▪ I. outhouse
(ˈaʊthaʊs)
[out- 1.]
a. A house or building, belonging to and adjoining a dwelling-house, and used for some subsidiary purpose; e.g. a stable, barn, wash-house, toolhouse, or the like.
| 1533 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 39 The outhouse in the entreside. 1567 Harman Caveat 39 Away from my house, either lye in some of my out houses vntyll the morning. 1648 Bury Wills (Camden) 212 All my houshold stuffe..and vtensills belonginge to my milhouse, stables, barnes, and all the outhouses. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 61 Our noblest Piles, and stateliest Rooms Are but Out-houses to our Tombs. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 143 Some obscure hole in a farmer's out-house. 1828 Bayley in Barnewall & Cresswell Rep. VIII. 465 [The building] was not an outhouse, because it was not parcel of a dwelling-house. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 208 The Presbyterians were interdicted from worshipping God anywhere but in private dwellings:..they were not even to use a barn or an outhouse for religious exercises. |
b. A privy. Chiefly U.S.
| 1819 W. Sewall Diary 14 June (1930) 53/1 Near the paddles or wheels which propel the vessel forward are two outhouses, which is a very great convenience. 1832 W. Irving Jrnl. Nov. (1919) III. 185 Old Spanish wooden building, with piazza—out houses—French buildings, with casement. 1912 Dialect Notes III. 584 Out-house,..a privy. 1921 H. Kephart Camping & Woodcraft (1928) i. xii. 210 If the well is near a stable or outhouse, or if dish⁓water is thrown near it, let it alone. 1968 C. Helmericks Down Wild River North i. xviii. 286 They still clung steadfastly to the old outhouse. 1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 26 July 16/7 (Advt.), Executive hideaway, L.I. Rustic appointments throughout..attractive 2 seater outhouse. |
c. At a school, a house (see house n.1 4 c) separate from, or subsidiary to, the main or central house.
| 1900 Farmer Public School Word-Bk. 144 Out-houses (Charterhouse),—all the boarding houses except Sanderites, Verites, and Gownboys. The names of the eight out⁓houses are Girdlestonites, Lockites, [etc.]. 1933 L. A. G. Strong Sea Wall 187 A tall, genial boy named Adams, belonging to another of the out-houses. |
▪ II. outhouse, v.
(ˈaʊthaʊz)
[f. out- + house v.; cf. outhouse n.]
trans. To store (books, etc.) in a building or area away from the main collection.
| 1966 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Mar. 182/3 We are assured..by the Museum that care has been taken..to outhouse only books which are thought to be less frequently consulted. 1974 Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 10/6 Because of the ‘crippling’ shortage of space, more than one million books had had to be ‘outhoused’ at Woolwich Arsenal. 1979 Ibid. 27 July 16 Books which could not be stored there should be outhoused in some unspecified place or in a warehouse at Somerstown. 1987 Financial Times 24 Oct. (Weekend Suppl.) p. xvii/6 There is talk of outhousing some of the collection. |
Hence ˈouthousing vbl. n., the action or process of outhousing books, etc.; (provision for) accommodation or storage away from the main site; also transf.
| 1967 Brit. Mus. Rep. Trustees 1966 ii. 53 Further outhousing on a large scale will be necessary before the proposed new library building is completed. 1968 F. J. Hill in P. H. Sewell Five Years' Work in Librarianship 1961–1965 i. 19 At the Austrian National Library..storage problems are acute, and co-operative outhousing is considered likely to be the only solution. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. 920/3 Out-housing is an established practice in university libraries, where it is not impossible to distinguish certain categories of books which will receive considerably less use than others. 1988 Daily Tel. 7 June 18/3 The pressure for new homes comes from the out-housing of long-lived pensioners, fissiparous marriages and youngsters leaping prematurely from the parental nest. |