Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lavatory, a commode; also fig.

1965		D. Martin Hero of Too 311: He wouldn’t mind seeing him hoist a big shit-can.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 278: What happened to your bloody head? [...] It looks like a kicked-in shitcan.
1994		Sydney Morn, Herald 7 Aug. 143/1: ‘There’s the potential for a shitcan to be tipped over me with this book’.
2001		Sydney Morn. Herald Good Weekend 24 Nov. 31/3: ‘I was so f...ing mad I was going to put a stick of gelly [...] under his shit-can and blow the c..t up’.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 94: Rising only to visit the shitcan.

2. (US prison) the punishment cells.

1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 121: Still-life with bars and shitcan.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 146: ‘Might as well put him away in the shitcan,’ the warden said.

3. (US) a waste(paper) basket.

2003

A. Swofford Jarhead 87: Siek ordered Kuehn to empty the shitcans in all three of the battalion barracks, about thirty shitcans in all.