Word.ws English Dictionary

settle for

settle for verb: to accept or allow something, especially something not entirely desirable.

Verb

settle for (third-person singular simple present settles for, present participle settling for, simple past and past participle settled for)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To accept or allow something, especially something not entirely desirable.
    • He couldn't afford the expensive headphones, so he decided to settle for the lower-quality set.
    • As the game entered three minutes of stoppage time, both sides almost snatched the win. Substitute Admir Mehmedi was inches away with Hart beaten and Stewart Downing, on for Walcott, shot weakly into the side-netting with the last kick of the game as England had to settle for a point.2011 June 4, Phil McNulty, “England 2 - 2 Switzerland”, in BBC
    Synonyms:
    make do

Synonyms of settle for

Forms of settle for

third-person singular presentsettles for
present participlesettling for
past participlesettled for
pastsettled for

Questions about settle for

What does settle for mean?
Settle for means to accept or allow something, especially something not entirely desirable.
What part of speech is settle for?
Settle for is a verb.
What is the past tense of settle for?
The past tense of settle for is settled for.

Words near settle for in the dictionary

  1. settle a score
  2. settle accounts with
  3. settle bed
  4. settle beds
  5. settle down
  6. settle for
  7. settle in
  8. settle into
  9. settle on
  10. settle one's account
  11. settle one's affairs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: settle for (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-settle for.ogg.

Cite this entry: “settle for.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/settle_for. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.