squattage

English

Etymology

From squat +‎ -age.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒ.tədʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑ.tədʒ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɔ.tədʒ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒtədʒ
• Hyphenation: squat‧tage

Noun

squattage (plural squattages)

1. (Australia, historical) A holding occupied by a squatter (an occupier of Crown land or a large-scale land owner).
   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia‎^[1]:

     When this was done Strangway and one of the men rode over to Coglin station to send a telegram to Mills that all was well and a good squattage had been secured.

   • 1918, Timothy Augustine Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia: From the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901, Oxford University Press, page 387:

     Many persons held squatting licences who did not live on the squattage, but carried on some occupation elsewhere, the run being left in the care of an overseer.