Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SET'TLED-NESS, n.

The state of being settled; confirmed state. [Little used.] – K. Charles.

SET'TLE-MENT, n.

1. The act of settling, or state of being settled.
2. The falling of the foul or foreign matter of liquors to their bottom; subsidence.
3. The matter that subsides; lees; dregs. [Not used.] – Mortimer. [For this we use Settlings.]
4. The act of giving possession by legal sanction. My flocks, my fields, my woods, my pastures take, / With settlement as good as law can make. – Dryden.
5. A jointure granted to a wife, or the act of granting it. We say, the wife has a competent settlement for her maintenance; or she has provision made for her by the settlement of a jointure.
6. The act of taking a domestic state; the act of marrying and going to housekeeping.
7. A becoming stationary, or taking a permanent residence after a roving course of life. – L'Estrange.
8. The act of planting or establishing, as a colony; also, the place, or the colony established; as, the British settlements in America or India.
9. Adjustment; liquidation; the ascertainment of just claims, or payment of the balance of an account.
10. Adjustment of differences; pacification; reconciliation; as, the settlement of disputes or controversies.
11. The ordaining or installment of a clergyman over a parish or congregation.
12. A sum of money or other property granted to a minister on his ordination, exclusive of his salary.
13. 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. In England, the poor are supported by the parish where; they have a settlement. In New England, they are supported by the town. In England, the statutes 12 Richard II. and 19 Henry VII. seem to be the first rudiments of parish settlements. By statutes 13 and 14 Charles II. a legal settlement is declared to be gained by birth, by inhabitancy, by apprenticeship, or by service for forty days. But the gaining of a settlement by so short a residence produced great evils, which were remedied by statute 1 James II. Blackstone.
14. Art of settlement, in British history, the statute of 12 and 13 William III. by which the crown was limited to his present majesty's house, or the house of Orange. – Blackstone.

SET'TLING, n.

1. The act of making a settlement; a planting or colonizing.
2. The act of subsiding, as lees.
3. The adjustment of differences.
4. Settlings, plur. lees; dregs; sediment.

SET'TLING, ppr.

Placing; fixing establishing; regulating; adjusting; planting or colonizing; subsiding; composing; ordaining or installing; becoming the pastor of a parish or church.

SET-TO', n.

An argument or debate. – Brocket.

SET'WALL, n. [set and wall.]

A plant. The garden setwall is a species of Valeriana.

SEV'EN, a. [sev'n; Sax. seofa, seofan; Goth. sibun; D. zeeven; G. sieben; Sw. siu; Dan. syv; L. septem; whence Fr. sept, It. sette, Sp. siete, (or the two latter are the W. saith, Arm. saith or seiz;) Sans. sapta; Pers. هَفتْ haft; Zend. hapte, Pehlavi, haft; Gr. επτα; Ar. سَبَعَ saba; Heb. Ch. Syr. and Eth. שבע. In Ch. and Syr. סבע signifies to fill, to satisfy; in Ar. seven, and to make the number seven. In Heb. and Ch. שבע is seven; Ar. شَبِعَ‎‎ shabia, to fill. With this orthography coincides the spelling of the Teutonic and Gothic words, whose elements are Sb, or their cognates. But the Latin and Sanscrit have a third radical letter, as has the Persic, viz. t, and these coincide with the Ar. سَبَتَ sabata, to observe the sabbath, to rest, Heb. Ch. and Syr. שבת. It is obvious then that seven had its origin in these verbs, and if the Persic and Greek words are from the same source, which is very probable, we have satisfactory evidence that the sibilant letter s has been changed into an aspirate. And this confirms my opinion that a similar change has taken place in the Gr. ἁλς, salt, W. halen, and in many other words.]

Four and three; one more than six or less than eight. Seven days constitute a week. We read in Scripture of seven years of plenty, and seven years of famine, seven trumpets, seven seals, seven vials, &c.

SEV'EN-FOLD, a. [seven and fold.]

Repeated seven times; doubled seven times; increased to seven times the size or amount; as, the sevenfold shield of Ajax; sevenfold rage. – Milton.

SEV'EN-FOLD, adv.

Seven times as much or often. Whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. – Gen. iv.

SEV'EN-HILL-ED, a.

Having seven hills. – More.

SEV'EN-NIGHT, n. [seven and night.]

A week; the period of seven days and nights; or the time from one day of the week to the next day of the same denomination preceding or following. Our ancestors numbered the diurnal revolutions of the earth by nights, as they reckoned the annual revolutions by winters. Sevennight is now contracted into Sennight, – which see.

