Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

squatter's right

American  

noun

Law Informal.

  1. a claim to real property, especially public land, that may be granted to a person who has openly possessed and continuously occupied it without legal authority for a prescribed period of years.

Etymology

Origin of squatter's right

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60

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.