Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

have never heard it in anything like that context it simply is an incorrect usage tbh

Sometimes the guys would start by explaining "this doesn't sound like a compliment but it is".

that should tip them off that what they're about to say is not quite right xp

Gents, the central emphasis is on the term "built", which often stood alone in past times to denote a statuesque figure, as in "this dame was really built". As often happens, this raised the implied question "how built is she?", a sequence of thought often exploited by Johnny Carson in his monologues.

The answer to this question was open to improvisation, but eventually "like a brick shithouse" became popular, not because of it called to mind the figure of a woman, but based upon an appreciation of its playfulness and profanity. One must admit that an outhouse (the politer term for use in mixed company) built of brick would certainly be, as a structural engineer might put it, over-built for its humble purpose. The fact that it directly plays against the idea of beauty or attractiveness is an example of oxymoronic wit.

I hope this exegesis upon the phrase proves helpful in understanding its origins and purpose.

btw, I heard this phrase often spoken when I was a young man in Oregon in the 1960s and 70s.

"this might not sound like a compliment but you, young lady, are the approximate shape and robustness of an outdoor toilet"

lol i can't imagine saying it to anyone's face as a pickup line. locker room talk, yeah

"do you flush here often?"

built like a shit locker room

"you have the deportment of a substandard changing facility"

Noticing truly annoying people who call the outdoor surface generally known as 'the ground', 'the floor'.

i refuse to believe that anyone has ever said the phrase "brick shithouse" irl

believe it! my dad, my dad's friends, etc ... i've even said it once or twice

slang descriptors are v freeing

https://books.google.com.au/books/content?id=v8YuGCn9eIkC&pg=PA102&img=1&pgis=1&dq=shithouse&sig=ACfU3U3SAiPvo0ZQiMfcxEyCjouGx0VXLQ&edge=0

Have outside toilets ever been a thing in Australia (or the US, for that matter)?

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Thursday, February 2, 2017 6:25 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep my toilet sat on the front porch. rippin' grumpies as neighbors drove by wrinkling their nose

Noticing truly annoying people who call the outdoor surface generally known as 'the ground', 'the floor'.

Yeah, what's up with this? It's like a metaphysical error.

I can assure you that outhouses were extremely common in the USA in rural areas even into the 20th century. So were chamber pots.

dad still says things like "flat as a shit-carter's hat" and "ugly as a hatful of arseholes"

our friends still had an outhouse in the mid 80's, it was creepy as fuck

did you fall down the hole

"flat as a shit-carter's hat"

hats are only worn by carters who are shit

it's how you tell

i used to think it was shit cutter & had no idea wtf he was on about

learned from a friend that shit carter = night soil man who took away the poo before sewer systems.
he had a flat hat & balanced the can of poo on his head

the more you know 💫

sorry for derail

Shit Carter = the building in Poo Jack City iirc

he had a flat hat & balanced the can of poo on his head

and i thought i was having a bad month

it's good for identification though, if the shit carters are the ones with shit on their heads

no thats why you have a HAT

made of shit

no that shit is carted PAY ATTENTION

wait who carts it

shit
-----
hat
-----
carter

got it

if google image search is a reliable source:

shit
-----
hat
-----
helena bonham-carter

...

no wonder everyone left ilx

it's brought me back tbh

lol

anyway it's clearly beyonce

HAY MISS SHIT HAT CARTER

puts Lemonade in a new context

anyway it's clearly beyonce

we got different shit hat results

yr busted ass still using alta vista?

yes i used the altavista version of google

I'm fairly certain it isn't Australian, most of the reference works that come up on a Google book search suggest American in origin & that the complimentary meaning, directed at a woman, is most common

which is not at all my experience here in uk - I have only ever heard my granny say a woman was "built like a brick shithoose" and that was meant to signify "would have beaten me in a fight"

Aimless has the right of it: "built like a brick shithouse" simply means "very built." Built, that is, to the same degree that an extremely-built thing is built. What is more built than an extremely sturdy structure? Nothing. None builder. There is none more built. It also carries a message of reliability and substance and strength: She is mighty mighty.

It doesn't mean that she is rectangular or that you use her as a bathroom. Geez.

The song, I always believed, referenced the idiom but left out the "shit" for politeness and radio airplay, allowing the instrumental pause to stand in its place.

Plenty of idiomatic expressions don't make actual sense but they carry meaning in similar metaphorical ways, and are used as intensifiers even when nonsensical. Compare "___ as hell" or "___ as fuck."

Cold as hell and hot as hell make equal sense - not because the speaker knows or cares about the temperature of hell, but because ___ as hell means extremely ____. Lame as fuck, boring as fuck, etc.

But it's still got "shit" in it, and a reference to a place where you shit. Just not a very nice sounding compliment. There must be other well built things that would be preferable.

Unfortunately that's not how idioms work

what the shit is going on here

Built like a brick savings-and-loan building

You remember what it was like, living in one of Mr. Potter's shithouses!

I watched that for the first time in my life two days ago

merry christmas shithouse

the logs, the fire, fill me with desire

can I put in for "not to be that guy, but..."?

That needs to stop