English edit

Etymology edit

can +‎ house

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈkanhaʊs/
  • (file)

Noun edit

canhouse (plural canhouses)

  1. (slang, US, chiefly Chicago) A brothel.
    • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 22:
      The Roamer Inn was like a model of all the canhouses I ever saw around Chicago, the granddaddy of them all.