backhouse

American

[bak-hous] / ˈbækˌhaʊs /

noun

plural

backhouses

a building behind the main building, often serving a subsidiary purpose.
a privy; outhouse.

backhouse British

/ ˈbækˌhaʊs /

noun

another word for outhouse

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of backhouse

First recorded in 1550–60; back ¹ + house

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“You could rent them from the city very cheaply. Me and two other students, $20 apiece, we had a house and a little backhouse, which I used as my studio.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

Right after graduating high school, he was living in his parents’ backhouse and courting one of his classmates.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025

They could build a home office, they figured — or a home gym or a rentable backhouse.

From New York Times • Nov. 12, 2021

But then, he is an old backhouse, knothole painter.

From Time Magazine Archive

Woldest thou not driue them in to the contrey, & put the one to the backhouse, the other to the plowe.

From The Education of Children by Sherry, Richard

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023