water closet
Americannoun
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an enclosed room or compartment containing a toilet bowl fitted with a mechanism for flushing.
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Older Use. a privy or bathroom. WC, w.c.
noun
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a lavatory flushed by water
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a small room that has a lavatory
Etymology
Origin of water closet
First recorded in 1745–55
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.
Paar left his program after NBC censors cut a water closet joke from his monologue, which became one of the biggest TV industry controversies of that era.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
Squish Factor: The bathroom has a European-style water closet, but it’s a bit larger than many others I’ve seen.
From Salon • Feb. 22, 2025
Here are treasures from the Roman latrine to the Tudor garderobe to the Victorian water closet to the elegant “compactum.”
From New York Times • Nov. 23, 2024
The room, with a separate water closet, overlooks a wooded creek, part of the home’s 1.4-acre lot, and “it’s really thrilling,” she says, to have a bath or a shower surrounded by greenery.
From Washington Post • Aug. 31, 2021
Here’s a little water closet, the toilet full of urine.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
