Word.ws English Dictionary

Cousin John

Cousin John noun: a place or device for urination and defecation: an outhouse or chamber pot.

Noun

Cousin John (uncountable)

  1. (US, obsolete, slang) A place or device for urination and defecation: an outhouse or chamber pot.
    • 20. No freshman shall mingo against the College wall or go into the fellows' cuzjohn.1735, Richard Waldron, "A Freshman Guide", in 1953, William Bentinck-Smith, The Harvard Book, p. 162
    • 18. No Freshman shall call or throw any thing across the College yard, nor go into the Fellow's Cuz-John.*1741, “The Customs of Harvard College”, in A Collection of College Words and Customs, John Bartlett, published 1851, page 319
    Synonyms:
    john, jakes

Synonyms of Cousin John

Forms of Cousin John

alternative formcuz john
alternative formcuzjohn
alternative formCuz-John

Origin of Cousin John

From John (“outhouse; lavatory; chamber pot; toilet”). Possibly derived from a "euphemistic phrase of excuse" (e.g., "visiting my cousin John" or "going to cousin John's house"), similar to modern use of "powdering one's nose", but this is unattested.

Questions about Cousin John

What does Cousin John mean?
Cousin John means a place or device for urination and defecation: an outhouse or chamber pot.
What part of speech is Cousin John?
Cousin John is a noun.

Words near Cousin John in the dictionary

  1. cousin germans
  2. cousin humper
  3. cousin humpers
  4. Cousin Jack
  5. Cousin Jacks
  6. Cousin John
  7. cousin prime
  8. cousin primes
  9. Cousin Sally
  10. cousin sister
  11. cousin sisters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cousin John (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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