settle down


verb(adverb, mainly intr)
  1. (also tr) to make or become quiet and orderly

  2. (often foll by to) to apply oneself diligently: please settle down to work

  1. to adopt an orderly and routine way of life, take up a permanent post, etc, esp after marriage

Words Nearby settle down

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use settle down in a sentence

  • As night began to settle down over the land, the Queen Elizabeth seemed to feel the time had come to give full vent to her wrath.

  • He found all well on reaching home and prepared to settle down with a feeling of ability to the work of translation.

    Robert Moffat | David J. Deane
  • What we want to know is whats all this mystery-game—and, most important, when do we settle down and sleep?

    The Woman Gives | Owen Johnson
  • Thyrsis saw clearly that he could not settle down to hard work while they were shut up there.

    Love's Pilgrimage | Upton Sinclair
  • Trevor waited till the headmaster had gone back to his library, gave him five minutes to settle down, and then went in.

    The Gold Bat | P. G. Wodehouse

Other Idioms and Phrases with settle down

settle down

Begin living a stable, orderly life; also, marry. For example, After traveling all over the world for years, he decided to settle down in his home town, or Her parents wished she would settle down and raise a family. [Early 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.