Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small, enclosed structure having one or two holes in a seat built over a pit and serving as an outdoor toilet.
- n. An outbuilding, as on a farm.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small house or building separate from the main house; an outbuilding; specifically, in law, under the definition of arson, a building contributory to habitation, separate from the main structure, and so by the common-law rules a parcel of the dwelling-house or not, according as it is within or without the curtilage. A rude structure —for example, a thatched pigsty—may be an outhouse, but it must be in some sense a complete building.
Bishop.
Wiktionary
- n. An outbuilding, a small structure located away, or not directly accessed from, a main building.
- n. North America An outdoor toilet, (or often just a seat over a cesspool) in a wooden cubicle, where the term is usually referring to a permanent facility. Where an outdoor toilet is installed on a temporary basis, the term portable toilet is generally used. The slang terms john and johnny house are sometimes used to identify an outdoor toilet; see also privy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small house or building at a little distance from the main house; an outbuilding.
- n. A small building with one or more seats and a pit underneath, intended for use as a toilet; a privy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate
Examples
“The outhouse is such a bad target for pranksters that I usually just go do my business somewhere else over a log.”
““Ahh. Safe and sound!” exclaims Chris to Joe as it becomes clear the two are sitting in an outhouse, and the outhouse is headed for the brink of Niagra Falls.”
“The roof of a good outhouse is best protected from wet," thought a fourth.”
“... an iowa corncob in an outhouse is more useful than palin. oh well if they do convince her to come the smart folks can use an iowa corncob to wipe her off of them ... angel”
“Behind the outhouse is a door to a hidden stairwell to an attic.”
“The trek to the outhouse was a different experience that night as well.”
“The outhouse was a mere 80 feet from the east, and only opening of the house.”
“For those who are generally uninformed in the layout of old farms many decades ago, an outhouse was the bathroom of its day prior to the invention of indoor plumbing.”
Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family
“I know that cleaning the outhouse was a drag, he said.”
“The outhouse was the simplest of dwellings, wooden-walled, shingle-roofed, one window beside the door and one on the farther side.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘outhouse’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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out-
situated at; outside; going away; outward
outpatient, outcast, outsell, outeat, outhouse, outages, outback, outbid, outbox, outlandish, outlier, outmaneuver and 11 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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Outta Here
outfox, outrage, outlandish, outdo, outrigger, outrun, outstretch, outbid, outcry, outtake, output, outrank and 49 more...
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When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go
Names for the place where you do your business.
privy, toilet, latrine, baño, bathroom, restroom, outhouse, john, throne room, ladies' room, lavatory, potty and 26 more...
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frivolous units of measurement
gleaned from the interweb
machturtle, picoboo, won ton, octopuss, gigolo, millihelen, millipicture, ivy league, fig newton, eskimo pi, angstrom, mole and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for outhouse.
ruzuzu Sionnach, I know it's almost three years later, but you just made my day! Jun 23, 2011
sionnach An outhouse is a unit of area used by nuclear physicists. One outhouse is equal to 1.0 x 10−6 barns. The term was derived by analogy with the barn.
A barn is a unit of area used by nuclear physicists to quantify the scattering cross-section of very small particles, such as atomic nuclei. One barn is equal to 1.0 x 10-28 m². Jul 28, 2008
brtom "By word and deed he encouraged a nocturnal strumpet to deposit fecal and other matter in an unsanitary outhouse attached to empty premises." Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Jan 1, 2008