Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also shiter) the anus.

1927		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 93: The first time I hit her / I nearly broke her shitter.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1987		‘Victoria Parker’ Pay for Play Cheerleaders 🌐 His finger fucked slowly, darting in and out of the tight-sucking hole of her shitter.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: shiter (shy-tuh) n. Arse; kak cannon. That which shites.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 160: How do you take it? [...] In the shitter.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 67: Hit ’er in the shitter.
1999		J. Poller Reach 38: Have yi slimed yit, mate? If not, whack it up mi shitter.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 92: Ee weyted fer er ter nod off an en tirned er over an stuck it upper arse’ole, gevy it to er in-a shitter like.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 98: I’ll do ya up the shitter [...] You love it up the dirtbox, you posh slags!
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 102: You, Action Man and King Billy aw took it up the shiter!
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 331: ‘Real men don’t take it up the shitter’.

2. used fig.: a disgusting place or situation.

1961		L. McMurtry Horseman, Pass By (1997) 127: He ain’t such a bad feller [...] Just got a shitter of a job.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 239: Raquel put us both in the shitter, man [...] They hung him out to dry and he puked us both up.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 37: How’s the food? Right in the shitter, huh? Let me order you some Chinese.
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 379: Wilson the cherrytrooper could not know just how deep in the shitter they all were.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 96: Narcotics is a tough sell. Nobody wants to put Vegas in the shitter.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 45: All that construction still going on in Vegas [...] You’d never know the economy is in the shitter.
2014		T.M. Simmler ‘Suicide Chump’ in ThugLit July [ebook] [T]he first pub I could find—a derelict shitter with a beer pump and bottles of cheap schnapps covered in dust.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 27: [20th century] Fox in the shitter.

3. (US prison) a punishment cell.

1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 174: He got caught taking that punk down one day. It cost him his job, his good time; they put him in the shitter.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 213: shitter, n. – solitary confinement.
2003		J. Ellroy ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 63: He spent two days in the shitter. He agreed to a poly.

4. (US) a lavatory, a commode; a cloakroom (see cite 2012); also attrib.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 24: I take him to the shitter at the Mae-and-Ida rooms, and tell him the girls get twenny.
1968		in J.P. Spradley You Owe Yourself a Drunk (1988) 36: Have a gent light a cigarette and then flush butt down shitter when you’re dying for a smoke.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 168: The blokes say Calcutta’s got more whore-houses than shitters.
1971		F. Hilaire Thanatos 289: I had a big shitter brush.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 234: He might wanna degrade himself with the stuff he does in a public shitter.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 17: This year, though, they had the Johnny-on-the-spots. Chemical shitters.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 166: He waked up in the middle of the night talking to little green men dancing on the shitter – on the commode, we call them a shitter here.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 221: The shitter is a lot farther away at night with me half-drunk.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 211: The trouble with a cell [...] is you never know if you shittin in the bedroom or sleepin in the shitter.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 110: They’ve locked themselves in the shitter.
1999		L. Gould Shagadelically Speaking 122: shitter, Toilet.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 389: Four walls/two fart sacks/ two nightstands/two lockers/one shitter/one sink.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 46: Her mate in the suit is back from the shitter.
2008		G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 229: The steel shitter and pisshole.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Doyle blazed a path to the shitter. said it was the chili he ate earlier.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 187: Condemned for his sins to sit in the corner of a shitter and hand out towels to rich men.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 Sensei, I’m goin’ to the shitter!
2019		N. Walker Cherry 159: When I’d jerk off in the porta-shitters, I didn’t think of other girls.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 245: ‘What happened to our constitutional right of privacy?’ ‘Down the shitter’.

5. one who defecates in a public place.

1968		G. Legman Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 72: The hero of the preceding joke has entered American naval folk-lore as ‘The Phantom Asshole’ or ‘Phantom Shitter’.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 280: We [...] prowl the alleys till we find three old smelly shitters.
1978		(con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 34: There really is a Shitter on board this tub. Guy [...] comes back to his berth and there it is, big as life, a pile of hot shit.
1982		O. Marshall ‘The Master of Big Jingles’ in Ace of Diamonds Gang (1993) 13: ‘Rabbits are good shitters,’ said Arty. ‘I don’t see how anything could beat horses and elephants,’ said Ken.

6. (UK Und.) a thief who likes to defecate inside the places he robs.

1970		J. Wambaugh New Centurions 144: ‘His calling card is a pile of shit, his shit, which he dumps in some conspicuous place. [...] Anyway, he‘s a shitter’.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 3: I assume you’re not a shitter.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 72: Obviously theres more than an army of them who is inside on account of waste matters deposited at the scene. Which is to say don’t work with a shitter. Me I never took no bogroll on a job.

7. (US gay) in coprophiliac sex, one who defecates on their partner.

1979

Maledicta III:2 231: He also may or may not know the following words and expressions: [...] brownie (based on Scouting and the -ee in shitter/shittee, fucker/fuckee, in the gay semiotics indicated by various colored handkerchiefs in the right jeans pocket, the left meaning active).

8. (US) a dilapidated or second-rate automobile.

2012

M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] ‘What about that beat-up little shitter?’ I pointed to the Neon.