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   squat

   /skwɒt/

   verb

   • 1. 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"
   • ▪ crouch down with one's knees bent and rise again while holding (a specified weight) across one's shoulders: "he can squat 850 pounds"
   • 2. unlawfully occupy an uninhabited building or settle on a piece of land: "eight families are squatting in the house"
   • ▪ unlawfully occupy (an uninhabited building): "Clare, Briony, and the others had squatted the old council house"
   • ▪ occupy a tract of Crown land in order to graze cattle or sheep: historical Australian, New Zealand "many people moved further out and squatted on the land"

   adjective

   • 1. short and thickset; disproportionately broad or wide: "he was muscular and squat" Similar stockydumpystubbystumpyshortthicksetheavily builtsturdysturdily builtheavysetchunkysolidburlybeefycobbytechnical:mesomorphicpyknicnuggetyinformal:fubsylowstumpyshortsmallstockystunted

   noun

   • 1. a squatting position.
   • ▪ 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.
   • 2. a 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"
   • 3. short for diddly-squat informal North American

   Word 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.

   Derivatives

   • 1. squatly adverb
   • 2. squatness noun

   Scrabble Points: 14

   • S

     1

   • Q

     10

   • U

     1

   • A

     1

   • T

     1

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