squat

 
Pronunciation: /skwɒt/

verb (squats, squatting, squatted)

  • 1 [no object] crouch or sit with one’s knees bent and one’s heels close to or touching one’s buttocks or the back of one’s thighs: I squatted down in front of him
  • [with object] Weightlifting crouch down in such a way and rise again while holding (a specified weight) across one’s shoulders: he can squat 850 pounds
  • 2 [no object] unlawfully occupy an uninhabited building or settle on a piece of land: eight families are squatting in the house
  • [with object] unlawfully occupy (an uninhabited building): Clare, Briony, and the others had squatted the old council house

adjective (squatter, squattest)

  • short and thickset; disproportionately broad or wide: he was muscular and squat a squat grey house

noun

  • 1 [in singular] a squatting position.
  • Weightlifting an exercise in which a person squats down and rises again while holding a barbell across one’s shoulders.
  • (in gymnastics) an exercise involving a squatting movement or action.
  • 2a building occupied by people living in it without the legal right to do so: a basement room in a North London squat
  • an unlawful occupation of an uninhabited building: this squat cost the ratepayer £46,000
  • 3North American informalshort for diddly-squat. I didn’t know squat about writing plays

Derivatives

squatly

adverb

squatness

noun

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'thrust down with force'): from Old French esquatir 'flatten', based on Latin coactus, past participle of cogere 'compel' (see cogent). The current sense of the adjective dates from the mid 17th century