set a precedent

phraseC1formal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To set a precedent is to do something that later cases will be measured against. The first time is now the rule, whether anybody meant it to be.

It takes for: that ruling sets a precedent for every case after it. The phrase is legal at root and has spread everywhere else, and it nearly always arrives as a warning — you hear it from the person who does not want the thing done. Without precedent means it has never happened; a dangerous precedent is what an objector calls the one they lost.

Definitions of set a precedent

1phraseset a precedentTo do something that later cases will follow.C1
“That ruling will set a precedent for every case after it.”

set a precedent is a first case that later ones follow.

Practised in Common Word Pairs

Practise this word

← Vocabulary

set a precedent

phraseC1formal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To set a precedent is to do something that later cases will be measured against. The first time is now the rule, whether anybody meant it to be.

Definitions of set a precedent

1phraseset a precedentTo do something that later cases will follow.C1
“That ruling will set a precedent for every case after it.”

set a precedent is a first case that later ones follow.

Practised in Common Word Pairs

Practise this word