squatter

squat +‎ -er

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑtɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒtə(ɹ)

squatter (plural squatters)

1. One who squats, sits down idly.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

2. One who occupies a building or land without title or permission. [From 1788.]
   1. (Australia, historical) One who occupied Crown land. [From 1828.]
      • 2004, James Jupp, The English in Australia, page 62:

        While settlement in New South Wales was initially confined, many moved outside the boundaries to become squatters, eventually consolidating their originally illegal hold on the land.

   2. (Philippines) A poor vagrant; an illegal informal settler; a hobo or beggar; one suffering from extreme poverty.
3. (Australia, historical) A large-scale grazier and landowner.
   • 1895, “Waltzing Matilda”, Banjo Paterson (lyrics)‎:

     Down came the squatter, a'riding his thoroughbred,
     Down came policemen, one, two and three.
     'Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker bag?
     You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me.'

   • 1970, George Sampson, The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 3rd Edition, p.754:

     Boldrewood was a squatter, a magistrate and a commissioner of goldfields and knew thoroughly the life he described in Robbery Under Arms (1888), the story of the bushranger Captain Starlight—first serialised in The Sydney Mail in 1881—and in his numerous other novels, which included The Squatter′s Dream (1890).

   • 1993, Manning Clark, Michael Cathcart (abridging editor), Manning Clark′s History of Australia: Abridged by Michael Cathcart, p.218:

     In Parliament, at least, the squatters were secure. ¶ In the early 1840s a severe depression threatened livelihoods in all the colonies except South Australia and many squatters resorted to slaughtering their sheep and boiling them down for tallow.

   • 2010, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Peter Carey: A Literary Companion, page 233:

     His dealings with squatter R. R. McBean and superintendents Hare and Nicolson amaze the 16-year-old, who has little experience with the wealthy privileged class.

4. (informal) A squat toilet.
   • 2012, Randall L. Erickson, Traveling Business Class, page 54:

     All of the toilets in both the men's and women's sides were squatters.

• In Australian historical usage, the distinction between the senses of occupier of Crown land and large scale landowner is often blurred; many of the original illegal landholders became rich and, as a group, politically powerful. Additionally, in Philippine usage, its media and journalists refer to an "informal settler" instead.

• squat
• squattocracy

• cocky (small scale farmer)

squatter

1. comparative form of squat: more squat
   • 1950 July, J. G. Gibbons, “Sightseeing on the Inner Circle”, in Railway Magazine, page 485:

     Nearer at hand, to the left of a huge block (a telephone exchange) and over the top of another, lower, survivor of the blitz, rises the pinnacled tower of St. Alban's Church, and just to the left a glimpse can be obtained of the top of the squatter tower of St. Mary's Aldermanbury.

• quartets

Borrowed from English squat.

• IPA^(key): /skwa.te/

• Audio

  (file)

squatter

1. to squat
2. to crash (to make temporary living arrangements)

   On va squatter chez toi ou chez moi ?

   Do we crash at your place or at mine?

3. to tie up

• squattage
• squattériser
• squatteur

• “squatter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• traquets