shithouse
US/ˈʃɪtˌhaʊs/
shithouse noun: an outhouse, an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
Noun
shithouse (plural shithouses)
- An outhouse, an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
- He would rather slop out his Punjabis' shithouses than kiss the arse of some limp-wristed war profiteer in Civvy Street, thank you.2004, John Le Carre, Absolute Friends, page 36
- Synonyms:
- craphouse, shitter, shouse, boghouse, bathroom, latrine, necessarium, toilet, toilet room, urinal
- A coward; one who is overly fearful or timid.
- Synonyms:
- bottler, caitiff, candy-ass, candy-arse, coistril, coward, chicken, chicken liver, chickenshit, cocktail
- A filthy place.
- You will be less amused when I ask you when you will take your turn cleaning out this shithouse.1987, Martin Caidin, Exit Earth, page 559
- It immediately caught my attention that the area was a total shithouse. Open C-ration cans, cardboard boxes, discarded socks and underwear, you name it, it was scattered all over the damn place.2022, Frank McCarthy, LIMA-3: And the Mustang Grunt, page 76
Adjective
shithouse (not comparable)
- Of poor quality.
- The stupefied bus driver kept ranting and raving at him. “You could have been stuffed, mate! Once the water splits it would have been the most shithouse moment in your life, and the last one! This beach is for crocs only![…]”2005, Eckhard Otto Hardy Marthen, Otto, page 334
- The story goes that when she applied for the job, they were fearful of hiring her because she was ‘much more shithouse than them’. I cannot imagine anyone being worse than those two but she did give it a good go.2010, Brian Cadd, From This Side of Things, page 255
- Synonyms:
- shitty
Verb
shithouse (third-person singular simple present shithouses, present participle shithousing, simple past and past participle shithoused)
- To engage in persistent unsporting behaviour or gamesmanship; to play in a cynical, ugly manner; to cheat without being punished.
Synonyms of shithouse
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of shithouse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shithouses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shithouses |
| present participle | shithousing |
| past participle | shithoused |
| past | shithoused |
Origin of shithouse
From shit + house. Compare Middle Low German schîthûs, German Scheißhaus, Swedish skithus, Icelandic skíthús.
Words formed from shithouse
Phrases with shithouse
Questions about shithouse
- What does shithouse mean?
- Shithouse means an outhouse, an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
- What part of speech is shithouse?
- Shithouse can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shithouse?
- Shithouse is pronounced /ˈʃɪtˌhaʊs/ (US).
- What is the plural of shithouse?
- The plural of shithouse is shithouses.
Words near shithouse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shithouse (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-shithouse.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shithouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shithouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.