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.
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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:
The first cub died at 2 weeks after it became lethargic, stopped nursing and was removed from Ruby’s care into a temperature-controlled incubator to receive intervention from veterinary teams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
And never get between a parent and her cub.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 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 spokesperson told the BBC the cub "died of natural causes" but the remaining three are "doing exceptionally well and growing in confidence and character every day".
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
Sensing that he might be storing up trouble for himself, he tossed half the carcass to 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
Some dredges have a capacity under favourable conditions of over 2000 cub. yds. of gravel daily.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various
The average outflow by the three mouths combined is 236,432 cub. ft. per second.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 "Dagupan" to "David" by Various
Just to quietly do what he did the previous season as a Chicago Cub, when he slashed .266/.377/.464 with 22 home runs, 73 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in 136 games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
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
"Maybe I wouldn't have liked being a Cub Scout."
From "Holes" by Louis Sachar
That pair and their two youngest cubs returned in 2024 to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where their five older offspring also live.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 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
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
In 1973, two teenagers, Mark Seeley and Michael Whitten, were out for a hike in Yellowstone when they inadvertently crossed between a female black bear and her cubs.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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
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
On Thursday, Tian Tian dragged more logs into the cubbing box.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2015
During the cubbing season there had arisen quarrels.
From Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
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.
