Word.ws English Dictionary

thunderbox

Syllables: thund·er·boxUK/ˈθʌndəbɒks/US/ˈθʌndɚˌbɑks/

thunderbox noun: a chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.

Noun (1)

thunderbox (plural thunderboxes)

  1. (slang) A chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.
    • True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks.1939 March, W[ystan] H[ugh] Auden, Christopher Isherwood, “Travel-diary. Chapter 7.”, in Journey to a War, London: Faber & Faber […], →OCLC, page 182
    • Then, after another pause, he said: "Well, if you must know, it's my Thunder-box." […] He opened it, showing a mechanism of heavy cast-iron brass and patterned earthenware of solid Edwardian workmanship. On the inside of the lid was a plaque bearing the embossed title Connolly's Chemical Closet.1952 October, Evelyn Waugh, chapter XV, in Men at Arms […], Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 196
  2. (Australia, UK, broadly, slang) Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an outhouse.
    • Meantime the ICE [Institute of Consumer Ergonomics] experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.1974 June 13, Donald Gould, “A Groundling’s Notebook: Ice Waterloo”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 62, number 902, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 708, column 2
    • In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts' guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.1979, The Bulletin, volume 100, Sydney, N.S.W.: Australian Consolidated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35, column 1
  3. A box of metal balls which is shaken to create a thunder sound effect.
    • [T]wo articles, both indispensibly necessary to a theatre, are not blundered, viz. a property room, and thunder box!—no they are omitted altogether!!1806 September, Argus [pseudonym], “Provincial Drama, &c.”, in The Monthly Mirror: Reflecting Men and Manners. […], volume XXII, London: […] J. Wright, […] [a]nd published by Vernor, Hood, and...
    • [H]e [the English actor West Digges] said, "Take the child to the slips;" and I was led through the carpenter's gallery, the cloudings and thunder boxes, and placed in a good seat, where I saw the play with great delight.1833 May, O’Keeffe, “The Late Mr. O’Keeffe”, in Edward Bulwer-Lytton, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume XXXVIII, 2nd part, number CXLIX, London: [F]or Henry Colburn by...
    Synonyms:
    thunder run

Noun (2)

thunderbox (plural thunderboxes)

  1. (obsolete) A blunderbuss; also, a cannon.
    • In the year 1346, at the battle of Crecy, the engliſh uſed a ſort of cannons, which were then called thunder-boxes.1800, Gerhard Ulrich Anthony Vieth, “Gunpowder”, in [anonymous], transl., The Pleasing Preceptor; or Familiar Instructions in Natural History and Physics, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or G. G. and...
    • […] I saw Arnoldi at Dettelbach, standing unhurt amongst the lances and swords, which flashed and glittered around him like lightning; the thunder-boxes peppering away all the while as if it snowed lead; and when the pastime (for it was nothing else to him) was over, there he stood leaning on his...1848, H. J. Whitling, “The Old Man and His Guests”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XXIII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 203

Examples of thunderbox in a sentence

  • [T]he response would sound from some soldier unseen, perhaps astride a thunderbox in the ablutions.1975, Leslie Thomas, chapter 7, in Stand Up Virgin Soldiers, London: Arrow Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 105:
  • At Roorkee, in King George's Own Royal Bengal Sappers and Miners quarters, thunderboxes with a china receptacle were the only form of sanitation.1994, Michael Blundell, “Towards Peace – via Ceylon”, in A Love Affair with the Sun: A Memoir of Seventy Years in Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya...
  • The adults in the family used commodes or ‘thunderboxes’ – European-style toilets on which one sat.2001, Katherine Frank, “Descent from Kashmir”, in Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, part 1...
  • The first are the pit toilets—"thunderboxes"—boxes painted white inside, centrally located in various sections of the campground.2004, Jayne Seagrave, “How to Be a Happy Camper”, in Terri Elderton, Karla Decker, editors, Camping With Kids: The Best Family Campgrounds...

Synonyms of thunderbox

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of thunderbox

pluralthunderboxes
alternative formthunder-box
alternative formthunder box

Origin of thunderbox

From thunder + box. Senses 1 and 2 (“portable commode; any lavatory or toilet”) are probably because of the noises that may be made while defecating.

Probably a calque of German Donnerbüchse (“(archaic) blunderbuss; cannon”) (from Donner (“thunder”) + Büchse (“box; can; rifle”)), or its etymon Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”) (from donder (“thunder”) + bus (“box; container; (chiefly historical) type of early modern firearm”)).

Questions about thunderbox

What does thunderbox mean?
Thunderbox means a chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.
How do you use thunderbox in a sentence?
[T]he response would sound from some soldier unseen, perhaps astride a thunderbox in the ablutions.
What part of speech is thunderbox?
Thunderbox is a noun.
How do you pronounce thunderbox?
Thunderbox is pronounced /ˈθʌndəbɒks/ (UK).
What is the plural of thunderbox?
The plural of thunderbox is thunderboxes.

Words near thunderbox in the dictionary

  1. thunderbolted
  2. thunderbolting
  3. thunderbolts
  4. thunderboomer
  5. thunderboomers
  6. thunderbox
  7. thunderboxes
  8. thunderbug
  9. thunderbugs
  10. thunderburst
  11. thunderbursts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thunderbox (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-thunderbox.ogg.

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