SEV'EN-SCORE, n. [seven and score, twenty notches or marks.]

Seven times twenty, that is, a hundred and forty. The old countess of Desmond, who lived sevenscore years, dentized twice or thrice. – Bacon.

SEV'EN-TEEN, a. [Sax. seofontyne; seven-ten.]

Seven and ten.

SEV'EN-TEENTH, a. [from seventeen. The Saxon seofonteotha or seofon-teogetha is differently formed.]

The ordinal of seventeen; the seventh after the tenth. On the seventeenth day of the second month … all the fountains of the great deep were broken up. – Gen. vii.

SEV'ENTH, a. [Sax. seofetha.]

1. The ordinal of seven; the first after the sixth. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. – Gen. ii.
2. Containing or being one part in seven; as, the seventh part.

SEV'ENTH, n.

1. The seventh part; one part in seven.
2. In music, a dissonant interval or heptachord. An interval consisting of four tones and two major semitones, is called a seventh minor. An interval composed of five tones and a major semitone, is called a seventh major. – Encyc. Busby.

SEV'ENTH-LY, adv.

In the seventh place. – Bacon.

SEV'EN-TI-ETH, a. [from seventy.]

The ordinal of seventy; as, a man in the seventieth year of his age. The seventieth year begins immediately after the close of the sixty-ninth.

SEV'EN-TY, a. [D. zeventig; Sax. seofa, seven, and tig, ten; Goth. tig, Gr. δεκα, ten, but the Saxon writers prefixed hund, as hund-seofontig. See Lye ad voc and Sax. Chron. A. D. 1083.]

Seven times ten. That he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. – Dan. ix.

SEV'EN-TY, n.

The Septuagint or seventy translators of the Old Testament into the Greek language.

SEV'ER, v.i.

1. To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish. The Lord will sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. – Exod. ix.
2. To suffer disjunction; to be parted or rent asunder. – Shak.

SEV'ER, v.t. [Fr. sevrer; It. sevrare. There may be a doubt whether sever is derived from the Latin separo. The French has both sevrer, as well as separer; and the Italian, sevrare, scevrare and sceverare, as well as separare. The It. scevrare coincides well in orthography with Eng. shiver; and this with Heb. שבר, Ch. Syr. and Ar. תבר, to break. The latter are the same word with different prefixes. See Class Br, No. 26, 27.]

1. To part or divide by violence; to separate by cutting or rending; as, to sever the body or the arm at a single stroke.
2. To part from the rest by violence; as, to sever the head from the body.
3. To separate; to disjoin, as distinct things, but united; as, the dearest friends severed by cruel necessity.
4. To separate and put in different orders or places. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just. – Matth. xiii.
5. To disjoin; to disunite; in a general sense, but usually implying violence.
6. To keep distinct or apart. – Exod. viii.
7. In law, to disunite; to disconnect; to part possession; as, to sever an estate in joint-tenancy. – Blackstone.

SEV'ER-AL, a. [from sever.]

1. Separate; distinct; not common to two or more; as, a several fishery; a several estate. A several fishery is one held by the owner of the soil, or by title derived from the owner. A several estate is one held by a tenant in his own right, or a distinct estate unconnected with any other person. – Blackstone.
2. Separate; different; distinct. Divers sorts of beasts came from several parts to drink. – Bacon. Four several armies to the field are led. – Dryden.
3. Divers; consisting of a number; more than two, but not very many. Several persons were present when the event took place.
4. Separate; single; particular. Each several ship a victory did gain. – Dryden.
5. Distinct; appropriate. Each might his several province well command, / Would all but stoop to what they understand. – Pope. A joint and several note or bond, is one executed by two or more persons, each of whom is bound to pay the whole, in case the others prove to be insolvent.

SEV'ER-AL, n.

1. Each particular, or a small number, singly taken. Several of them neither rose from any conspicuous family, nor left any behind them. Addison. There was not time enough to hear / The severals. – Shak. [This latter use, in the plural, is now infrequent or obsolete.]
2. An inclosed or separate place; inclosed ground; as, they had their several for the heathen, their several for their own people; put a beast into a several. – Hooker. Bacon. [These applications are nearly or wholly obsolete.] In several, in a state of separation. Where pastures in several be. [Little used.] – Tusser.

SEV-ER-AL'I-TY, n.

Each particular singly taken; distinction. [Not in use.]