Idioms

Sun Yi asked in an e-mail what is the meaning of set aside.

The English language has many idioms. For instance the verb put has idiomatic phrases like put away, put on, put up with.

Knowing how to use such phrases will go a long way in helping one's oral as well as written expressions.

Set aside has several meanings.
1. It can mean to put aside what you're doing to concentrate on something urgent/ or important at hand.

Examples.
The mother set aside her laundry when the baby started yelling.
Jane set aside her homework to help the younger brother with his mathematics.
She set aside her ambitions for a tertiary education to take care of an ailing father.

2. One can set aside something : eg savings/ time
She set aside monthly savings for emergency purposes.
The busy father set aside time for his growing child.

3. In law, set aside means that a court decision is not valid.

The High Court set aside the Session's Court's decision.