settle down meaning and examples

Meaning

• Settle down is a phrasal verb that means:

  1. To become calm, quiet, or relaxed after being excited, restless, or upset.
  2. To start living a stable, routine life (often with a family, permanent job, or home).
  3. To begin focusing on something seriously.

Grammar and Usage

• Part of speech: Phrasal verb (intransitive).

• Patterns:

  • Settle down + preposition (to/with)

    • Settle down with someone = to start a stable life together.
    • Settle down to something = to begin doing something seriously.

Common Phrases

• Settle down, please (used by teachers or parents to ask for calm).
• Settle down with a book (to get comfortable and start reading).
• Settle down in a new city (to make a place your permanent home).

Collocations

• Verbs + settle down: want to, need to, try to, finally.
• Nouns + settle down: life, marriage, career, home.
• Settle down + preposition: with, in, to.

Examples

1. The children finally settled down after running around all day.
2. He wants to settle down and start a family.
3. The teacher asked the students to settle down before starting the lesson.
4. After years of traveling, she decided to settle down in the countryside.
5. I need to settle down to work and finish this report.
6. They plan to settle down with each other after graduation.
7. The baby wouldn’t settle down until his mother sang a lullaby.

Synonyms or Related

• Calm down
• Relax
• Quiet down
• Establish oneself
• Make oneself comfortable

Antonym

• Stir up
• Get restless
• Move around
• Keep wandering