dubbin
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of dubbin
1815–25; variant of gerund of dub 1 ( def. ) (in the sense “rubbing or smoothing leather or wood”)
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.
We don't polish steel, but there is a wonderful lot of hard work in rubbing dubbin into all the leather.
From In the Ranks of the C.I.V. by Erskine Childers
I've seen that dubbin boiling on the beach; there's tallow in it, and tar and resin as well.
From Wanderers by W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander) Worster
My apartment was therefore clean and tidy, and by the aid of a bit of dubbin I managed to give an air of newness to my well-worn shoes.
From Flowers of Freethought (First Series) by G. W. (George William) Foote
A constant dread to Tommy when he has forgotten to polish his buttons or dubbin his boots.
From Over the Top by Arthur Guy Empey
At eleven there was harness-cleaning, and I was sadly regarding a small remnant of dubbin and my dusty girths and leathers, when the order came for "boot and saddle," and that little job was off.
From In the Ranks of the C.I.V. by Erskine Childers
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.
