outhouse

• out-house (archaic)

From Middle English outhous, equivalent to out- +‎ house. Compare Old Norse úthús (“outhouse”).

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈaʊthaʊs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: out‧house

outhouse (plural outhouses)

1. (Canada, US) An outbuilding, typically permanent, containing a toilet or seat over a cesspit.
2. (dated) Any outbuilding: any small structure located apart from a main building.
   • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 161:

     I had first to obtain a recommendation from the Assistant Resident to the Regent, and then an order from the Regent to the Waidono; and when after a week's delay I arrived with my baggage and men at Modjo-agong, I found them all in the midst of a five days' feast, to celebrate the circumcision of the Waidono's younger brother and cousin, and had a small room in an outhouse given me to stay in.

   • 1902, E. Nesbit, Five Children and It:

     The children had explored the gardens and the outhouses thoroughly before they were caught and cleaned for tea, and they saw quite well that they were certain to be happy at the White House.

   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine‎^[1]:

     There was a considerable outhouse, which he unlocked and we entered.

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     […] plenty of sand and cement had been found in one of the outhouses

   • 2005, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

     Dumbledore pointed toward a run-down stone outhouse where the Weasleys kept their broomsticks.

• (outer building used for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:outhouse
• (any small outer building): See outbuilding

• house

outhouse (third-person singular simple present outhouses, present participle outhousing, simple past and past participle outhoused)

1. (transitive) To house in a separate building.
   • 1969, Great Britain. National Libraries Committee, Frederick Sydney Dainton, Report of the National Libraries Committee (page 85)

     In our discussion of outhousing we have tried to take into account the inconvenience to users as well as the potential savings in costs.

   • 1975, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional Papers, volume 28, page 38:

     The Information Department is outhoused but there are operational reasons for this and it would, in any case, be physically impossible to house the staff of the Department in the main building.