Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also horse-turd) horse dung.

[1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Aesop CXXXIV 124: Apples and Horse-Turds].
1905–07		‘The Street Cleaner’s Dream’ in Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: I see harshit on the ceiling, and harshit on the flure, / Harshit on the tet-a-teet and harshit on the dure.
c.1925		R. McAlmon Miss Knight (1963) 53: I’m tellin’ you, Mary, I’m going to be elegant myself for a spell. Been as common as horseshit all my life, I have.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 267: Did you know they imported the English sparrow into America to eat the horseshit off the streets?
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 71: Can this be horseshit I’m smoking?
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 138: He will make truth to shine forth, meanin’ me, bringin’ doom down upon the Sons of Darkness like a tom-tit on a horse-turd!

2. (also horseburger, horseshite) rubbish, nonsense.

1925		E. Hemingway Letter to Ezra Pound in Observer 7 Mar. (2004) 15: Such a goddam relief from all this horseshit about Art.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 18: It was a tempting offer, even if it was wrapped up in a lot of horse shit.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 585: Aaah, horseshit.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 761: Thats horse shit [...] Sentimental horse shit.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 105: A load of Kensington horse shit about how great an actress [...] she was.
1964		A. Baraka Slave in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: They’re probably goin’ to keep that horseshit up all goddamn night. Goddamn it.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 41: I ever give you that line of horseshit?
1980		T. Lewis GBH 136: ‘[W]ould I risk going to him direct and giving him a load of horse-shit?’.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 222: Cal thought I was cold, hard, intelligent, and impenetrable, which was horseshit.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 77: ‘Don’t give me that horseshit, you clown,’ retorted the surfie.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 127: I never intended doing any topless shots [...] That was all horseshit.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 93: She was a wildcat in bed, which made all of the horseshit about the opera and the ballet worth sitting for.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 159: It all means somethin’ when you ain’t got horseburger to say.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 214: But the thing is, Ben, that’s horseshite.
2002		J. Franzen Corrections 52: This was just the kind of girl-as-object horseshit [...] that sold magazines.
2004		Simon & Pelecanos ‘Amsterdam’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 4 [TV script] I never thought I’d hear that chain of command horseshit coming out of your mouth.
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 48: It’s [i.e. drug rehabilitation] all a bunch of horseshit.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 10: Pretty much horseshit, but it sold books.
2016		in Guardian 30 June 🌐 The problem with horse shit and especially bullshit is that when someone (else) has cleared it up it returns usually bigger and smellier than before.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Katherine claimed that I raped her and young Mandalay was the result. It’s horseshit, all of it.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 179: The police said that arrests in the robbery were imminent but Beauregard thought that was some high-grade horseshit.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 11: She told the Bishop that the Bible was all horse shit.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 51: ‘Multiculturalism [...] What horseshit’.

3. (US) a damn n. e.g. that isn’t worth horseshit.

1947

C. Willingham End as a Man 43: Do you think I give a horse-shit?