Dictionary Definition
settled adj
1 established or decided beyond dispute or doubt;
"with details of the wedding settled she could now sleep at night"
[ant: unsettled]
2 established in a desired position or place; not
moving about; "nomads...absorbed among the settled people";
"settled areas"; "I don't feel entirely settled here"; "the advent
of settled civilization" [ant: unsettled]
5 not changeable; "a period of settled
weather"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
Verb
settled- past of settle
Extensive Definition
A settler is a person who has migrated
to a less occupied area and established permanent residence there,
often to colonize the
area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land
and cultivate it, as
opposed to nomads. The
word "settler" is synonymous with terms such as pioneers,
colonists, or "colonials".
Causes of Emigration
The reason for emigration of settlers varies, but often includes one or more factors such as: economic or personal financial hardship; social, cultural, ethnic, or religious persecution (e.g. the Pilgrims, Mormons and Zionists), or; political oppression and/or policies aimed at encouraging foreign settlement.The colony concerned is sometimes controlled by
the government of a settler's home country, and emigration is
sometimes approved by an imperial government. The term
settler is not usually used in relation to the later histories of
well-established and/or independent, postcolonial countries with
continuing immigration, like the present-day United
States, Canada or Australia, where
terms like immigrants
are preferred.
Historical usage
In almost every real historical case, settlers live on land which previously belonged to long-established peoples, known as indigenous people (often called "natives", "Aborigines" or, in the Americas, "Indians"). This land is usually settled against the wishes of the indigenes, and then controlled, defended and expanded by force, or it is bought or leased from indigenous people on terms highly favourable to the settlers, sometimes under a treaty (e.g. the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand). In some cases (such as Australia), the legal ownership of some lands is contested much later by indigenous people, who seek or claim traditional usage, land rights, native title and related forms of ownership or partial control.The word "settler" was not originally usually
used in relation to unfree
labour immigrants, such as slaves (e.g. in the United
States), indentured
labourers (such as in South
Africa), or convicts
(such as in New
York, 1674-1775; Australia 1788-1868). More recently
descendants of these immigrants may argue that they have as much
right to use the word "settler" as the descendants of free
immigrants.
In Imperial
Russia, the government invited Russians
or foreign nationals to settle in sparsely populated lands. These
settlers were called "colonists". See, e.g., articles Slavo-Serbia,
Volga
German, Volhynia.
Although they are often thought of as traveling
by sea — the dominant form of travel in the early modern
era — significant waves of settlement could also use long
overland routes, such as the Great Trek by
the Boer-Afrikaners in
South
Africa, or the Oregon Trail
in the United States.
Modern usage
However, sometimes one tribe of native settlers
drove another tribe from the lands it held, such as the settlement
of lands in the area now called Carmel-by-the-Sea,
California where
Ohlone
peoples settled in areas previously inhabited by the Esselen tribe
(Bainbridge, 1977).
In the Middle East,
Israeli
settlers are Jews who live in areas captured during the
Six-Day
war and claimed by Palestinians.
Some historians and scientists maintain that Palestinians are
descended mostly from Arab settlers in
Palestine, after
the Caliphate
conquered the area in the 7th century. However, both Israelis and
Palestinians claim partial descent from peoples who lived in the
region in prehistoric times (see:
History of ancient Israel and Judah,
Ancestry of the Palestinians).
Other usage
Settlers in hypothetical societies, such as on other planets, often feature in science fiction or fantasy fiction and/or video games.See also
settled in Danish: Nybygger
settled in German: Siedler
settled in French: Colon
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
SOL,
acquitted, agreed, all bets off, all off,
all over, all up, all up with, anchored, arranged, ascertained, assigned, assured, at an end, attested, authenticated, beat, beaten, bent, bested, borne out, canceled, certain, certified, chronic, circumstantiated,
colonized, compacted, complete, concluded, confirmed, confounded, constant, contracted, corroborated, covenanted, dead, decided, decisive, deep-dyed,
deep-engraven, deep-fixed, deep-grounded, deep-laid, deep-rooted,
deep-seated, deep-set, deep-settled, defeated, defunct, deleted, demonstrated, deployed, determinate, determined, discharged, discomfited, done, done for, done in, done with,
down, dyed-in-the-wool,
embedded, embosomed, embossed, empeopled, emplaced, ended, engaged, engrafted, engraved, ensconced, entrenched, established, etched, expended, expunged, extinct, fallen, fast, fastened, fini, finished, firm, firmly established, fixed, flinty, floored, graven, guaranteed, hired, hors de combat, immovable, implanted, impressed, imprinted, in the bag,
incorrigible,
inculcated, indelibly
impressed, infixed,
inflexible, ingrained, ingrown, inhabited, installed, instilled, intent, inveterate, inwrought, irreversible, kaput, lambasted, lathered, licked, liquidated, located, long-established,
loyal, made sure, nailed
down, occupied,
old-line, on a rock, on bedrock, on ice, on the skids,
open-and-shut, outdone,
over, overborne, overcome, overmastered, overmatched, overpowered, overridden, overthrown, overturned, overwhelmed, paid, paid in full, panicked, peopled, perfected, placed, planted, populated, populous, positioned, posted, postpaid, prepaid, promised, proved, proven, put to rout, receipted, remitted, resolute, resolved, riveted, rooted, routed, ruined, salaried, scattered, sealed, seated, secure, set, set at rest, settled in habit,
shot, shown, signed, silenced, situate, situated, skinned, skinned alive, sot, spent, spotted, stabilized, stampeded, staple, stated, stationed, staunch, steadfast, steady, steely, stipulated, substantiated, sworn, tenanted, terminated, tested, thorough, through, through with, tried, trimmed, trounced, true, unbending, undeflectable, undertaken, undone, unflappable, unshaken, unswerving, unyielding, upset, validated, verified, vested, waged, warranted, washed up,
well-established, well-founded, well-grounded, well-set,
well-settled, whelmed,
whipped, wiped out,
worsted, wound up,
zapped