Thunderbox
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode. slang
"True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks."
- 2 A blunderbuss; also, a cannon. obsolete
"In the year 1346, at the battle of Crecy, the engliſh uſed a ſort of cannons, which were then called thunder-boxes."
- 3 Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an outhouse. Australia, British, broadly, slang
"Meantime the ICE [Institute of Consumer Ergonomics] 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."
- 4 A box of metal balls which is shaken to create a thunder sound effect.
"[T]wo articles, both indispensibly necessary to a theatre, are not blundered, viz. a property room, and thunder box!—no they are omitted altogether!!"
Example
More examples"True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks."
Etymology
From thunder + box. Senses 1 and 2 (“portable commode; any lavatory or toilet”) are probably because of the noises that may be made while defecating.
Probably a calque of German Donnerbüchse (“(archaic) blunderbuss; cannon”) (from Donner (“thunder”) + Büchse (“box; can; rifle”)), or its etymon Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”) (from donder (“thunder”) + bus (“box; container; (chiefly historical) type of early modern firearm”)).
Related phrases
More for "thunderbox"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.