settlement

n. 1. The act of setting, or the state of being settled. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) Establishment in life, in business, condition, etc.; ordination or installation as pastor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Every man living has a design in his head upon wealth power, or settlement in the world. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) The act of peopling, or state of being peopled; act of planting, as a colony; colonization; occupation by settlers; as, the settlement of a new country. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) The act or process of adjusting or determining; composure of doubts or differences; pacification; liquidation of accounts; arrangement; adjustment; as, settlement of a controversy, of accounts, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

(d) Bestowal, or giving possession, under legal sanction; the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

My flocks, my fields, my woods, my pastures take,
With settlement as good as law can make. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

(e) (Law) A disposition of property for the benefit of some person or persons, usually through the medium of trustees, and for the benefit of a wife, children, or other relatives; jointure granted to a wife, or the act of granting it. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which settles, or is settled, established, or fixed. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) Matter that subsides; settlings; sediment; lees; dregs. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Fuller's earth left a thick settlement. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) A colony newly established; a place or region newly settled; as, settlement in the West. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) That which is bestowed formally and permanently; the sum secured to a person; especially, a jointure made to a woman at her marriage; also, in the United States, a sum of money or other property formerly granted to a pastor in additional to his salary. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Arch.) (a) The gradual sinking of a building, whether by the yielding of the ground under the foundation, or by the compression of the joints or the material. (b) pl. Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Law) A settled place of abode; residence; a right growing out of residence; legal residence or establishment of a person in a particular parish or town, which entitles him to maintenance if a pauper, and subjects the parish or town to his support. Blackstone. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

Act of settlement (Eng. Hist.), the statute of 12 and 13 William III, by which the crown was limited to the present reigning house (the house of Hanover). Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]