English

Noun

thunderbox ‎(plural thunderboxes)

1. (historical) A close-stool, a stool enclosing a chamber pot.
2. (Britain, Australia, slang) An outhouse or latrine: a rudimentary outdoor toilet.
   • 1974 June 13, Donald Gould, "A Groundling′s Notebook: Ice Waterloo" in the New Scientist, page 708:

     Meantime the ICE experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.

   • 1979, The Bulletin, Vol. 100, page 35:

     In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts′ guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.

   • 2004, Jayne Seagrave, Camping With Kids, page 20:

     The first are the pit toilets — “thunderboxes” — boxes painted white inside, centrally located in various sections of the campground. The second type of toilet looks like a thunderbox but houses an odour-free flushing toilet.

   • 2005, Benedict le Vay, Eccentric Britain, 2nd, page 57:

     He boobytrapped the ‘thunderbox’ and the next guardsman who sat down was met by a deafening blast. The guardsman and plastic loo seat were hurled one way, the loo paper another, but there were no injuries.

   • 2007, Shelley Birse, Blue Water High, page 230:

     And finally he pointed to an old thunderbox and shovel. ‘Our toilet block.’
     Everyone except Fly stared at that old thunderbox like it was from Mars.

Synonyms

• (close-stool): commode; see also Wikisaurus:chamber pot
• (outhouse): See Wikisaurus:toilet and Wikisaurus:bathroom