Definition of settle

• n. - A seat of any kind.
• n. - A bench; especially, a bench with a high back.
• n. - A place made lower than the rest; a wide step or platform lower than some other part.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - To cause to be no longer in a disturbed condition; to render quiet; to still; to calm; to compose.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - To adjust, as something in discussion; to make up; to compose; to pacify; as, to settle a quarrel.
• n. - To adjust, as accounts; to liquidate; to balance; as, to settle an account.
• n. - Hence, to pay; as, to settle a bill.
• n. - To plant with inhabitants; to colonize; to people; as, the French first settled Canada; the Puritans settled New England; Plymouth was settled in 1620.
• v. i. - 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.
• v. i. - To fix one's residence; to establish a dwelling place or home; as, the Saxons who settled in Britain.
• v. i. - To enter into the married state, or the state of a householder.
• v. i. - To be established in an employment or profession; as, to settle in the practice of law.
• v. i. - 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.
• v. i. - To become clear after being turbid or obscure; to clarify by depositing matter held in suspension; as, the weather settled; wine settles by standing.
• v. i. - To sink to the bottom; to fall to the bottom, as dregs of a liquid, or the sediment of a reserveir.
• v. i. - To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, as the foundation of a house, etc.
• v. i. - To become calm; to cease from agitation.
• v. i. - To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement; as, he has settled with his creditors.
• v. i. - To make a jointure for a wife.