squat

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To sit in a crouching position with knees bent and the buttocks on or near the heels.
• intransitive verb To crouch down, as an animal does.
• intransitive verb To settle on unoccupied land without legal claim.
• intransitive verb To occupy a given piece of public land in order to acquire title to it.
• intransitive verb To put (oneself) into a crouching posture.
• intransitive verb To occupy as a squatter.
• intransitive verb Sports To lift (an amount of weight) when doing a squat.
• adjective Short and thick; low and broad.
• adjective Crouched in a squatting position.
• noun The act of squatting.
• noun A squatting or crouching posture.
• noun Sports A lift or a weightlifting exercise in which one squats and stands while holding a weighted barbell supported by the back of the shoulders.
• noun Chiefly British The place occupied by a squatter.
• noun The lair of an animal such as a hare.
• noun Slang A small or worthless amount; diddly-squat.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Flattened; hence, short and thick, like the figure of an animal squatting.
• Sitting close to the ground; crouched; cowering; sitting on the buttocks with the knees drawn up or with the legs crossed.
• To lay flat; flatten; crush; bruise.
• To compress.
• To make quiet. Compare squatting-pill.
• To quash; annul.
• To put or set on the buttocks; cause to cower or crouch close to the ground; used reflexively.
• To sit close to the ground; crouch; cower; said of animals; sit down upon the buttocks with the knees drawn up or with the legs crossed: said of a human being: as, to squat down on one's hams.
• To settle on land, especially public or new lands, without any title or right: as, to squat upon a piece of common. See squatter.
• To settle by the stern, as a boat.
• To splash.
• noun The angel-fish, Squatina angelus.
• To settle on land obtained, from the government on special terms, for the purpose of raising stock. See squattage and squatter, 4.
• noun A bruise caused by a fall.
• noun The posture of one who or that which squats.
• noun A short, stout person.
• noun A small mass or bunch of ore in a vein.
• noun Nautical, the settling of a vessel, when under way, in the water, particularly at the stern, as compared with its position at rest. The phenomenon occurs to some extent in every vessel under way at high speed, but it is of importance only in shallow water, the depth of which is not much greater than the draft of the vessel. In such cases, in large vessels, the sinking of the stern may be from 2 to 6 feet with very moderate speeds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) The angel fish (Squatina angelus).
• intransitive verb To sit down upon the hams or heels.
• intransitive verb To sit close to the ground; to cower; to stoop, or lie close, to escape observation, as a partridge or rabbit.
• intransitive verb To settle on another's land without title; also, to settle on common or public lands.
• noun The posture of one that sits on his heels or hams, or close to the ground.
• noun obsolete A sudden or crushing fall.
• noun A small vein of ore.
• noun A mineral consisting of tin ore and spar.
• noun (Zoöl.), [Local, U.S.] the jacksnipe; -- called also squatter.
• adjective Sitting on the hams or heels; sitting close to the ground; cowering; crouching.
• adjective Short and thick, like the figure of an animal squatting.
• transitive verb obsolete To bruise or make flat by a fall.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Relatively short or low and thick or broad
• noun A position assumed by bending deeply at the knees while resting on one's feet.
• noun weightlifting : A specific exercise in weightlifting performed by bending deeply at the knees and then rising, especially with a barbell resting across the shoulders.
• noun A toilet used by squatting as opposed to sitting (Wikipedia entry).