settlement

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of settling.
2. n. Establishment, as of a person in a business or of people in a new region.
3. n. A newly colonized region.
4. n. A small community.
5. n. An arrangement, adjustment, or other understanding reached, as in financial or business proceedings: a divorce settlement.
6. n. Law Transfer of property to provide for the future needs of a person.
7. n. Law Property thus transferred.
8. n. A center providing community services in an underprivileged area. Also called settlement house.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of settling, or the state of being settled.
2. n. Establishment in life; especially, establishment in a business or profession or in the married state.
3. n. The act of colonizing or peopling; colonization: as, the settlement of a new country.
4. n. The ordination or installation of a minister over a church or congregation.
5. n. Adjustment of af fairs, as the public affairs of a nation, with special reference to questions of succession to the throne, relations of church and state, etc.; also, the state of affairs as thus adjusted. Compare the phrase Act of Settlement, below.
6. n. In law:
7. n. The conveyance of property or the creation of estates therein to make future provision for one or more beneficiaries, usually of the family of the creator of the settlement, in such manner as to secure to them different interests, or to secure their expectancies in a different manner, from what would be done by a mere conveyance or by the statutes of descent and distribution. (See strict.) Thus, a marriage settlement is usually a gift or conveyance to a wife or in tended wife, or to trustees for her benefit or that of her self for life and her husband or children or both after her, in consideration of which she waives her right to claim dower or to succeed to his property on his death.
8. n. A bestowing or granting under legal sanction; the act of conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner.
9. n. A settled place of abode; residence; a right arising 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 pledges the parish or town to his support.
10. n. A tract of country newly peopled or settled; a colony, especially a colony in its earlier stages: as, the British settlements in Australia; a back settlement.
11. n. In sparsely settled regions of the United States, especially in the South, a small village, as opposed to scattered houses.
12. n. That which settles or subsides; sediment; dregs; lees; settlings.
13. n. In building, etc., a subsidence or sinking, as of a wall or part of a wall, or the effect of such subsidence, often producing a cracked or unstable condition, binding or disadjustment of doors or shutters, etc.
14. n. A sum of money formerly allowed to a pastor in addition to his regular salary.
15. n. A pastor's homestead as furnished by a parish, by a gift either of land, with or with out buildings, or of money to be applied for its purchase.
16. n. The act or process of determining or deciding; the removal or reconciliation of differences or doubts; the liquidation of a claim or account; adjustment; arrangement: as, the settlement of a controversy; the settlement of a debt.
17. n. In pathology, determinate nosological position.

Wiktionary

1. n. The state of being settled.
2. n. A colony that is newly established; a place or region newly settled.
3. n. The gradual sinking of a building. Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
4. n. The delivery of goods by the seller and payment for them by the buyer, under a previously agreed trade or transaction or contract entered into.
5. n. A disposition of property, or the act of granting it.
6. n. A settled place of abode; residence; a right growing out of legal residence.
7. n. A resolution of a dispute.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of setting, or the state of being settled.
2. n. Establishment in life, in business, condition, etc.; ordination or installation as pastor.
3. n. 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.
4. n. The act or process of adjusting or determining; composure of doubts or differences; pacification; liquidation of accounts; arrangement; adjustment.
5. n. Bestowal, or giving possession, under legal sanction; the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner.
6. n. 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.
7. n. That which settles, or is settled, established, or fixed.
8. n. Matter that subsides; settlings; sediment; lees; dregs.
9. n. A colony newly established; a place or region newly settled.
10. n. 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.
11. n. 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.
12. n. Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
13. n. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a community of people smaller than a town
2. n. something settled or resolved; the outcome of decision making
3. n. an area where a group of families live together
4. n. a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government
5. n. a conclusive resolution of a matter and disposition of it
6. n. the act of colonizing; the establishment of colonies
7. n. termination of a business operation by using its assets to discharge its liabilities