squatter
/ˈskwɒtə
/noun
1A person who unlawfully occupies an uninhabited building or unused land: the police moved in and evicted the squatters [as modifier]: a squatter camp...
- Many Roma in Western Europe are squatters, occupying condemned buildings while trying to find more suitable accommodations.
- Disused and neglected, the hall was invaded by squatters who occupied the building until it was gutted by a fire in 2002, which killed five people.
- The Johannesburg council, however, plans to evict the squatters so that the building can be revamped as part of its inner city regeneration programme.
1.1North American & Australian /NZ historical A settler with no legal title to the land occupied, typically one on land not yet allocated by a government.The squatters settled in the flat part of the ravine, on top of the cemetery, but did not build a good city in terms of urban development....
- Every year the men used to ride out along the boundaries of the land owned by the towns just to make sure that they were intact; that none of it had been settled on by squatters or enclosed by the local lairds.
- These millions of folks, in effect squatters illegally occupying untitled land, cannot ever use their houses for collateral for loans or have any recourse to generate wealth.
2Australian /NZ A large-scale sheep or cattle farmer: [as modifier]: one of the wealthiest and most prominent squatter families of northern Victoria...
- After sometimes months on the road, carefully herding the squatter's stock, the drover would ask for his cheque.
- Even the squatter has a great deal of trouble to get hold of a good man as a shepherd or knockabout hand.
- It revolves around re-creation of a 19th century grazing property, owned by a squatter and his wife, and all of the people who work on their selection.
2.1 historical A person occupying a tract of pastoral land as a tenant of the Crown.From the 1850s it referred to small farmers settling on Crown lands occupied by squatters....
- With little effective recourse, the Government reluctantly accepted the presence of the squatters and handed over Crown land for nominal lease and licence fees.
- The previous Victorian act, the Land Tax Act 1877, was directed to lands owned by squatters, what were known as landed estates.
