In 1788, while he was encouraging ratification of a Constitution that would "establish Justice" and "insure domestic Tranquility," future president James Madison took time to complain about those who set up households and farms without proper authorization: "Many of them and their constituents are only squatters upon other people's land, and they are afraid of being brought to account." To say the least, squatter was an undignified word, chosen presumably to express disapproval of the practice.
But such was life on the uncivilized frontier, and such was often the way the frontier became settled and civilized. "This settling on land which belongs to another person, and clearing and cultivating it without leave, is called Squatting," explained a writer in 1824.
And not everyone objected. "It is the fashion to speak slightly of these Pioneers, Squatters, Crackers, or whatever name it pleases them most to be called by," wrote a traveler in 1829, "but I must own that I was well satisfied with almost every one of them whom I encountered."
The fierce independence of the squatters led in the late 1840s to the notion of squatter sovereignty, by which settlers in a territory would be entitled to make their own laws. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 applied squatter sovereignty to those two states in the matter of slavery, resulting in six years of battles in "bleeding Kansas," a prelude to the Civil War.
Nowadays, with the frontier gone, squatters are more likely to be found in abandoned urban buildings than in the country, but they remain part of the American landscape.
Description :
One who squats; specifically, one who settles unlawfully upon land without a title. In the United States and Australia the term is sometimes applied also to a person who settles lawfully upon government land under legal permission and restrictions, before acquiring title.
In such a tract, squatters and trespassers were tolerated to an extent now unknown.
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Dictio-definitions :
1. One who settles on land without permission or right.
2. A person or animal that squats, or crouches
3. A person who settles on public or unoccupied land
4. A person who occupies illegally a vacant house, building, etc.
5. Someone who illegally occupies another person's vacant house or building, or settles on another person's vacant land.
6. A person who registers a domain name on the World Wide Web (WWW) that mimics the copyrighted, trademarked, or service-marked name of a company specifically for the purpose of selling it to the rightful owner.
7. to sit in a low or crouching position with the legs drawn up closely beneath or in front of the body; sit on one's haunches or heels.
8. to settle on or occupy property, esp. otherwise unoccupied property, without any title, right, or payment of rent.
9. Nautical. (of a vessel, esp. a power vessel) to draw more water astern when in motion forward than when at rest.
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Usage :
1. I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all once.
2. Judge Temple, the landlord and owner of a township, with Nathaniel Bumppo a lawless squatter, and professed deer-killer, in order to preserve the game of the county.
3. My master owns the land, and your father was ordered to drive off these English squatters.
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Synonyms :
homesteader, nester, colonist, settler, interloper, intruder, trespasser
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Hindi :
बिना अधिकार
किसी भूमि पर
बसने वाला
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