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house of easement. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
house of easement, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
house of easement in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From easement in its former euphemistic use to reference the easing of one's bowels.
Noun
house of easement (plural houses of easement)
- (euphemistic, obsolete) An outbuilding in which to do one's easement (defecate): an outhouse.
2011, Lucy Worsley, “The Whole World is a Toilet”, in If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 153:[T]he lowest servants at Hampton Court used the great communal toilet capable of seating fourteen people at once named the ‘Common Jakes’ or the ‘Great House of Easement’. This giant facility discharged into a tank which was washed clean by the waters of the moat. Even so, the tank emitted a dreadful smell and frequently had to be scrubbed clean.
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References
- ^ "easement, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary (1891), Oxford: Oxford University Press.