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.
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.
the young of certain animals, such as the lion, bear, etc
a young or inexperienced person
First recorded in 1520–30; perhaps from Scandinavian; compare Old Norse kobbi “young seal,” kubbr “stump,” hence, “short, thick-set person”
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.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Inside the enclosure built to welcome his parents, the 170-day-old cub, whose name means "brave and noble warrior", was playing with a panda stuffed toy and a bamboo teether.
From Barron's • May 15, 2026
Zookeepers intend to introduce him soon to a new sibling — Clover, a female mountain lion cub rescued from El Dorado County earlier in March.
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
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.
