outhouses

Meanings

1. 1nounpluralAmerican

   Small separate buildings outside a home, used as simple toilets without running water.

   Grammar: Plural of outhouse; the singular takes an or the: an outhouse.

   The campground still had two wooden outhouses behind the cabins.

   Before indoor plumbing, most farms had outhouses a short walk from the kitchen door.

   We cleaned the outhouses each spring.

2. 2nounpluralBritish

   Small buildings attached to or near a main house or farm, used for storage or animals.

   Grammar: Plural of outhouse; common in British and Irish English.

   The old farm had several outhouses where tools and hay were kept.

   They converted the stone outhouses into guest rooms.

Word forms

Common combinations

wooden outhouses

The park's wooden outhouses smelled of pine and damp.

build outhouses

The settlers built outhouses downwind of the well.

stone outhouses

Stone outhouses surrounded the farmyard.

convert outhouses

They plan to convert the outhouses into studios.

use the outhouses

Visitors must use the outhouses by the trailhead.

Synonyms and how they differ

privies

Privies is older and more formal than outhouses and is used mostly in historical writing.

latrines

Latrines suggests communal toilets, often in military camps, rather than small private sheds.

outbuildings

Outbuildings is a broader term for any separate building on a property, not specifically toilets.

sheds

Sheds are simple storage buildings, which matches the British sense but never the toilet sense.

Word family

outhouse noun

singular form

outbuilding noun

any separate building on a property

house noun

the base word, a home

Commonly confused: outhouses or outbuildings?

Practice

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