\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) 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. Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
4. (Law) 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. --Blackstone. Bouvier.
{Act of settlement} (Eng. Hist.), the statute of 12 and 13
   William III, by which the crown was limited to the present
   reigning house (the house of Hanover). --Blackstone.