Definition of: settlement

(set′l·mənt) noun
1. The act of settling, or state of being settled; specifically, an adjustment of affairs by public authority.
2. Colonization.
3. Subsidence of a structure, or its effect.
4. An area of country newly occupied by those who intend to live and labor there; a colonized region, village, or town.
5. Brit. A regular or settled place of living; one's dwelling place.
6. An accounting; adjustment; liquidation in regard to amounts.
7. The conveyance of property in such form as to provide for some future object, especially the support of members of the settler's family; also, the property so settled.
8. A religious community.
9. plural A collection or series of frontier dwellings and clearings: distinguished from wild, unsettled territory.
10. Formerly, Negro quarters on a southern plantation.
11. A welfare institution established in a congested part of a city, having a resident staff of workers to conduct educational and recreational activities for the community: also settlement house.