squat
noun/skwɒt/
/skwɑːt/
- (especially British English) a building that people are living in without permission and without paying rent
- to live in a squat
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- a squatting position of the body
- (also squat thrust)an exercise in which you start with your hands on the floor and your knees bent, and then quickly move both legs backwards and forwards together
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘thrust down with force’): from Old French esquatir ‘flatten’, based on Latin coactus, past participle of cogere ‘compel’, from co- ‘together’ + agere ‘drive’ The current sense of the adjective dates from the mid 17th cent.
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