[quietbritishjim]

> brick shithouse... just means "good build"

No, it means an exceptionally muscular build, which the subject of that photo doesn't have.

Anyway, the comment you're replying to clearly means "a build that leaves the gender ambiguous", not that the dimensions are ambiguous! You don't seem to really be disagreeing with that.

[zimpenfish]

> No, it means an exceptionally muscular build

Maybe in some places but north-west UK just means "kinda robust/big/thick" (e.g. could be a bouncer or wrestler) - there's no requirement for "exceptionally muscular". Akin of what kids these days use "absolute unit" for.

(quibbles aside, I agree with you - GP is wrong, not even slightly a "brick shithouse" by any of the definitions)

[fsckboy]

the Commodores' Brick House (with Lionel Ritchie) was a smash hit song and not at all about a muscular woman https://youtu.be/KzOJaHHlIcQ?t=20

it does not only mean exceptionally muscular (nor only mean what it means in some farflung gotham of Britain)

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/built_like_a_brick_shithouse#...

in the picture she also is muscular, not like a body builder, but like a fit person showing definition (everybody working out or doing yoga was not "a thing" when that picture was taken)

[cafard]

> it means an exceptionally muscular build

In what dialect of English?

[quietbritishjim]

This is south London.

But also, it's just obvious from the words in the phrase. I assume that outside toilets were often just wooden shacks, so a brick one is notable for its robustness. Is that comparible with a beefy labourer's physique? Sure. Is comparible to a curvy, classically feminine body shape? That doesn't make sense.

As the sibling comment to this one says, it doesn't even just apply to people (in fact I'd say it primarily doesn't).

[defrost]

Well built usually, built better than expected, overbuilt, solid.

Jeffersonian, 'Straylin, British.

Here's Thomas Jefferson's Brick Shithouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Poplar_Forest6.jpg