- 1[intransitive] squat (down) to sit on your heels with your knees bent up close to your body Children were squatting on the floor. When we saw them we squatted down behind a wall.
- 2[intransitive, transitive] squat (something) to live in a building or on land which is not yours, without the owner’s permission They ended up squatting in the empty houses on Oxford Road. Wordfinderhomeaccommodation, deed, home, house, lease, let, location, mortgage, squat, tenant Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘thrust down with force’): from Old French esquatir ‘flatten’, based on Latin coactus, past participle of cogere ‘compel’, from co- ‘together’ + agere ‘drive’ The current sense of the adjective dates from the mid 17th cent.
squat
verbBrE BrE//skwɒt//; NAmE NAmE//skwɑːt//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they squat BrE BrE//skwɒt//; NAmE NAmE//skwɑːt//
he / she / it squats BrE BrE//skwɒts//; NAmE NAmE//skwɑːts//
past simple squatted BrE BrE//ˈskwɒtɪd//; NAmE NAmE//ˈskwɑːtɪd//
past participle squatted BrE BrE//ˈskwɒtɪd//; NAmE NAmE//ˈskwɑːtɪd//
-ing form squatting BrE BrE//ˈskwɒtɪŋ//; NAmE NAmE//ˈskwɑːtɪŋ//
Check pronunciation: squat
