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:
Crimson is the latest mountain lion cub to be rescued at the Oakland Zoo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
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 tigers include 190kg Kiara, 20-year-old Aschanti, and two-year-old cub Imana.
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
Renn said she’d investigate while Torak waited with the cub.
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
“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
“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
The old English wine gallon of 231 cub. in. capacity is the standard gallon of the United States.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
The out-turn during the same year amounted to 252 million cub. ft. of timber and fuel and 215 million bamboos.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various
Adding to the family-friendly vibe, the St. Rita Cub Scout Pack showed up to sell mistletoe foraged from the nearby trails.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
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
Honda’s motorcycle sales grew in recent months in Brazil and Europe, according to the manufacturer of the Fit small car, Super Cub motorcycle and Asimo robot.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
He had pudgy, boyish features, thin hair that was so blond it was almost white, and he was full of weird, chipper energy, like an overcaffeinated Cub Scout leader.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
“Over many, many years, they started bringing their cubs into the yard, and then they started nursing in front of us,” said Joanne Edney-Coray, who with her husband runs the popular Silver Salmon Creek Lodge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
A 2-year-old red panda named Ruby died at the Santa Barbara Zoo this week, weeks after the deaths of her two newborn cubs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
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
Yet the old lions refuse to surrender to the cubs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
After a few tense moments, she dropped to all fours and, with a final defiant snort, lumbered off to collect her cubs.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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
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
He set type and cubbed in the summers on nearby weeklies.
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
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
On Thursday, Tian Tian dragged more logs into the 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
There had been an unusually large entry of puppies that season, and Sir Thomas's temper, never at its best on a morning of cubbing, was making exhaustive demands on his stock of expletives.
From All on the Irish Shore Irish Sketches by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
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