squatter
Americannoun
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a person or thing that squats.
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a person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent.
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a person who settles on land under government regulation, in order to acquire title.
noun
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a person who occupies property or land to which he has no legal title
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(formerly) a person who occupied a tract of land, esp pastoral land, as tenant of the Crown
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a farmer of sheep or cattle on a large scale
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(in New Zealand) a 19th-century settler who took up large acreage on a Crown lease
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of squatter
Explanation
A squatter is someone who lives on unoccupied land or in a vacant building without permission from the owner. Some squatters move into abandoned homes because they have nowhere else to live, while others are part of social movements that see squatting as a response to political and economic systems that have made housing inaccessible for many. While in some places it's a crime to be a squatter, other jurisdictions view squatting as a conflict between the squatter and the owner. An earlier definition of squatter was "settler who doesn't (yet) have a title to the land."
Vocabulary lists containing squatter
Trash
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Patron Saints of Nothing
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for March 12–March 18, 2022
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We must take the stance expressed by Doña Josefa Alamar, a protagonist of “The Squatter and the Don.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 5, 2025
It is titled “The Squatter and the Don” by Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2020
Squatter colonies lined the canals, which served as public baths, laundry facilities and sewers, all in one.
From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2011
Squatter COLOMBIA-PERU Among the belongings of the League of Nations is a great inkstand of ivory and gold.
From Time Magazine Archive
Among those killed were Mr. Bigelow, Mayor of Sacramento City, Mr. Woodland, an auctioneer, and Dr. Robinson, the President of the Squatter Association.—The news from the mines continues to be encouraging.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I. by
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
