Defn: The quality or state of being settled; confirmed state. [R.]
Bp. Hall.
SETTLEMENT
Set"tle*ment, n.
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.