1788 N. Gorham Let. 27 Jan. in J. Madison Papers (1977) X. 207 Many of them & their Constituents are only squatters upon other Peoples Land, & they are afraid of being brought to account.

1809 E. A. Kendall Trav. Northern Parts U.S. III. lxxiv. 160 Upon visiting his lands, he finds..possession taken by a race of men, (the settlers and lumberers,) who in this view are called squatters.

1830 J. Betts in Occas. Papers Univ. Sydney Austral. Lang. Res. Cent. (1965) No. 4. 13 A clan of people called ‘Squatters’. These were generally emancipated convicts, or ticket-of-leave men, who, having obtained a small grant, under the old system, or without any grant at all, sat themselves down in remote situations, and maintained large flocks, obtained generally, in very nefarious ways, by having the run of all the surrounding country.

1833 W. H. Breton Excursions New S. Wales 442 There are likewise in the colony certain persons called ‘squatters’ (the term is American) who are commonly..of the lowest grade.

1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches iii. 162 Engelbrecht is what in America would be called a Squatter. He has no land of his own.

1835 Sydney Gaz. 28 Apr. 2 In every part of the country squatters without any reasonable means of maintaining themselves by honesty, have formed stations, and evidently pursued a predatory warfare against the flocks and herds in the vicinity.

1856 J. G. Whittier Panorama 478 The hunted bison tires, And dies o'ertaken by the squatter's fires.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 359 At another time an impudent squatter settled himself there, and built a shed for rubbish.

1861 G. H. Kingsley in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1860 156 Hundreds of squatters from the neighbouring parts of Sutherland and Ross.

a1887 R. Jefferies Toilers of Field (1892) 68 Commonly the squatters pitched on a piece of land..running parallel to the highway or lane.

1821 S. T. Coleridge in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 10 250 An intrusive supernumerary or squatter in the same tenement and workshop.

1897 L. H. Bailey Princ. Fruit-growing 342 It will..be necessary to begin hunting for borers, and other squatters and campers.

1880 W. H. Dixon Royal Windsor (ed. 3) IV. xxix. 269 The King's house was a wreck; the fanatic, the pilferer, and the squatter, having been at work.

1946 Times 12 Aug. 2/3 Doncaster Rural District Council has turned on the water supply for a colony of its ‘squatters’ in military huts at Sprotborough.

1952 M. Laski Village xiii. 185 The London squatters had moved into their flats and their hotels, and triumphantly held the police and all the authorities at bay.

1968 Guardian 2 Dec. 1/3 The London Squatters Campaign—formed three weeks ago.

1973 All Eng. Law Rep. 3 395 What is a squatter? He is one who, without any colour of right, enters on an unoccupied house or land, intending to stay there as long as he can.

1980 Oxf. Compan. Law 1171/2 A squatter is a trespasser and liable to criminal penalties if he forces entry against the opposition of the lawful occupier or if, having been warned, he fails to leave.

1824 T. Chalmers Let. in W. Hanna Mem. T. Chalmers (1850) III. ii. 17 Dr. Haldane was not one of the squatters, but somehow his dusty back got into the view of the audience.

1872 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David III. Ps. lxviii. 13 Their enemies may have called them squatters among the pots.

1894 Athenæum 3 Feb. 144/1 The portrait of a toad ‘from life’ is creditable alike to the artist and the sitter—or rather squatter.

1872 C. H. Eden My Wife & I in Queensland 122 On the plains you find different kinds of pigeons, the squatters being most common,..crouching down to the ground quite motionless as you pass.

1955 I. Peebles Ashes 109 In Statham's first over to Miller there were three ‘squatters’.

1959 Times 7 Aug. 4/4 Phelan failed by only a whisker to bowl Pataudi with a squatter.

1786 R. Burns Poems 58 Awa ye squatter'd like a drake, On whistling wings.

1790 A. Wilson Poems 224 Three years thro' muirs an' bogs I've squattert.

1825 W. Scott Let. 20 Mar. (1935) IX. 36 I climbd Bennarty like a wild goat,..and squatterd through your drains like a wild duck.

1853 C. Brontë Villette II. xxvi. 246 A little callow gosling squattering out of bounds without leave.

1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies iii. 117 Where the wild ducks squatter up from among the white water-lilies.

1885 J. Ruskin Præterita I. v. 143 He pitched the boy..into the..Canal,..but I believe the lad squattered to the bank without help.

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. To Squatter, to flutter in water, as a wild duck, &c.

1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle's Log I. i. 18 A six-pound shot drove our boat into staves, and all hands were the next moment squattering in the water.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 259 We..were all soon squattering about on our own account in the elephant bath.