Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lavatory.

1665		implied in sense 3.
1682		A. Radcliffe ‘A Call to the Guard by a Drum’ in Poems 69: Some at Sh--house publick (where a Rag always goes) At once empty their Guts and diminish their Clothes.
1795		in G. MacGregor Coll. Writings of Graham (1883) II. 247: When [Wallace] came to London, we did him all manner of justice, and for honour of the Scots, we have his effigy in the shite-houses to this very day .
c.1820?		Bugger’s Alphabet in Bold (1979) 43: S is the shithouse all full to the brim.
1837		‘Stinking Breath’ in Ticklish Minstrel 45: Your breath stinks just like any s--t-house.
1842		‘The T--d and the Soap Suds’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 6: Oh, dear, sir, how could you, the barber did cry, / Shit in my shop – when the shit-house is nigh?
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 63: Then the shit-house door ope’d wide.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 227: I stayed at the shit-house some time, went up quietly, and heard her door close.
1890		in R.G. Reisner Graffiti (1971) 109: In this sad shithouse / I look in vain for paper.
c.1900		‘Mobile’ in Bold (1979) 140: The lighthouse is a white house / ’Cos they use it as a shite house in Mobile!
1905–07		Bawdy N.Y. State MS 🌐 1: ‘Well,’ replied the clerk, ‘He said he would build you a shit-house.’.
c.1918		‘Mary’ in Bold (1979) 136: Mary in the shithouse shovelling shit / Syphilitic chancres on her starboard tit.
1927		‘Rangy Lil’ in Bold (1979) 191: The fate that overtook her / Back of the shithouse on Dougan’s Hill.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 18: We’re dancing there in the shithouse.
1945		song title in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 37: Please Don’t Burn Our Shithouse Down.
1949		K. Amis letter 29 Oct. in Leader (2000) 221: The bathroom and shithouse can only be reached through my bedroom.
1959		‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 94: There was a young man from Port Said / Who fell down a shit-house and died.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 104: I wouldn’t trust Lee in a shit-house with a muzzle on.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 19: Go to the shithouse, will you.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 27: [I]f there had been a length of rope in the flat, Les would have hung himself in the accountant’s shithouse.
1993		Kennedy & Davies Boots of Leather (2014) 249: ‘You meet somebody in the bathroom, do your thing, and then come out [...] I would bet some had more sex in the shithouse than they had in their bedrooms’.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 147: So we got him in the shithouse, kick fuck out of him.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘Phew! You’re mate’s not on the nose enough, Les. Where did you find him? In a shithouse?’.
2005		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz Apr. 48: It’s fuller than a seaside shithouse.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 330: ‘Where’s the damn shithouse?’ .

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1942		P. Larkin letter 21 Dec. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 50: Rather fun to set up business with you as builders after the war: completely mad, building houses with booby traps, no windows, shit-house pipe leading into the larder, and so on.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 305: The bloody boss [...] couldn’t whitewash a shit-’ouse wall.
1961		(con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 145: A man’s ambition must be small, / To write his name on a shitehouse wall.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 196: She didn’t have any clothes to wear apart from this roll of shit house paper.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 93: I’ve seen you put your dukes through wooden shit-house doors.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 192: There were hustlers and gangsters in the hall and bulldaggers by the shithouse wall.

3. in fig. use, as an intensifier.

1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Million Buck Snatch!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 This bright shamus dashed in and slapped me for a row of brick out-houses.
1993		Age (Melbourne) 4 June 54/5: Near the end of the World Cup final, he just couldn’t contain his emotion, pleading with the Wallabies to ‘kick it to the shithouse’.
2000		Sydney Morn. Herald 26 Aug. 268/2: ‘What’s wrong with you, Carl, slog the c... to the shithouse!’ bellows one.

4. an unpleasant or contemptible person.

