Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the anus.

1629		Liber Lilliati n.p.: Six shitten shotes did I shoote in thy mowth that I shot from my shithole.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1927		(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 263: Home, boys, home, it’s home we ought to be [...] Oh, we’ll hist Old Glory to the top of a pole, / And we’ll all re-up—in a pig’s --- ---!
1987		‘Victoria Parker’ Pay for Play Cheerleaders 🌐 He spiked his tongue into her asshole. ‘Oh, fuck!’ Chrissie yelped. ‘Ooooh, shit! He’s on my shithole!’.

2. a disgusting place, an absolutely worthless place, esp. of a bar or venue [intensifier of hole n.¹ (2)].

1930		A.M. Frey Cross Bearers 249: But that will soon be over, he hopes; over as soon as he can get out of this ‘shit-hole’—the soldiers' term which the officers adopt.
1930		(con. 1918) J. Hanley German Prisoner 27: ‘Where the funkin’ hell are you, O’Garra?’ [...] ‘In a bloody mad-house. In a shit-hole’.
1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 200: How come they rate, and we have to live in this shithole?
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 193: Shit hole A messy room.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 66: I have never been in Mississippi and would not put my foot in that shithole.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 182: I wouldn’t even have looked at her outside of a shithole like this.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 66: I shan’t bring anyone back to this shithole.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 120: The place ain’t nothin’ but a shithole.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] This is about Yarrbank, right? What’s the shithole going to be called now?
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] I’m getting out of this shit-hole for the night.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 181: He now had only one way to describe his mother’s flat and it was a fairly simple one. It was a shithole.
1997		T. Fontana ‘God's Chillin’ Oz ser. 1 ep. 3 [TV script] How fucked up is that? In a shithole like this, to first and finally see the face of God?
1998		P. Bailey Kitty and Virgil (1999) 146: You are from that shit-hole Romania?
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 165: I booked into a shithole [...] the foyer smelt of piss.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 7: Three years of playing in shitholes in front of twelve, twenty, fifty people.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 27: That’s something, makes up for living in this shithole.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 26: Be a good boy and just piss off back tae yer Shankhill shitehole.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 123: I foresee ten thousand junkies turning Vegas into a shithole.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 33: Mexico or some other shithole of a place.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 41: I found him in a shithole off the Bowery.
2009		P. Temple Truth 325: You don’t get called out to some fucking shithole where a mental defective’s been burnt to death for fun.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 293: It’s a shit hole, always junkies and shit up there.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 257: The many decent citizens whose lot it is to live and work in this unspeakable shithole.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] It’s my team that keeps the lid on this shithole, keeps it from exploding.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] Martin can’t bear it [...] What a shithole.
2019		Twitter 29 Jan. 🌐 Can someone please get me the fuck off this nasty, racist, cold, rainy, stupid, racist, inhumaney, jingoistic, xenophobic, backward-looking, self-fucking, yellow-vesty, civil-unresty, expert-hatey, gammon-facey, road-congested, cunt-infested, dreary little shithole of an island?
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 75: His great-grandparents came from some Polish shithole.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 36: ‘Nice place,’ he said. ‘It’s a shithole’.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 141: [of a house] ‘What a shithole’.

3. a general term of hostility; a term of abuse.

1979

B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 186: She loves ’at shithole with the white suit – shitholes like that, ’ats who she loves.

4. a lavatory.

1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 387: I hear Mike and Joey fell in a shit hole last night!
1989		(con. 1960s) M. Kingston Tripmaster Monkey 234: It was also their shit-and pisshole. The closet was always clean.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 58: Goddamned rats had come up through the shithole.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 63: Girl was probably [...] swallowing sword ten times a day just for the right to squat in that shit hole.