Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SET'TLE, v.i.

1. To fall to the bottom of liquor; to subside; to sink and rest on the bottom; as, lees or dregs settle. Slimy particles in water settle and form mud at the bottom of rivers. This word is used of the extraneous matter of liquors, when it subsides spontaneously. But in chimical operations, when substances mixed or in solution are decomposed, and one component part subsides, it is said to be precipitated. But it may also be said to settle.
2. To lose motion or fermentation; to deposit, as feces. A government on such occasions, is always thick before it settles. – Addison.
3. To fix one's habitation or residence. Belgians had settled on the southern coast of Britain, before the Romans invaded the isle. English Puritans who first settled in New England. – Vattel, Trans.
4. To marry and establish a domestic state. Where subsistence is easily obtained, children settle at an early period of life.
5. To become fixed after change or fluctuation; as, the wind came about and settled in the west. Bacon.
6. To become stationary; to quit a rambling or irregular course for a permanent or methodical one.
7. To become fixed or permanent; to take a lasting form or state; as, a settled conviction. Chyle … runs through the intermediate colors till it settles in an intense red. – Arbuthnot.
8. To rest; to repose. When time hath worn out their natural vanity, and taught them discretion, their fondness settles on its proper object. Spectator.
9. To become calm; to cease from agitation. Till the fury of his highness settle, / Come not before him. – Shak.
10. To make a jointure for a wife. Lie sighs with most success that settles well. – Garth.
11. To sink by its weight; and in loose bodies, to become more compact. We say, a wall settles, a house settles upon its foundation; a mass of sand settles and becomes more firm.
12. To sink after being heaved, and to dry; as, roads settle in spring after frost and rain.
13. To be ordained or installed over a parish, church or congregation. A. B. was invited to settle in the first society in New Haven. N. D. settled in the ministry very young.
14. To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement. He has settled with his creditors.