squat

squat — verb

1. to bend your knees and lower your body toward the floor while keeping your feet

1.verbintransitiveB1
Definition

to bend your knees and lower your body toward the floor while keeping your feet flat on the ground

Example

Amira squatted down to pick up the keys that had fallen under the sofa.

squatted down + infinitive of purpose

The gardener squatted beside the flowerbed to examine the roots of the dying rose bush.

Common collocations
  • squat down
  • squat beside
  • squat by
  • squat on the floor/ground
  • squat near
Synonyms
  • crouch

    similar but often implies bending the upper body forward as well as the knees

  • hunker down

    more informal; suggests staying low for a longer period, often for shelter or waiting

Antonyms
  • stand

    to be in an upright position on your feet

  • rise

    to move from a lower to a higher position

Grammar Patterns

squat + adverb/prepositional phrase of location

Usage Note

Often used with down or a prepositional phrase showing where you squat (beside, by, on, near). The subject is always a person or animal that can bend its legs.

Common Mistakes

I squatted on the chair to rest.
I sat on the chair to rest.
squat refers to bending the knees close to the ground, not sitting on a raised surface.
She squatted her baby on the bed.
She squatted down to put her baby on the bed.
squat is intransitive; it does not take a direct object.

2. to take over and stay in an empty house, building, or piece of land without havi

2.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

to take over and stay in an empty house, building, or piece of land without having the owner's agreement

Example

A group of artists squatted in the old factory and turned it into a shared studio space.

squat in + location (intransitive)

The family had been squatting in the abandoned building for nearly a year before anyone from the council noticed them.

Common collocations
  • squat in [building]
  • squat on [land]
  • squat [noun: building/flat]
Synonyms
  • occupy

    broader term; can be legal or illegal depending on context

  • take over

    more informal; suggests seizing control of a space, not necessarily living there

Antonyms
  • vacate

    to leave a building or area empty

  • evict

    to force someone to leave a property (used of the owner or authorities)

Grammar Patterns

squat in/on + noun phrase (location)

squat + noun phrase (building)

Usage Note

Frequently used in the continuous form (be squatting) to describe the ongoing act of living somewhere without permission. For the building itself, use the noun sense (a squat).

Common Mistakes

They squatted the park for a picnic.
They squatted the empty warehouse for a party.
squat means to live in a place, not to use it briefly.
She squatted in a hotel room.
She squatted in an abandoned apartment.
squat implies the building is empty and the owner does not know or has not given permission.

squat — adjective

squat — noun

Word family

  • squatter
    nounB2
  • squatting
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Squat, crouch, hunker down, and stoop all describe lowering the body, but they differ in the position of the legs and back. Squat specifically means bending the knees deeply while keeping the feet flat, so the hips come close to the heels — this is the typical position for resting outdoors or lifting heavy objects from the ground. Crouch involves bending both the knees and the upper body forward, often for concealment or to prepare for movement (for example, a runner crouching at the starting line). Hunker down suggests a stable, grounded low position held for a longer period, either for shelter or waiting; it is also used figuratively ("hunker down for the winter"). Stoop means bending the upper body forward at the waist while the legs stay relatively straight, as when picking something up from a low shelf. In short: squat is about bending the knees; crouch adds forward lean; hunker down is about staying low; stoop is about bending from the waist.

squat ↗crouchhunker downstoop

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Prepositions

Etymology

Old FrenchLatinEnglish

Squat entered English in the 1400s from the Old French word esquatir, meaning 'to crush, press flat, or lay low'. That French word came from the Latin prefix ex- ('out') combined with coactus ('forced together' or 'compressed'), the past participle of cogere. The original sense of flattening or pressing down led naturally to the physical posture of crouching close to the ground. By the late 1800s, American English had developed the sense of settling on unowned land without permission — 'squatting' in the legal sense — which later broadened to occupying empty urban buildings.