Other forms: resetting, resets
To reset is to set something back to how it started. Reset the password, reset the clock, a factory reset.
The past tense is reset, unchanged. A factory reset returns a device to the state it left the factory in and wipes everything on it, which is why it is both the standard fix and the standard disaster. Reset the clocks is what happens twice a year. Figuratively, a reset is a fresh start in a relationship or a policy: a reset in relations. Note reset button, both literal and metaphorical.
1verbresetTo set something back to how it started.
“If your phone freezes, reset it by holding down the power button.”
2nounfreshA fresh start.
“The new government promised a reset and delivered about a fortnight of one.”
reset is a setting back.
Middle English
setten
English
set
English, today
reset
Built from
From re + set. set comes from Middle English setten. From Middle English setten, from Old English settan, from Proto-West Germanic sattjan, from Proto-Germanic satjaną, from Proto-Indo-European sodéyeti, causative of sed- (“to sit”). Cognate with Dutch zetten, German setzen, Danish sætte, Norwegian Bokmål sette, Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk setja, Swedish sätta, Faroese seta.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA