settler

1. a. One who or a thing which, settles, fixes, decides, etc.

b. colloq. Something that settles or ‘does for’ a person, a finisher; something that settles an antagonist in an encounter or argument; a crushing or finishing blow, shot, speech, etc.

c. A clerk in a betting shop who calculates the winnings.

2. a. One who settles in a new country; a colonist. old settler: see OLD a. D4. orig. Amer.

b. gen. One who settles in a place as a resident.

c. A worker at a social settlement (see SETTLEMENT 16).

3. Law. One who settles property: = SETTLOR.

4. A pan or vat into which a liquor is run off to ‘settle’ or deposit a sediment. In Metallurgy (see quot. 1881).

5. attrib. and Comb., as settler-folk, slam (

SLAM n.³); settler’s or settlers’ clock Austral. (see quots.); settler’s effects Canad., goods brought into the country by an immigrant for his personal use that are exempt from import duty; also transf.; settler’s matches, twine Austral. (see quots.).

The Oxford English Dictionary Online.