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Shadows have the Amorphous trait:
Amorphous. The shadow can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Can a Shadow (or other creature with this trait) stay in an area as narrow as 1 inch, rather than simply move through it?
For example, could a Shadow wait for adventurers in a crack in the wall, provided it was as tall as the shadow and as deep as the Shadow's width?
The shadow, or presumably other amorphous monsters, can stop while moving.
Like many things about 5e, the details are left for the DM to fill in. Is it comfortable for the shadow to wait like this? Is the shadow smart enough to think of this tactic? Does the shadow incur any risks, for example if an adventurer puts a rock in the crack so it's no longer large enough for the shadow to get out?
Some DMs might rule that, even if an amorphous creature can pass through a thin space, its volume doesn't change -- so it might need a very deep crack to hide its full body in.
The shadow used to have the incorporeal subtype, which let it hide in the floor:
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see farther from the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
Hiding in a crack is pretty mild by comparison.
The key is that squeezing simulates being restricted and implies that it requires effort:
While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space. -PHB Ch 9. Combat
This means that not only can they move in this space, they can attack as normal from this space and have no penalties when attacked due to the space they are in.
Assume for a moment that there is a crack in a cliff that is one inch wide, ten feet tall, and seems to go for several feet, with light on the other side. As a shadow can fit through this without squeezing and there is nothing stating that they are ejected if they stop there, it would seem that running out of movement or choosing to stop makes no difference.
If a human had to squeeze into a space, they could stay, given the disadvantages stated above. The fact that a creature doesn't have to squeeze into a space effectively makes the given space act like any 5 foot square would for a human character.
