cub
noun
the young of certain animals, as the bear, lion, or tiger.
cub
1 American
[kuhb]
/ kʌb /
noun
-
cubs
plural
-
the young of certain animals, as the bear, lion, or tiger.
-
a young shark.
-
a young and inexperienced person, especially a callow youth or young man.
-
a young person serving as an apprentice.
-
(initial capital letter) any small, light monoplane with a high wing, a single engine, and an enclosed cabin.
verb (used without object)
-
cubs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cubbed,
past participle, past
-
cubbing
present participle
-
to work as a cub reporter.
-
(of a female bear, lion, tiger, etc.) to give birth to a cub or cubs.
-
to hunt fox cubs.
cub.
2
American
abbreviation
cub
1
British
/ kʌb /
noun
-
the young of certain animals, such as the lion, bear, etc
-
a young or inexperienced person
verb
Cub
2
British
/ kʌb /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cubsimple
-
cubssimple
-
have cubbedperfect
-
has cubbedperfect
-
am cubbingprogressive
-
are cubbingprogressive
-
is cubbingprogressive
-
have been cubbingperfect progressive
-
has been cubbingperfect progressive
Past
-
cubbedsimple
-
had cubbedperfect
-
was cubbingprogressive
-
were cubbingprogressive
-
had been cubbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cub
First recorded in 1520–30; perhaps from Scandinavian; compare Old Norse kobbi “young seal,” kubbr “stump,” hence, “short, thick-set person”
Explanation
A cub is a baby animal. A mother fox sometimes carries her cub by the scruff of its neck. Use the word cub when you talk about one of a number of meat-eating mammal babies, including bears, foxes, lions, and tigers. While a tiny bear cub looks as adorable and helpless as a stuffed animal, its mother is ferocious and protective of her cubs. In the old days, people also called a young, immature boy a cub — today, a human cub is more likely to be a junior Boy Scout — a Cub Scout.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A contractor in Steamboat Springs, Colo., opened his truck door in June to find a bear cub devouring his lunch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
But cold-calling the president of the United States — on his personal cellphone — made me feel like a cub reporter all over again.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
The cub, whose coat is still peppered with reddish fur, is very active and still nursing, he said.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
Biologists observed a change in the mother’s movements, which signaled her cub may have been abandoned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
Then it sat down heavily in the mud, and clutched the cub to its chest.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
“The first time, it was one cub. Within the week, all four were here,” said Carlson, 72 years old.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025
“That new fellow on our island—Gupta—he offered a reward for the cub. I’m sure he intended to sell the creature on the black market.”
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
“You didn’t check your surroundings for polar bears. You got between a momma bear and her cub. You turned your back on a polar bear and tried to outrun it.”
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
There is, of course, a further loss by radiation and minor sources, and the result is that 1 kilogram of carbon yields only about 1.2 cub. met. of water gas.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various
The capacity for gas is 12 million cub. ft.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
“Our garage is the holding container for the Cub Scouts’ popcorn,” adds the den leader.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
In our kids’ local Cub Scout troop during Veterans Day week, parents who served in the military were invited to talk to the scouts about what they did while in uniform.
From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2024
The first iteration of Cub Your Enthusiasm concluded in 2011, but the series resumed six years later.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2024
He grew up in Cordova, Alaska, worked as a police dispatcher, and volunteered as a Cub Scouts leader, friends say.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
During World War II, Powers's dad paid $2.50 for Francis, then fourteen, to take his first airplane ride, in a single-engine Piper Cub; after landing, Francis told him, "Dad, I left my heart up there."
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
But the first weeks of a red panda’s life are fragile, with a mortality rate of roughly 40% for cubs under 1 year of age.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Coming so soon after the loss of her newborn cubs, this is a devastating blow to our entire Zoo family,” the Facebook post read.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Yet the old lions refuse to surrender to the cubs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Amy Waller, team manager of the safari at Longleat, said keepers were giving Yana extra food to ensure she has enough energy to provide for the "chunky little cubs".
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
They talked of nothing else and made special beer for the brave hunter to drink while he told them of how he had found the cubs in the darkest part of the darkest forest.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
Stauffer cubbed on the Emporia Gazette, became a reporter and copyreader on the Kansas City Star, where he worked five years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Later, he cubbed on a provincial paper, did his brief stint on the Times and went up to Manchester to become a reporter on the Evening News.
From Time Magazine Archive
He set type and cubbed in the summers on nearby weeklies.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had cubbed for his new job on the Star by pinch-hitting for ailing Wolcott Gibbs in the New Yorker last season.
From Time Magazine Archive
Upon my inquiry of Big Bill respecting his operations on the previous day, he replied that he "guessed he had been occupied in running away from the biggest grizzly bear that ever was cubbed."
From Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1 by Sir Samuel White Baker
“Because we don’t have sight inside her cubbing box we can’t be sure if Victoria has had more than one cub but we can confirm the birth,” she added.
From Reuters ● Jan. 3, 2018
Last Tuesday afternoon, Maclean noticed damp patches appearing on Tian Tian’s cubbing box.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2015
She began to spend more time in and around her cubbing box, a basket that her keepers had placed in her den and modified this year to include a heating element.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2015
On Thursday, Tian Tian dragged more logs into the cubbing box.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2015
This was not cubbing, and no one knew it better than Nora; but the sight of Carnage among the prophets—Carnage, whose noblest quarry hitherto had been the Mount Purcell turkey-cock—overthrew her scruples.
From All on the Irish Shore Irish Sketches by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
