SQUATTER • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Squatter

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/skwˈɑtər/ Listen

noun

Squatter n.

One who squats; specifically, One who settles unlawfully upon land without a title. In the United States and Australia the term is sometimes applied also to a person who settles lawfully upon government land under legal permission and restrictions, before acquiring title. "In such a tract, squatters and trespassers were tolerated to an extent now unknown."

(Zool.) See Squat snipe, under Squat.

Squatter sovereignty, the right claimed by the squatters, or actual residents, of a Territory of the United States to make their own laws. (Local, U.S.)

adjective

Squat adj. (compar. squatter; superl. squattest)

Sitting on the hams or heels; sitting close to the ground; cowering; crouching. "Him there they found, Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve."

Short and thick, like the figure of an animal squatting. "The round, squat turret." "The head (of the squill insect) is broad and squat."

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Etymology of 'Squatter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Squatter" Quotes from Famous Books

... with the richest and most luxuriant foliage, with here and there a clearing, where some industrious China-man has squatted, in defiance of tigers and East-India Company's regulations. Now that land can be got on better terms than formerly, these clearings are being purchased by Europeans of the squatter,—whose prior right the Government always protects to the extent of a fair remuneration for his labour,—and are being turned into gardens or plantations. This drives back the squatter, who, like ...

— Trade and Travel in the Far East - or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, - Singapore, Australia and China. • G. F. Davidson

... edges, of course, but time will eventually attend to these. Now and then, between the motor-cars, you will see a creaking Red River cart. Next to an office-building of gray sandstone you're likely to spot what looks like a squatter's wickyup of rusty galvanized iron. Yesterday, on our main street where the electric-cars were clanging and the limousines were throwing their exhaust incense to the gods of the future, I caught sight of a lonely and motionless figure, ...

— The Prairie Child • Arthur Stringer

... nieve did shake, Each bristled hair stood like a stake, When wi' an eldritch stour, quaick—quaick— Amang the springs, Awa ye squatter'd like a drake, ...

— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... shanty in which we were to encamp, and we rowed straight through the whole length of the lake towards it. We reached it as the sun was going down, and stowed away our luggage before the darkness had gathered over the forest. We took possession by the right of squatter sovereignty, the owner being unknown, or at all events, absent from the woods. This lake is one of the few in all this region that I had never visited before, and is next in beauty to its namesake, two days' journey ...

— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond

... lights, no sidewalks in that region. As I came to a railroad arch on the edge of the squatter community I saw a figure emerge from the deep shadows. I knew instantly I was to be held up, but as life was rather cheap down there I was not sure what would accompany the assault. A second figure emerged ...

— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine

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