Library / English Dictionary

SQUAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: squatted    , squatter    , squattest    , squatting   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of assuming or maintaining a crouching position with the knees bent and the buttocks near the heels

Synonyms:

squat; squatting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("squat" is a kind of...):

motility; motion; move; movement (a change of position that does not entail a change of location)

Derivation:

squat (sit on one's heels)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exercising by repeatedly assuming a crouching position with the knees bent; strengthens the leg muscles

Synonyms:

knee bend; squat; squatting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("squat" is a kind of...):

leg exercise (exercise designed to strengthen the leg muscles)

Derivation:

squat (sit on one's heels)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small worthless amount

Example:

you don't know jack

Synonyms:

diddley; diddly; diddly-shit; diddly-squat; diddlyshit; diddlysquat; doodly-squat; jack; shit; squat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("squat" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a low center of gravity; built low to the ground

Synonyms:

squat; underslung

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

low (literal meanings; being at or having a relatively small elevation or upward extension)

Derivation:

squatness (the property of being short and broad)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Short and thick; as e.g. having short legs and heavy musculature

Example:

a stumpy ungainly figure

Synonyms:

chunky; dumpy; low-set; squat; squatty; stumpy

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

little; short (low in stature; not tall)

Derivation:

squatness (the property of being short and broad)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sit on one's heels

Example:

The children hunkered down to protect themselves from the sandstorm

Synonyms:

crouch; hunker; hunker down; scrunch; scrunch up; squat

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "squat" is one way to...):

sit; sit down (be seated)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

The children squat in the rocking chair

There squat some children in the rocking chair

Derivation:

squat (the act of assuming or maintaining a crouching position with the knees bent and the buttocks near the heels)

squat (exercising by repeatedly assuming a crouching position with the knees bent; strengthens the leg muscles)

squatting (the act of assuming or maintaining a crouching position with the knees bent and the buttocks near the heels)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Occupy (a dwelling) illegally

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "squat" is one way to...):

lodge in; occupy; reside (live (in a certain place))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

squatter (someone who settles on land without right or title)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be close to the earth, or be disproportionately wide

Example:

The building squatted low

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "squat" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Under this canopy of green two men were already squatted, who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

M. Krempe was a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The animal waddled toward the centre of the circle, short and squat and ungainly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

With difficulty he limped up to the door, where a squat, dark, elderly man was smoking a black clay pipe.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She departed then and the lights went out, and I was left squatting in the rhododendron-bush.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When he came to his pack, he paused long over the squat moose-hide sack, but in the end it went with him.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Instead of the gentle, deer-shaped head of the great three-toed leaf-eater, this beast had a broad, squat, toad-like face like that which had alarmed us in our camp.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a squat, bull-necked man, clad in the iron helmet, mail tunic, and woollen gambesson of his class.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In an instant his strange headgear began to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)