settle for

British

verb

(intr, preposition) to accept or agree to in spite of dispute or dissatisfaction

"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

settle for Idioms

Accept or be satisfied with as a compromise, as in He really wanted a bigger raise but decided to settle for what they offered. [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

settle for

In Glasgow, despite coming into the final as the fastest qualifier, he had to settle for bronze.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

People who took out mortgages over that period were forced to settle for higher-rate home loans, especially compared with the rock-bottom sub-3% rates of 2020.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Albanese said Australia "cannot settle for a short-term boom in capital expenditure and construction".

From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026

Saudi Arabia was 10 minutes away from upsetting Uruguay, only to settle for a tie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026

When Cantor applied for a position at the University of Berlin in 1883, he was rejected; he had to settle for a professorship at the much less prestigious University of Halle instead.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023