"A `sprag,' being a stout piece of hard wood, was inserted between the rope and the iron roller on which the rope ran."
<hw>Squat</hw>, v. to be a squatter (q.v.) in any of the senses of that word.
1846. Feb. 11, `Speech by Rev. J. D. Lang,' quoted in `Phillipsland,' p. 410:
In whatever direction one moves out of Melbourne, whether north, east, or west, all he sees or hears is merely a repetition of this colonial note—`I squat, thou squattest, he squats; we squat, ye or you squat, they squat.'. . . <i>Exeunt omnes</i>. `They are all gone out a-squatting.'"
1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 236:
"The regulations . . . put an end to squatting within the boundaries of location, and reduced it to a system without the boundaries."
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 136:
"The Speaker squats equally and alternately on the woolsack of the House and at his wool-stations on the Murrumbidgee. One may squat on a large or small scale, squat directly or indirectly, squat in person or by proxy."
1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' p. 68:
"Some spot,
Found here and there, where cotters squat
With self-permission."