Citations:squat

Adjective: relatively short or low and thick or broad

 * 1653, François Rabelais, Gargantua, chapter XXVII, translated by Thomas Urquhart
 * If any offered to hide himself amongst the thickest of the vines, he laid him squat as a flounder, bruised the ridge of his back, and dashed his reins like a dog.
 * 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book IV
 * him there they found Squat like a Toad, close at the eare of Eve; Assaying by his Devilish art to reach The Organs of her Fancie,
 * 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, chapter 3
 * M. Krempe was a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits.
 * 1871, Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, chapter VII
 * When two races in close contact cross, the first result is a heterogeneous mixture: thus Mr. Hunter, in describing the Santali or hill-tribes of India, says that hundreds of imperceptible gradations may be traced "from the black, squat tribes of the mountains to the tall olive-coloured Brahman, with his intellectual brow, calm eyes, and high but narrow head".
 * 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 2
 * Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine. But seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse, broad, with squat fingers.
 * 1906, Jack London, White Fang, part IV, chapter 4
 * Tim Keenan shoved the bull-dog forward with a muttered "Go to it." The animal waddled toward the centre of the circle, short and squat and ungainly.
 * 1927, H. P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space
 * On the gentle slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges

Noun: (weightlifting) An exercise performed by bending deeply at the knees and then rising, while bearing weight

 * 1978, Bill Dobbins & Ken Sprague, The Gold's Gym Weight Training Book, page 89
 * There are two kinds of Squats: those performed with the bar held in front of the body and those done with the weight resting on the shoulders behind the neck.
 * 1993, John Parrillo & Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, High-Performance Bodybuilding, page 87
 * Considered one of the best mass-building exercises, the squat directly stresses the quadriceps, a group of four muscles in the frontal thigh; gluteal muscles, a group of three muscles in the hip region; and the adductors, the muscles of the inner thigh.
 * 1997, Peter Sisco & John Little, Power Factor Training, page 175
 * Besides causing excessive shear forces in the knee joint, full-range squats cause severe compression of the spinal column, particularly in the bottom position, where the anterior aspect of the lumar vertebrae is compressed.
 * 2001, Robert Wolff, Robert Wolff's Book of Great Workouts, page 58-59
 * The king of all quad exercises, and arguably the best single-weight resistance exercise, is the squat.
 * 2004, Elmar Trunz-Calisi, Practical Muscle Training, page 49, translated by Geoffrey Steinherz
 * The squat is certainly the most effective compound exercise (one in which demands are placed on many muscle groups at the same time) for the calves, thighs, buttocks, and back muscles (sling stretch).
 * 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii
 * I never did a squat or a deadlift—the exercises I now know are best for building a bigger, stronger, more athletic-looking body—because I had access to leg-extension, leg-curl, and leg-press machines.

Verb: to bend deeply at the knees while resting on one's feet

 * 1769, Robert Rogers, Plan of Discipline
 * If you are obliged to receive the enemy's fire, fall, or squat down, till it is over; then rise and discharge at them.
 * 1853, Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Pygmies" in Tanglewood Tales
 * But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame; so that the small folks never took it to heart, and only requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended to squat himself.
 * 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, chapter XII
 * I have held them in my open hand at such a time, and still their only care, obedient to their mother and their instinct, was to squat there without fear or trembling.
 * 1870, Richard Francis Burton, Vikram and the Vampire or Tales of Hindu Devilry
 * They will shave their beards instead of their heads, and stand upright when they should sit down, and squat upon a wooden frame instead of a carpet, and appear in red and black like the children of Yama.
 * 1901, Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career, chapter II
 * He was not going to squat henlike on his place as the cockies around him did.
 * 1926, "How is your Bone-Oil" (advert.), Popular Mechanics, 45 (1): 15
 * Can you squat down and sit on your heels without hearing a crack in your knees or a stiffness around the joints?

Verb: (weightlifting) to exercise by bending deeply at the knees and then rising, while bearing weight

 * 1994, Kurt, Mike, & Brett Brungardt, The Complete Book of Butt and Legs, page 161
 * For those who are having, or have had, trouble squatting we suggest learning how to squat by performing the front squatThe front squat allows you almost no alternative but to perform the exercise correctly.
 * 2006, Mikhail Krupnik, Prepare for Combat: Strength Training for the Martial Arts, page 14
 * Can you squat or bench-press the equivalent of your own body weight?
 * 2006, James Stoppani, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength, page 149
 * To many people, strength is all about the bench press. Rarely does a heavily muscled athlete field the question “How much can you squat?”
 * 2010, Charles Glass, "Trainer of Champions", Muscular Development 47(1): 364
 * If we are talking about a person who squats heavy, something with an elevated heel and good ankle support is best.

Verb: to occupy without permission

 * 1799, Religious Tract Society, Money; its nature, history, uses, and responsibilities, chapter II, page 23
 * and mankind seemed as if they begged permission to "squat" upon the earth's surface, instead of grasping its dominion with a master's hand.
 * 1890, Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, chapter VII
 * 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.