squat

UK/skwɒt//skwɑt/

squat adjective: relatively short or low, and thick or broad. Also the clipping of diddly-squat.

Image: Rexwar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

squat (comparative squatter, superlative squattest)

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 a pair of notable ſharp Fangs before, both hooked inward like a Bulls horns.1681, Nehemiah Grew, “Of Creeping Insects [part I, section VII, chapter III]”, in Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or a Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal...
- 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. […]1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, in Men and Women, London: Chapman & Hall, →OCLC, stanza XXXI
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 dreams, […]1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

Noun (1)

squat (countable and uncountable, plural squats)

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.2006, Yael Calhoun, Matthew R. Calhoun, Create a Yoga Practice for Kids: Fun, Flexibility, and Focus, Santa Fe, N.M.: Sunstone Press, →ISBN, page 72
Any of various modes of callisthenic exercises performed by moving the body and bending at least one knee.
1. 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.2001, Robert Wolff, Robert Wolff's Book of Great Workouts: Everything You Need to Know to Vary Your Routine and Keep You Motivated, Lincolnwood and Chicago, Ill.: Contemporary Books, →ISBN, pages...
  - 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 any part of the rack that may inhibit a full range of motion.2021 September 9, “Should You Squat Ass-to-Grass? The Debate is Over”, in Steel Supplements
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 squat1996, “Born To Die”, in Squatta's Paradise, performed by Choking Victim, Whattsa Matta U Rekidz
- "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 admissions, much of the squatters' "My house is your house" rhetoric has become hollow.1996 July 8, Chris Smith, “Live free or die”, in New York, New York, N.Y.: New York Magazine Co., →ISSN, page 36
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.
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.1728, J[ohn] Woodward, “Earths and Earthy Substances”, in A Catalogue of the Additional English Native Fossils, in the Collection of J. Woodward M.D., tome II, London: […] F[rancis] Fayram, […]...
Squat effect.
(obsolete) A sudden or crushing fall.
- bruises, and squats, and falls, which often kill others1652, George Herbert, “Treatise of Temperance and Sobriety”, in Herbert's Remains, Or, Sundry Pieces Of that sweet Singer of the Temple
(slang) A dental practice set up from scratch instead of joining an existing one.
- […] needs many patients to be viable — definitely not for the first six months of a squat. Ron mentioned that many graduates ask representatives for advice regarding squats and those he has not deterred have done well […]1988, Dental Practice, volume 26, page 30

Verb

squat (third-person singular simple present squats, present participle squatting, simple past and past participle squatted)

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.1901, Miles Franklin, “An Introduction to ’Possum Gully”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 10
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 correctly.1994, Kurt Brungardt, Mike Brungardt, Brett Brungardt, The Complete Book of Butt and Legs, New York, N.Y.: Villard Books, →ISBN, page 161
(transitive) To lift (a barbell) while performing a squat
- I can squat 150 lbs.
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.1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “A Raid on the Stale-beer Dives”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 77
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."1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 76
(dated) To bruise or flatten by a fall; to squash.
(Internet) To 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.2006, Paul Wouters, Ken Bantoft, Building and Integrating Virtual Private Networks with Openswan
(slang, board games) To retire a modeling kit or group of modeling kits.
- I can't believe they squatted my favorite faction!

Noun (2)

squat (plural squats)

The angel shark (genus Squatina).

Also used as

squat is also the clipping of diddly-squat.

squat meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada

squat in Marathi

relatively short or low and thick or broad: गिडु giḍu, गिड्डा giḍḍā
sitting low on the heels: बैठे baiṭhe
to bend at the knees: पालखट मारुन बसणे pālkhaṭ mārun basṇe, मांडी घालून बसणे māṇḍī ghālūn basṇe, उकिडवे बसणे ukiḍve basṇe

squat in Kannada

ಸ್ಕ್ವಾಟ್

More languagesFewer languages

squat in Punjabi: ਸਕੁਐਟ
squat in Odia: ସ୍କ୍ୱାଟ୍
squat in Nepali: स्क्वाट, स्क्वाट्, स्क्वेट
squat in Arabic: صَغِير وَثَخِين ṣaḡīr waṯaḵīn, قُرْفُصَاء qurfuṣāʔ, جَثَمَ jaṯama
squat in Malay: mencangkung
squat in Indonesian: jongkok
squat in Persian: چمباتمه زدن čombâtme zadan, سرپا نشستن sar-pâ nešastan
squat in Thai: หมอบ mɔ̀ɔp
squat in Vietnamese: ngồi xổm, ngồi chồm hỗm

Examples of squat in a sentence

Since I started doing squats, I've built up some serious cake.
As a warmup, Jennifer did ten bodyweight squats.
They have to be squat, long and narrow to fit through the body of the TBM.

All 40 example sentences with squat

Synonyms of squat

nothing

Forms of squat

Adjective
comparative	squatter
superlative	squattest
Noun
plural	squats
Verb
third-person singular present	squats
present participle	squatting
past participle	squatted
past	squatted

Past tense of squat: squatted

Plural of squat: squats

Origin of squat

From 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” is synchronically analyzable as a clipping of diddly-squat, although diachronically the direction of derivation is uncertain.

From Latin squatina.

Words formed from squat

Phrases with squat

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with squat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about squat

What does squat mean?: Squat means relatively short or low, and thick or broad.
What is squat in Hindi?: Squat in Hindi is स्क्वाट. See Squat meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is squat?: Squat can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce squat?: Squat is pronounced /skwɒt/ (UK).

Words near squat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: squat (page history and authors); squat (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); squat (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); squat (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); squat (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); squat (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); squat (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-squat.ogg, en-au-squat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “squat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/squat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.