Squatter
['skwɒtə] or ['skwɑtɚ]
Definition
(noun.) someone who settles on land without right or title.
(noun.) someone who settles lawfully on government land with the intent to acquire title to it.
Edited by Johanna--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One who squats; specifically, one who settles unlawfully upon land without a title. In the United States and Australia the term is sometimes applied also to a person who settles lawfully upon government land under permission and restrictions, before acquiring title.
(n.) See Squat snipe, under Squat.
Edited by Everett
Definition
v.i. to plunge through water.
Checker: Valerie
Examples
- Here and there old trees had been felled the autumn before; or a squatter's roughly-built and decaying cottage had disappeared. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Virginia squatters) added, we select the black members of a litter for raising, as they alone have a good chance of living. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Among all these squatters and folks of the road the reddleman continually found himself; yet he was not of them. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
Editor: Oswald