• | A seat of any kind. |
• | A bench; especially, a bench with a high back. |
• | A place made lower than the rest; a wide step or platform
lower than some other part. |
• | To place in a fixed or permanent condition; to make firm,
steady, or stable; to establish; to fix; esp., to establish in life; to
fix in business, in a home, or the like. |
• | To establish in the pastoral office; to ordain or install
as pastor or rector of a church, society, or parish; as, to settle a
minister. |
• | To cause to be no longer in a disturbed condition; to
render quiet; to still; to calm; to compose. |
• | To clear of dregs and impurities by causing them to sink;
to render pure or clear; -- said of a liquid; as, to settle coffee, or
the grounds of coffee. |
• | To restore or bring to a smooth, dry, or passable
condition; -- said of the ground, of roads, and the like; as, clear
weather settles the roads. |
• | To cause to sink; to lower; to depress; hence, also, to
render close or compact; as, to settle the contents of a barrel or bag
by shaking it. |
• | To determine, as something which is exposed to doubt or
question; to free from unscertainty or wavering; to make sure, firm, or
constant; to establish; to compose; to quiet; as, to settle the mind
when agitated; to settle questions of law; to settle the succession to
a throne; to settle an allowance. |
• | To adjust, as something in discussion; to make up; to
compose; to pacify; as, to settle a quarrel. |
• | To adjust, as accounts; to liquidate; to balance; as, to
settle an account. |
• | Hence, to pay; as, to settle a bill. |
• | To plant with inhabitants; to colonize; to people; as, the
French first settled Canada; the Puritans settled New England; Plymouth
was settled in 1620. |
• | To become fixed or permanent; to become stationary; to
establish one's self or itself; to assume a lasting form, condition,
direction, or the like, in place of a temporary or changing state. |
• | To fix one's residence; to establish a dwelling place or
home; as, the Saxons who settled in Britain. |
• | To enter into the married state, or the state of a
householder. |
• | To be established in an employment or profession; as, to
settle in the practice of law. |
• | To become firm, dry, and hard, as the ground after the
effects of rain or frost have disappeared; as, the roads settled late
in the spring. |
• | To become clear after being turbid or obscure; to
clarify by depositing matter held in suspension; as, the weather
settled; wine settles by standing. |
• | To sink to the bottom; to fall to the bottom, as dregs
of a liquid, or the sediment of a reserveir. |
• | To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, as the
foundation of a house, etc. |
• | To become calm; to cease from agitation. |
• | To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an
agreement; as, he has settled with his creditors. |
• | To make a jointure for a wife. |