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)
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cubs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cubbed,
past participle, past
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cubbing
present participle
-
to work as a cub reporter.
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(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:
Abandoned by his mother, mountain lion cub Crimson was rescued earlier this year by wildlife officials and transferred to the Los Angeles Zoo with hopes for his full recovery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
The resulting series is a very grand, real-life chronicle of a lion cub named Kio and how he becomes a king.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 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
A Sumatran tiger cub which was part of a litter of four has died, a Kent animal park says.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
The bear lashed out, gouging the earth a hand’s breadth from where the cub had been.
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
They were quiet, and smooth in running; the gas consumption, however, was excessive, amounting to about 100 cub. ft. per indicated horse-power per hour.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
This engine consumed about 40 cub. ft. of gas per brake horse-power per hour—less than half as much as the Lenoir.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
To end the second inning, Skubal got new Cub Tyrone Taylor to chase a changeup just outside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
“He has no experience leading an organization, no less a Cub Scout pack,” Brunner said.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2024
In 2017, it made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program — renamed Scouts BSA — in 2019.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
The first iteration of Cub Your Enthusiasm concluded in 2011, but the series resumed six years later.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2024
"I was never a Cub Scout," said Stanley.
From "Holes" by Louis Sachar
Last year, zoo officials took in a trio of 3-month-old cubs, Fern, Thistle, and Spruce, after their mom was struck and killed by a car.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Ruby’s two cubs were born on July 2 and were the first red pandas born at the zoo in more than 30 years.
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
The cubs will feed from mum for about six months before she starts weaning them onto meat, Waller said.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
These were too close together to let the cubs squeeze between them.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
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 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
He set type and cubbed in the summers on nearby weeklies.
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
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
Last Tuesday afternoon, Maclean noticed damp patches appearing on Tian Tian’s cubbing box.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2015
It seems like the breaking up of a family party when the cubbing ceases and all the pomp and circumstance of fox-hunting commences.
From The Horsewoman A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. by M. Horace (Matthew Horace) Hayes
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.
