Green’s Dictionary of Slang

loo n.1

also lou
[? Fr. l’eau, water; the bordalou, a portable commode, resembling a sauce boat and carried by 18C ladies in their muff; SE leeward, the side of a ship turned away from the wind and as such the side over which one would urinate/defecate; an abbr./pun on Waterloo, whether the station or the battle it commemorates]

the lavatory.

Show quotations
[UK]N. Mitford Pigeon Pie 27: In the night when you want to go to the loo.
[UK]A. Christie Murder Is Announced (1958) 154: We all went to the lou, didn’t we? [...] And I washed my hands.
[NZ]G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 65: He hated English novels which called it the loo.
[Aus]A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 33: You can stay at home, get shickered [...] and have a good chunder in your own loo, la-la, toot or diddy.
[UK]S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 54: In either case I can shove it in the loo!
[SA]M. Melamu ‘Bad Times, Sad Times’ in Mutloatse Forced Landing 41: I’ve no choice but to irrigate the outside of the loo, while the landlord’s mongrel, Spotty, playfully tugs at my trouser-pipe. Ag, man, voetsek!
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Godson 18: ‘I had to go to the loo’.
[UK] in G. Tremlett Little Legs 75: I always used their loo.
[UK]E. St Aubyn Some Hope 317: When we took gear at parties, all we saw was the inside of the loos.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘I’ll just go to the loo’.
[UK]H. Mantel Beyond Black 112: I want to go to the loo.
[UK]Observer New Review 7/4: Will you be calling if you think he needs the loo?
[SA]IOL News (Western Cape) 11 May 🌐 Malema steps into open loo saga [...] saying individuals in the council and not the ANC gave people open toilets.
M. McGrath Pie & Mash 9: Ted Willets who once painted lady Di’s loo.

In phrases