[syn: liquidation, settlement]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Settlement \Set"tle*ment\, n.
1. The act of setting, or the state of being settled.
Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Establishment in life, in business, condition, etc.;
ordination or installation as pastor.
[1913 Webster]
Every man living has a design in his head upon
wealth power, or settlement in the world.
--L'Estrange.
[1913 Webster]
(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.
[1913 Webster]
(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.
[1913 Webster]
(d) Bestowal, or giving possession, under legal sanction;
the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal
and permanent manner.
[1913 Webster]
My flocks, my fields, my woods, my pastures
take,
With settlement as good as law can make.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
(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.
[1913 Webster]
2. That which settles, or is settled, established, or fixed.
Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Matter that subsides; settlings; sediment; lees;
dregs. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Fuller's earth left a thick settlement.
--Mortimer.
[1913 Webster]
(b) A colony newly established; a place or region newly
settled; as, settlement in the West.
[1913 Webster]
(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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
settlement
n 1: a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties
with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their
home state but are not literally under the home state's
system of government; "the American colony in Paris" [syn:
colony, settlement]
2: a community of people smaller than a town [syn: village,
small town, settlement]
3: a conclusive resolution of a matter and disposition of it
4: the act of colonizing; the establishment of colonies; "the
British colonization of America" [syn: colonization,
colonisation, settlement]
5: something settled or resolved; the outcome of decision
making; "they finally reached a settlement with the union";
"they never did achieve a final resolution of their
differences"; "he needed to grieve before he could achieve a
sense of closure" [syn: settlement, resolution,
closure]
6: an area where a group of families live together
7: termination of a business operation by using its assets to
discharge its liabilities [syn: liquidation, settlement]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
271 Moby Thesaurus words for "settlement":
abalienation, abatement of differences, absolute indication,
absolute interest, accommodation, acquitment, acquittal,
acquittance, adjustment, affirmation, agreement, alienation, ally,
amortization, amortizement, anchorage, appanage, arbitration,
archduchy, archdukedom, arrangement, ashram, assignation,
assignment, bargain, bargain and sale, barter, benefit, bequeathal,
binder, body, body politic, buffer state, burden of proof, camp,
captive nation, cash, cash payment, caste, cession, chieftaincy,
chieftainry, choice, city-state, claim, clan, class, clearance,
clearing, closing, colonization, colony, common, commonweal,
commonwealth, commune, community, composition,
composition of differences, compromise, concession, conclusion,
conclusive evidence, conferment, conferral, confirmation,
consignation, consignment, contingent interest, conveyance,
conveyancing, cop-out, country, county, damning evidence, deal,
debt service, deciding, decision, deeding, defrayal, defrayment,
deliverance, delivery, demise, demonstration, deposit,
desertion of principle, determination, disbursal, discharge,
disposal, disposition, doling out, domain, dominion, dot, dower,
down payment, dowry, duchy, dukedom, earldom, earnest,
earnest money, easement, economic class, elimination, empeoplement,
empery, empire, encampment, endogamous group, endowment,
enfeoffment, equitable interest, equity, establishment, estate,
evasion of responsibility, exchange, extended family, family,
fixation, foundation, free city, gens, give-and-take, giving,
giving way, grand duchy, hamlet, hire purchase, hire purchase plan,
holding, inauguration, incontrovertible evidence,
indisputable evidence, inhabitancy, inhabitation, inhabiting,
initiation, installation, installment, installment plan, interest,
interest payment, investiture, investment, ironclad proof,
jointure, kingdom, kinship group, land, lease and release,
legal jointure, limitation, liquidation, lodgment, mandant,
mandate, mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory, marriage portion,
moiety, monthly payments, mooring, mutual concession, nation,
nationality, never-never, nuclear family, occupancy, occupation,
onus, onus probandi, order, outpost, part, paying, paying off,
paying out, paying up, payment, payment in kind, payoff,
peoplement, peopling, percentage, phratria, phratry, phyle,
plantation, polis, polity, population, portion, possession, post,
power, prepayment, principality, principate, proof, protectorate,
province, puppet government, puppet regime, quarterly payments,
quietus, quittance, rapprochement, realm, reconciliation,
regular payments, remittance, republic, residence, resolution,
retirement, right, right of entry, sale, satellite, satisfaction,
sealing, selection, seneschalty, setting, settling, showdown,
signature, signing, sinking-fund payment, social class, society,
solemnization, sovereign nation, spot cash, stabilization, stake,
state, strict settlement, subcaste, sultanate, superpower,
sure sign, surrender, terms, territory, thirds, title, toparchia,
toparchy, totem, trading, transfer, transference, transmission,
transmittal, trust, understanding, unmistakable sign, use,
vested interest, vesting, village, weekly payments, working-out,
yielding
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
SETTLEMENT, domicil. The right which a person has of being considered as
resident of a particular place.
2. It is obtained in various ways, to wit: 1. By birth. 2. By the legal
settlement of the father, in the case of minor children. 3. By marriage. 4.
By continued residence. 5. By the payment of requisite taxes. 6. By the
lawful exercise of a public office. 7. By hiring and service for a year. 8.
By serving an apprenticeship; and perhaps some others which depend upon the
local statutes of the different states. Vide 1 Bl. Com. 363; 1 Dougl. 9; 2
Watts' Rep. 44, 342; 2 Penna. R. 432; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 417; 2 Yeates' R. 51;
5 Binn. R. 81; 3 Binn. R.. 22; 6 Serg. & Rawle, 103, 565; 10 Serg. & Rawle,
179. Vide Domicil.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
SETTLEMENT, contracts. The conveyance of an estate, for the benefit of some
person or persons.
2. It is usually made on the prospect of marriage for the benefit of
the married pair, or one of them, or for the benefit of some other persons,
as their children. Such settlements vest the property in trustees upon
specified terms, usually for the benefit of the husband and wife during
their joint lives, and then for the benefit of the survivor for life, and
afterwards for the benefit of children. Ante-nuptial agreements of this kind
will be enforced in equity by a specific performance of them, provided they
are fair and valid, and the intention of the parties is consistent with the
principles and policy of law. Settlements after marriage, if made in
pursuance of an agreement in writing entered into prior to the marriage, are
valid, both against creditors and purchasers.
4. When made without consideration, after marriage, and the property of
the husband is settled upon his wife and children, the settlement will be
valid against subsequent creditors, if, at the time of the settlement being
made, he was not indebted; but, if he was then indebted, it will be void as
to the creditors existing at the time of the settlement; 3 John. Ch. R. 481;
8 Wheat. R. 229; unless in cases where the husband received a fair
consideration in value of the thing settled, so as to repel the presumption
of fraud. 2 Ves. 16 10 Ves. 139. Vide 1 Madd. Ch. 459; 1 Chit. Pr. 57; 2
Kent, Com. 145; 2 Supp. to Ves. jr. 80, 375; Rob. Fr. Conv. 188. See Atherl.
on Mar. passim.
5. The term settlement is also applied to an agreement by which two or
more persons, who have dealings together, so far arrange their accounts, as
to ascertain the balance due from one to the other; and settlement sometimes
signifies a payment in full.