tub
[tuhb]
- a bathtub.
- a broad, round, open, wooden container, usually made of staves held together by hoops and fitted around a flat bottom.
- any of various containers resembling or suggesting a tub: a tub for washing clothes.
- the amount a tub will hold.
- Informal. a short and fat person.
- Nautical. an old, slow, or clumsy vessel.
- British Informal. a bath in a bathtub.
- Mining. an ore car; tram.
- Military Slang. a two-seat aircraft, especially a trainer.
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- to place or keep in a tub.
- British Informal. to bathe in a bathtub.
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- British Informal. to bathe oneself in a bathtub.
- Informal. to undergo washing, especially without damage, as a fabric: This cotton print tubs well.
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Origin of tub
1350–1400; Middle English tubbe (noun) < Middle Dutch tobbe; cognate with Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tub
Contemporary Examples
On one summer lunch hour, Donna Ann Levonuk, 50, lifted a tub of diaper cream priced at $43.98—and then stashed it in her purse.
The tub used in the birth was not approved for medical use and is difficult to disinfect.
My partner got in the “tub” first and I leaned back on her so she could give me the old reacharound.
A heavy trowel is used to retrieve a mass of your chosen kind of ice cream from its tub and put it in the cardboard container.
Until recently, with global demand soaring for oil, gas, and minerals, thumping the tub against imperialism played well at home.
Historical Examples
It should be packed closely into the tub, and pressed down hard.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
Let it ferment for three days in a tub covered with a double blanket.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
The first mound that I encountered belonged to a goblin who was splashing in his tub.
American NotesRudyard Kipling
So they went bobbing about in a tub, and we, with a like paucity of equipment, essayed to follow them.
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
I have taken the champagne for granted, and it's cooling now in a tub somewhere.
One Day's CourtshipRobert Barr
tub
- a low wide open container, typically round, originally one made of wood and used esp for washing: now made of wood, plastic, metal, etc, and used in a variety of domestic and industrial situations
- a small plastic or cardboard container of similar shape for ice cream, margarine, etc
- Also called: bathtub another word (esp US and Canadian) for bath 1 (def. 1)
- Also called: tubful the amount a tub will hold
- a clumsy slow boat or ship
- informal (in rowing) a heavy wide boat used for training novice oarsmen
- Also called: tram, hutch
- a small vehicle on rails for carrying loads in a mine
- a container for lifting coal or ore up a mine shaft; skip
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- British informal to wash (oneself or another) in a tub
- (tr) to keep or put in a tub
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Word Origin
C14: from Middle Dutch tubbe
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tub
n.
"open wooden vessel," late 14c., from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, or Middle Flemish tubbe, of uncertain origin. Related to Old High German zubar "vessel with two handles, wine vessel," German Zuber. Considered to be unrelated to Latin tubus (see tube); one theory connects it to the root of two based on the number of handles. Also 17c. slang for "pulpit;" hence tub-thumper (1660s) "speaker or preacher who thumps the pulpit for emphasis."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper