bughouse

English

Etymology

bug +‎ house

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌɡhaʊs/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

bughouse (plural bughouses)

1. (US, slang) A flea-infested hotel, lodging-house etc.
2. (US, slang) A prison.
3. (US, slang) A hospital, especially a lunatic asylum.
   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 277:

     Well, he was ready for the bughouse, certainly.

4. (South Africa, slang) A cheap and dirty cinema.

Derived terms

• bughouse chess

Adjective

bughouse (comparative more bughouse, superlative most bughouse)

1. (US, slang) Crazy, insane.
   • 1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 177, columns 1–2:

     “Get up and dress. I can stand a rattlesnake, but I hate a liar. Do I have to tell you again?” He caught McGuire by the neck and stood him on the floor. / “Say, friend,” cried McGuire wildly, “are you bughouse? I’m sick—see? I’ll croak if I got to hustle. What’ve I done to yer?”—he began his chronic whine—“I never asked yer to⸺”

   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 254:

     'Just what's up on this train? It seems bughouse to me.'

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 1127:

     Ewball, man, that is some bughouse talk.