Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small, enclosed structure having one or two holes in a seat built over a pit and serving as an outdoor toilet.
  • noun An outbuilding, as on a farm.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small house or building separate from the main house; an outbuilding; specifically, in law, under the definition of arson, a building contributory to habitation, separate from the main structure, and so by the common-law rules a parcel of the dwelling-house or not, according as it is within or without the curtilage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small house or building at a little distance from the main house; an outbuilding.
  • noun A small building with one or more seats and a pit underneath, intended for use as a toilet; a privy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An outbuilding, a small structure located away, or not directly accessed from, a main building.
  • noun North America An outdoor toilet, (or often just a seat over a cesspool) in a wooden cubicle, where the term is usually referring to a permanent facility. Where an outdoor toilet is installed on a temporary basis, the term portable toilet is generally used. The slang terms john and johnny house are sometimes used to identify an outdoor toilet; see also privy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • "By word and deed he encouraged a nocturnal strumpet to deposit fecal and other matter in an unsanitary outhouse attached to empty premises." Joyce, Ulysses, 15

    January 1, 2008

  • An outhouse is a unit of area used by nuclear physicists. One outhouse is equal to 1.0 x 10−6 barns. The term was derived by analogy with the barn.

    A barn is a unit of area used by nuclear physicists to quantify the scattering cross-section of very small particles, such as atomic nuclei. One barn is equal to 1.0 x 10-28 m².

    July 28, 2008

  • Sionnach, I know it's almost three years later, but you just made my day!

    June 23, 2011