squatter

noun

1. One who squats; one who sits down idly.

   ““I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,[…]the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"”

2. (Australia, historical)One who occupies a building or land without title or permission.

   “While settlement in New South Wales was initially confined, many moved outside the boundaries to become squatters, eventually consolidating their originally illegal hold on the land.”

3. (Philippines)One who occupies a building or land without title or permission.
4. (Australia, historical)A large-scale grazier and landowner.

   “Down came the squatter, a'riding his thoroughbred, / Down came policemen, one, two and three. /'Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker bag? / You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me.'”

   “Boldrewood was a squatter, a magistrate and a commissioner of goldfields and knew thoroughly the life he described in Robbery Under Arms (1888), the story of the bushranger Captain Starlight—first serialised in The Sydney Mail in 1881—and in his numerous other novels, which included The Squatter′s Dream (1890).”

   “In Parliament, at least, the squatters were secure. ¶ In the early 1840s a severe depression threatened livelihoods in all the colonies except South Australia and many squatters resorted to slaughtering their sheep and boiling them down for tallow.”

   “His dealings with squatter R. R. McBean and superintendents Hare and Nicolson amaze the 16-year-old, who has little experience with the wealthy privileged class.”

5. (informal)A squat toilet.

   “All of the toilets in both the men's and women's sides were squatters.”

adj

1. (comparative, form-of)comparative form of squat: more squat

   “Nearer at hand, to the left of a huge block (a telephone exchange) and over the top of another, lower, survivor of the blitz, rises the pinnacled tower of St. Alban's Church, and just to the left a glimpse can be obtained of the top of the squatter tower of St. Mary's Aldermanbury.”