/skwɒt/, /skwɑt/, /skwɔt/
OriginFrom Middle English squatten, from Old French esquatir, escatir (“compress, press down, lay flat, crush”), from es- (“ex-”) + quatir (“press down, flatten”), from Vulgar Latin *coactire (“press together, force”), from Latin coāctus, perfect passive participle of cōgō (“force together, compress”).
The sense “nothing” may be the source or a derivation of diddly-squat.
- Relatively short or low, and thick or broad.
“The SQUILL-INSECT. […] So called from ſome ſimilitude to the Squill-fiſh: chiefly, in having a long Body cover'd with a Cruſt compoſed of ſeveral Rings or Plates. The Head is broad and ſquat. He hath ”
“What in the midst lay but the Tower itself? / The round squat turret, blind as the fool's heart, / Built of round stone, without a counterpart / In the whole world. […]”
“On the gentle slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges […]”
- Sitting on one's heels; sitting close to the ground; cowering or crouching.
“[H]im there they found, / Squat like a toad, cloſe at the ear of Eve, / Aſſaying by his deviliſh art to reach / The organs of her fancy', and with them forge / Illuſions as he liſt, phantaſms and drea”
- A position assumed by bending deeply at the knees while resting on one's feet.
“Sit in a squat, with your feet a comfortable distance apart.”
- Any of various modes of callisthenic exercises performed by moving the body and bending at least one knee.
- A specific exercise in weightlifting performed by bending deeply at the knees and then rising (back squat), especially with a barbell resting across the shoulders (barbell back squat).
“The king of all quad exercises, and arguably the best single-weight resistance exercise, is the squat.”
“Before we can discuss ass-to-grass squats, or ATG squats for short, we must first establish some knowledge about squats in general. […] Now, lift the bar off the squat rack rests and step away from an”
- A building occupied without permission, as practiced by a squatter.
“Your dumb self can't appreciate the freedom in my thought / The weak sense of autonomy when I'm flipping in my squat”
“"Keeping your friends warm and dry, that doesn't happen here. If you want to spend a night in a squat, it's all political to get in." Lately, as buildings have filled and become stringent about new ad”
- A place of concealment in which a hare spends time when inactive, especially during the day; a form.
- A toilet used by squatting as opposed to sitting; a squat toilet.
- Canada, US, abbreviation, alt-of, clippingClipping of diddly-squat; something of no value.
“I know squat about nuclear physics.”
“We didn't ask for rent, but we assumed they'd help around the house. But they don't do squat.”
“"Joke's on you. They're used to me mostly talking about superficial stuff. Nobody's going to notice squat."”
- A small vein of ore.
- A mineral consisting of tin ore and spar.
“A Mineral, very ponderous, and probably holding Tin. […] 'Twas part of a Squat, at Hewas-Work; not far from Polgouth, in St. Stephen's Liberty, Cornwall.”
- Squat effect.
- obsoleteA sudden or crushing fall.
“bruises, and squats, and falls, which often kill others”
- The angel shark (genus Squatina).
- To bend deeply at the knees while resting on one's feet.
“He was not going to squat henlike on his place as the cockies around him did.”
- To perform one or more callisthenic exercises by moving the body and bending at least one knee.
- To exercise by bending deeply at the knees and then rising, while bearing weight across the shoulders or upper back.
“For those who are having, or have had, trouble squatting we suggest learning how to squat by performing the front squat […] The front squat allows you almost no alternative but to perform the exercise”
- To occupy or reside in a place without the permission of the owner.
“Huddled together in loathsome files, they squat there over night, or until an inquisitive policeman breaks up the congregation with his club, which in Mulberry Street has always free swing.”
- To sit close to the ground; to stoop, or lie close to the ground, for example to escape observation.
“"But there seemed to be little satisfaction got out of this run; every moment the hare squatted, and the hounds lost the scent time after time."”
- datedTo bruise or flatten by a fall; to squash.
- InternetTo cybersquat.
“The old homepage for L2TP, www.l2tpd.org, has been squatted by a domain squatter. A malicious person could reinstate this domain with malicious code on it.”
- slangTo retire a modeling kit or group of modeling kits.
“I can't believe they squatted my favorite faction!”
Formssquatter(comparative) · squattest(superlative) · squats(plural) · squats(present, singular, third-person) · squatting(participle, present) · squatted(participle, past) · squatted(past)