SQUATTER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... the Missouri Compromise and providing for "squatter sovereignty" in the territories in question, outraged the North and led immediately to the forming of the Republican party. It was not long before public sentiment began to make itself felt, and the first demonstration ...

— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... repeated. "Are we not partners in this island? By squatter's right, if by no better title, we own land, minerals, wood, game, and even such weird belongings as ancient ...

— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy

... tendency, both in commerce and agriculture, to employ one large capital, where several small ones would have been employed a century ago. The large manufactory, the large shop, the large estate, the large farm, swallows up the small ones. The yeoman, the thrifty squatter who could work at two or three trades as well as till his patch of moor, the hand-loom weaver, the skilled village craftsman, have all but disappeared. The handworker, finding it more and more difficult to invest his savings, has been more and more tempted to squander them. To rise to the dignity ...

— The Ancien Regime • Charles Kingsley

... great deal of play, with as much out-door life as he chose. He considered himself a true sportsman because he was 'fond o' huntin',' and 'took a sight o' comfort out of seein' the critters hit the mud' when his gun was fired. The neighbors called him a squatter, and looked on him merely as an anchored tramp. He shot and trapped the year round, and varied his game somewhat with the season perforce, but had been heard to remark he could tell the month by the 'taste o' the patridges,' if he didn't happen to know by the almanac. This, no doubt, ...

— Lobo, Rag and Vixen - Being The Personal Histories Of Lobo, Redruff, Raggylug & Vixen • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... we weren't sure to find out the truth. Calls him a squatter. Yes; the government made him squat ...

— First in the Field - A Story of New South Wales • George Manville Fenn

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