settlement

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or process of settling.
• noun The settling or establishment of a person or a group of people, as in a new region or in a business.
• noun A newly colonized region.
• noun A small community.
• noun An arrangement or agreement reached, as in business proceedings or negotiating a dispute.
• noun The resolution of a lawsuit or dispute by settling.
• noun The process of reaching such an arrangement, agreement, or resolution.
• noun The legal determination of title to property.
• noun The process of making the determinations and distributions associated with a trust.
• noun A center providing community services in an underprivileged area.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In pathology, determinate nosological position.
• noun 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.
• noun The act of settling, or the state of being settled.
• noun Establishment in life; especially, establishment in a business or profession or in the married state.
• noun The act of colonizing or peopling; colonization: as, the settlement of a new country.
• noun The ordination or installation of a minister over a church or congregation.
• noun 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.
• noun In law:
• noun 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.)
• noun A bestowing or granting under legal sanction; the act of conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun In sparsely settled regions of the United States, especially in the South, a small village, as opposed to scattered houses.
• noun That which settles or subsides; sediment; dregs; lees; settlings.
• noun 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.
• noun A sum of money formerly allowed to a pastor in addition to his regular salary.
• noun 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of setting, or the state of being settled.
• noun Establishment in life, in business, condition, etc.; ordination or installation as pastor.
• noun 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.
• noun The act or process of adjusting or determining; composure of doubts or differences; pacification; liquidation of accounts; arrangement; adjustment
• noun Bestowal, or giving possession, under legal sanction; the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner.
• noun (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.
• noun That which settles, or is settled, established, or fixed.
• noun obsolete Matter that subsides; settlings; sediment; lees; dregs.
• noun A colony newly established; a place or region newly settled.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
• noun (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.
• noun (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).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The state of being settled.
• noun A colony that is newly established; a place or region newly settled.
• noun A community of people living together, such as a hamlet, village, town, or city.
• noun architecture The gradual sinking of a building. Fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
• noun finance 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.