adjustment

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of adjusting or the state of being adjusted.
2. n. A means of adjusting.
3. n. Settlement of a debt or claim.
4. n. A modification, fluctuation, or correction: made an adjustment on the telephone bill; an adjustment in the consumer price index.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of adjusting; a making fit or conformable; the act of adapting to a given purpose; orderly regulation or arrangement: as, the adjustment of the parts of a watch.
2. n. The state of being adjusted; a condition of adaptation; orderly relation of parts or elements.
3. n. That which serves to adjust or adapt one thing to another or to a particular service: as, the adjustments of constitutional government, of a microscope, a timepiece, etc.
4. n. The act of settling or arranging, as a difference or dispute; settlement; arrangement.
5. n. In marine insurance, the act of settling and ascertaining the amount of indemnity which the party insured is entitled to receive under the policy after all proper allowances and deductions have been made, and the settling of the proportion of that indemnity which each underwriter is liable to bear. Synonyms Arrangement, regulation, settlement, adaptation, accommodation, disposal.
6. n. In an exacter sense than 2, the operation of modifying the relations between a set of things or other objects so as to make these relations conform to some requirement, especially so as to bring them into conformity with relations between elements of a plan or purpose. Thus the adjustment of a transit instrument consists, first, in turning it round a vertical axis until its axis of rotation (in using it) is nearly enough in the plane of the prime vertical; second, in raising or lowering one end of the latter axis until it is nearly enough in the plane of the horizon; and, third, in shifting the wires until the collimation is near enough to zero.
7. n. Specifically, the modification of a set of statements so as to bring them into harmony with one another and with some proposition treated as absolutely true. Thus in geodesy, after an extensive triangulation is complete it will be found that the observed values of the angles do not exactly agree with the principles of geometry and the assumed figure of the earth, which would give rise to much inconvenience. Accordingly by an elaborate series of modifications skilful computers modify the values so that the sum of the squares of all the changes shall be the least possible required to bring the values into agreement with the requirements; and this operation is termed the adjustment of the triangulation. Owing to the fact that the rules are derived from the calculus of probabilities, and that the adjusted values are the most probable that can be assigned, it might be supposed that the purpose was merely to ascertain the most probable values; but the superiority of the adjusted values in that respect is very small and the major consideration is consistency.
8. n. In biology, a change which is brought about in a living being by its own activity and is not transmitted to descendants, as contrasted with a change which is congenital and hereditary; an acquired character.
9. n. The term is used in two senses: for methods in which the observer himself varies a given stimulus until it appears equal to a second, constant stimulus, for example, Fechner's method of average error (see method);
10. n. for methods in which a variable stimulus is adjusted, whether by experimenter or observer, to the required relation to a constant stimulus, for example, Wundt's method of minimal changes (see method).

Wiktionary

1. n. a small change; a minor correction; a modification
2. n. The behavioural process of balancing conflicting needs, or needs against obstacles in the environment.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of adjusting, or condition of being adjusted; act of bringing into proper relations; regulation.
2. n. (Law) Settlement of claims; an equitable arrangement of conflicting claims, as in set-off, contribution, exoneration, subrogation, and marshaling.
3. n. The operation of bringing all the parts of an instrument, as a microscope or telescope, into their proper relative position for use; the condition of being thus adjusted

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances
2. n. the act of adjusting something to match a standard
3. n. the process of adapting to something (such as environmental conditions)
4. n. making or becoming suitable; adjusting to circumstances
5. n. the act of making something different (as e.g. the size of a garment)