squatter

American  

[skwot-er] / ˈskwɒt ər /

noun

squatters plural

1. a person or thing that squats.

2. a person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent.

3. a person who settles on land under government regulation, in order to acquire title.

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squatter British  

/ ˈskwɒtə /

noun

1. a person who occupies property or land to which he has no legal title

2. 1. (formerly) a person who occupied a tract of land, esp pastoral land, as tenant of the Crown

   2. a farmer of sheep or cattle on a large scale

3. (in New Zealand) a 19th-century settler who took up large acreage on a Crown lease

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• squatterdom
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• squatters
  plural

Etymology

Origin of squatter

First recorded in 1775–85; squat + -er ¹

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

squatter squatters

The device is squatter and wider than Samsung’s previous foldables.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Patent and Trademark Office, Tesla said Unibev was “a bad-faith trademark squatter, who started as a Tesla fan” and described the French company’s attempt to trademark the Cybercab moniker as fraudulent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026

She excelled on stage and screen in Alan Bennett’s “The Lady in the Van,” playing a crotchety squatter with an imperious sense of entitlement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024

As the sun rose, the squatter camp gradually vanished under the earth.

From BBC ● May 25, 2024

During the summer of 1812, the Indigenous alliance struck US forts and squatter settlements.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

A security guard stood in front of the cabana to stop any would-be squatters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

The corner lot on which the club stands is now surrounded by hundreds of dilapidated and abandoned buildings occupied by squatters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

In his video, Mr Perry said when squatters were staying in the building it had been "sectioned off into bedrooms" and "rented out to people in the most vulnerable of conditions".

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2025

The construction site has been an ongoing issue for the neighborhood, attracting squatters and forcing first responders to put out a number of small fires there after it was abandoned at the end of 2022.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2024

There were no bodies to hurdle: the squatters were gone.

From "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli

Related Words

• settler