squat
verb /skwɒt/
  /skwɑːt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they squat |  /skwɒt/  /skwɑːt/ | 
| he / she / it squats |  /skwɒts/  /skwɑːts/ | 
| past simple squatted |  /ˈskwɒtɪd/  /ˈskwɑːtɪd/ | 
| past participle squatted |  /ˈskwɒtɪd/  /ˈskwɑːtɪd/ | 
| -ing form squatting |  /ˈskwɒtɪŋ/  /ˈskwɑːtɪŋ/ | 
- [intransitive] squat (down) to sit on your heels with your knees bent up close to your body- Children were squatting on the floor.
- When we saw them we squatted down behind a wall.
 
- [intransitive, transitive] squat (something) to live in a building or on land which is not yours, without the owner’s permission- They ended up squatting in the empty houses on Oxford Road.
 Wordfinder- accommodation
- deed
- home
- house
- lease
- let
- location
- mortgage
- squat
- tenant
 
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘thrust down with force’): from Old French esquatir ‘flatten’, based on Latin coactus, past participle of cogere ‘compel’, from co- ‘together’ + agere ‘drive’ The current sense of the adjective dates from the mid 17th cent.