subs. (old colloquial: now general).—1.  A settler on public land without title or license; hence (2) any domiciliary usurper. Also (3) in Australia a pastoral tenant of the Crown. Whence SQUAT, verb. = (1) to settle on land without title: e.g., on a common, and (2) as in subs. senses 2 and 3. Derivatives are numerous: e.g., SQUATTAGE = a squatter’s station; SQUATTOCRACY (SQUATTERARCHY or SQUATTERDOM) = the world of squatters: spec. rich landowners in pastoral districts: cf. MOBOCRACY, COTTONOCRACY, SLAVEOCRACY, &c., &c.

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  1829.  B. HALL, Travels in North America, III. 354. The place where we made fast was a wooding station, owned by what is called a SQUATTER, a person who, without any title to the land, or leave asked or granted, squats himself down and declares himself the lord and master of the soil for the time being.

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  1835.  T. A. MURRAY, Evidence before Legislative Council of New South Wales on Police and Gaols. There are several parties of SQUATTERS in my neighbourhood. I detected, not long since, three men at one of their stations in the act of slaughtering one of my own cattle. I have strong reason to suspect that these people are in general, illicit sellers of spirits.

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  1840.  F. P. DE LABILLIÈRE, Early History of the Colony of Victoria (1878), 19 Dec., ii. 189. The SQUATTERS of New South Wales, a class of persons whom it would be wrong to confound with those who bear the same name in America, and who are generally persons of mean repute and of small means, who have taken unauthorized possession of patches of land. Among the SQUATTERS of New South Wales are the wealthiest of the land, occupying with the permission of the Government, thousands and tens of thousands of acres.

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  1846.  C. P. HODGSON, Reminiscences of Australia, 118. English are the most numerous, then the Scotch, then the Irish amongst the SQUATTOCRACY.

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  1854.  Melbourne Morning Herald, 18 Feb., 4, 5. SQUATTOCRATIC IMPUDENCE [Title].

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  1861.  T. M’COMBIE, Australian Sketches, 128. SQUATTER was applied in the first instance to signify, as in America, such as erected huts on unsold land. It thus came to be applied to all who did not live on their own land, to whom the original and more expressive name of settler continued to be applied.

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  1868.  J. BONWICK, John Batman, 94. Writes to another at a distance upon the subject of SQUATTERDOM.

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  1872.  C. H. EDEN, My Wife and I in Queensland, 59. The howl for the abolition of the SQUATTOCRACY had not yet been fostered under the malign influence of short-sighted politicians.

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  1885.  CAMPBELL PRAED, The Head Station, 35. The ‘bloated SQUATTOCRACY’ represents Australian Conservatism.

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  1890.  BOLDREWOOD, The Squatter’s Dream, iv. 42. He trusted to pass into the ranks of the SQUATTOCRACY.

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  1897.  Australian Steam Navigation Company, ‘Guide Book,’ 29. The term ‘SQUATTER,’ as applied to the class it now designates—without which where would Australia now be?—was not in vogue till 1842.

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  Verb. (old).—To move briskly or noisily through mud and water.

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  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Squaecarare. To SQUATTER; to lash it out behind after a purgation. Ibid., Squaechera, a soft SQUATTERING turd.

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  d. 1796.  BURNS, Address to the Deil.

                Amang the springs,
Awa’ ye SQUATTER’D, like a drake,
        On whistling wings.

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  1852.  C. BRONTË, Villette, xxvi. A little callow gosling SQUATTERING out of bounds without leave.

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