WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Set"tle*ment
Part of Speech : n.
Definition : 1. The act of setting, or the state of being settled. Specifically: - - (a) Establishment in life, in business, condition, etc.; ordination or installation as pastor. Every man living has a design in his head upon wealth power, or settlement in the world. L'Estrange.

(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.

(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. (d) Bestowal, or giving possession, under legal sanction; the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner. My flocks, my fields, my woods, my pastures take, With settlement as good as law can make. Dryden. (e) (Law)

Defn: 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.

2. That which settles, or is settled, established, or fixed. Specifically: -- (a) Matter that subsides; settlings; sediment; lees; dregs. [Obs.] Fuller's earth left a thick settlement. Mortimer.

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

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.

Defn: Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.

4. (Law)

Defn: 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. 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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913