf, ustawić poprzeczkę pf

Further reading

• “set the bar”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “set the bar high low”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Anagrams

• breathest, hartbeest