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squat

verb (used without object)

to sit in a low or crouching position with the legs drawn up closely beneath or in front of the body; sit on one's haunches or heels.

to crouch down or cower, as an animal.

to settle on or occupy property, especially otherwise unoccupied property, without any title, right, or payment of rent.

to settle on public land under government regulation, in order to acquire title.

Nautical. (of a vessel, especially a power vessel) to draw more water astern when in motion forward than when at rest.

verb (used with object)

to cause to squat.

to occupy (property) as a squatter.

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Squat is one of our favorite verbs.

So is yaff. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to bark; yelp.

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adjective

(of a person, animal, the body, etc.) short and thickset.

low and thick or broad: The building had a squat shape.

10.

seated or being in a squatting position; crouching.

noun

11.

the act or fact of squatting.

12.

a squatting position or posture.

13.

a weightlifting exercise in which a person squats and then returns to an erect position while holding a barbell at the back of the shoulders.

14.

Nautical. the tendency of a vessel to draw more water astern when in motion than when stationary.

15.

Slang. doodly-squat.

EXPAND

16.

a place occupied by squatters.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1250–1300; (v.) Middle English squatten < Old French esquater, esquatir, equivalent to es- ex-¹ + quatir < Vulgar Latin *coactīre to compress, equivalent to Latin coāct(us), past participle of cōgere to compress (co- co- + ag(ere) to drive + -tus past participle suffix) + -īre infinitive suffix; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.; (adj.) Middle English: in a squatting position, orig., past participle of the v.

Related forms

squat·ly, adverb

squat·ness, noun

Synonyms
8. dumpy, stocky, square.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To squat

Example Sentences

From a standing position, squat down and put your hands on the floor.

And yes, all the years of adjuncting didn't do squat in the eyes of my new colleagues.

Some rural men, and even women, quite enjoy a social squat in the bushes.

EXPAND

From a standing position, squat down and put your hands on the floor.

And yes, all the years of adjuncting didn't do squat in the eyes of my new colleagues.

Some rural men, and even women, quite enjoy a social squat in the bushes.

The study team also named eight new sculpin, a type of small, squat river fish often found under stones.

At the live shows, the researchers tested pain by having participants squat against a wall until they collapsed.

Choose a tall one for an elegant cat, or a squat orange heirloom for a chubby cat curled on its paws.

All of these factors will add up to precisely squat effect on initial sales.

Belgium's beaches are fronted by squat concrete condominiums, and swimming is chilly, with much wind and rain.

There's no proof that such an invasive scan is really going to do squat for security and it leaves far too much room for abuse.

DiA, you clearly know diddly squat about basic economics.

The robot was built for three levels of crouching, from barely crouching to a deep-seated squat.

Digesting rhino horns isn't going to do squat for you medically.

They left the command post for the squat plastic ranks of simulators.

Rather than being put in refugee camps, people can seize the initiative and squat in their old communities, without aid.

None of them mean squat if they don't have the backing of a large number of people.

All of that courage and frankness wouldn't mean squat if the movie was poorly made.

Twenty-foot-long, squat fish eater with a three-foot pancake-flat head.

Oh yea, when they see one of those boys squat down and the other mount from behind…that would get my attention.

Desperate, the committee lopped the dome off the design, leaving no more than a squat mega-shed.

Instead of coming in briefcase-sized packaging, the powders are in squat boxes not much bigger.

They found diddley squat as evidence to support genocide charges.

SO all these rankings tell squat about the quality of education one receives in a university.

The graceful, soothing enclave of squat tenements and historic architecture became the neighborhood's main draw for me.

Mitenev suffered a crushing artistic blow when his precious stock of handmade films were stolen from the squat he was occupying.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

squat (skwɒt)

—vb , squats, squatting, squatted
1.	to rest in a crouching position with the knees bent and the weight on the feet
2.	to crouch down, esp in order to hide
3.	(tr) law to occupy land or property to which the occupant has no legal title
4.	weightlifting to crouch down to one's knees and rise to a standing position while holding (a specified weight) behind one's neck

—*adj*
5.	Also: squatty short and broad: a squat chair

—n
6.	a squatting position
7.	weightlifting an exercise in which a person crouches down and rises up repeatedly while holding a barbell at shoulder height
8.	a house occupied by squatters

[C13: from Old French esquater, from es-ex-¹ + catir to press together, from Vulgar Latin coactīre (unattested), from Latin cōgere to compress, from co- + agere to drive]

'squatly

—*adv*

'squatness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

squat

c.1410, "crouch on the heels," from O.Fr. esquatir "press down, lay flat, crush," from es- "out" (from L. ex-) + O.Fr. quatir "press down, flatten," from V.L. *coactire "press together, force," from L. coactus, pp. of cogere "to compel, curdle, collect" (see cogent). Slang

EXPAND

sense of "nothing at all" first attested 1934, probably suggestive of squatting to defecate. The adjective sense of "short, thick" dates from 1630. Squatter "settler who occupies land without legal title" first recorded 1788; in ref. to paupers or homeless people in uninhabited buildings, it is recorded from 1880.

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

diddly-squat definition

[ˈdɪdliskwɑt] and [ˈdudliskwɑt]
and (doodly-)squat

n.
nothing. (Folksy. Originally black or southern.) : This contract isn't worth diddly-squat.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

squat definition

in.
to sit (down). : Come on in and squat for a while.
n.
nothing. (See also diddly-squat.) : I earn just a little more than squat, but I am very pleased with my life.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com

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Slang

squat cop a squat

diddly-squat take a squat

Images for squat

Matching Quote

"It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune."

-Michel de Montaigne

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