1665		Narr. Case John Porter, Jun. in Shurtleff Rec. Governor & Company of Mass. Bay in New Eng. (1853–54) IV 216: He called his mother Rambeggur, Gammar Shithouse, Gammar Pissehouse [...] & these abusive names he vsed frequently.
1930		J. Hanley German Prisoner 8: He had been known as [...] a pimp — a shit-house — a toad — a sucker — a blasted sod.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 11: Fughing Irish shit-’ouse.
1963		B. Modisane Blame me on Hist. 7: ‘You bloody shit house,’ he said.
1976		C. Dexter Last Seen Wearing in Second Morse Omnibus (1994) 533: He was a shithouse.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 54: ‘’[H]e’s in his own eyes a local star. In the eyes of the locals, he’s a shithouse’.
1981		N. Farki Countryman Karl Black 29: The conductress was still quarrelling. ‘Damn fasty shit-house!’.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 15: Give that dirty black shithouse 500 grand. You’re kidding.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 78: ‘I know him, all right,’ she said, ‘and he’s a leading shithouse.’.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 48: Fella’s properly a shithouse. He’s just a fucking horrible wretch.
2019		Twitter 27 Jan. 🌐 Imagine being such a spineless, snivelling little shithouse that you’d get yourself ratioed this comprehensively telling lies.
2020		L. Inglis on Twitter 30 Oct. 🌐 A courier just left a socially distanced package [...] and said, ‘Here you are, lady,’ [...] in a tone you would get a back hand for where I grew up. MANNERS COST NOTHING YOU SHITHOUSE.

5. any place (occas. object, see cite 1998, 2) judged second-rate, usu. dirty, messy, disgusting.

1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 375: You leave the toilet and you step into the big shithouse.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 58: It’s getting a little ridiculous working in this shithouse.
1973		E. Droge Patrolman 84: Some shithouse, huh? This fuckin’ place is gettin’ worse every day.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 28: Let’s face it, this is a shithouse.
1980		A. Burgess Earthly Powers 20: Fucking shithouse of a bloody place.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 69: The sooner you get this done the sooner we can all get out of this shithouse.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 24: Crawling through the iodized shithouse that used to be England.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 115: [of a prison] ‘Jesus, Billy, I thought you were too smart to wind up in his shithouse’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 83: Just getting out of that shithoose restores your perspective. [Ibid.] 143: There is no way I’m going back to that shitehouse today.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] It [i.e. an automobile] wasn’t much bigger than a go-kart, looked like an absolute shithouse and mechanically would have been flat out pulling a French letter off a slack dick.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 123: [He] was doing his time in a shithouse like Wandsworth [...] the Hate Factory.
2012		T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] Flattened by a Studebaker in fron of a shithouse [i.e a downmarket casino] like this.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 19: One might have witnessed a bookie saying, ‘I’ve scored a grouse stand!’ or alternatively, ’I’ve been shoved in the shithouse!’.

6. a jail.

1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 80: I can’t haul ass out of this shit house comes five o’clock.
1966		F. Elli Riot (1967) 166: If the convicts had an organization as powerful as the Humane Society behind us the public couldn’t get away with runnin’ a shit-house like this.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 237: I someone had told me a year ago I’d be back in the shit-house I’d have thought he was nuts.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 110: [I]t was Bobby Boogaloo [ii.e. a rapist] who put them inches away from the shithouse.

7. (orig. Aus.) a bad situation.

1962		T. Hopkinson In the Fiery Continent 303: You sh--heads better all clear off back to your hotels. You don’t win any f---ing Pulitzer prizes here. In fact this whole f---ing Congo’s just one ruddy sh--house.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 21: You guys can move with me or stay in the shithouse hustling quarters.
1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 shithouse (adjective) bad situation. Australian and UK term referring to a situation that is not going right.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 368: Hey. life isn’t such a shit-house after all.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] What a bummer! From penthouse to shithouse in one easy lesson.

8. a coward.

1998

K. Sampson Awaydays 9: Bit of a shithouse. I tried to get everyone calling him Danny Jekyll — he’s always hiding — but it never caught on.