setback

Noun

1. An obstacle, delay, disadvantage, or blow (an adverse event which slows down, or prevents progress towards a desired outcome).
   • After some initial setbacks, the expedition went safely on its way.
   • DUKAT: I blame no one but myself. I was indiscreet. I compromised myself and have been punished accordingly. If someone under my command had behaved so outrageously, I would do the same thing to him. Besides, I assure...
   • The Constitutional Court has ruled today, November 17th, that Section 1448 of the Thai Civil and Commercial, stating that “a marriage can take place only between a man and a woman”, is constitutional under the Thai...

   Synonyms: rebuff reversal

2. Any adverse event, defeat, or impediment of progress.
3. The required distance between a structure and a road.
4. A step-like recession in a wall.
   • Setbacks were initially used for structural reasons, but now are often mandated by land use codes.

   Synonyms: stepback

5. An offset to the temperature setting of a thermostat to cover a period when more or less heating is required than usual.
   • Fuel savings from thermostat setbacks have long been accepted as fact, but little documentation existed to support it. - 1980, Popular Science, volume 217, number 4:
6. A backset; a countercurrent; an eddy.
7. A backset; a check; a repulse; a relapse.