tub

American  

[tuhb] / tʌb /

noun

• tubs
  plural

1. a bathtub.

2. a broad, round, open, wooden container, usually made of staves held together by hoops and fitted around a flat bottom.

3. any of various containers resembling or suggesting a tub.

   a tub for washing clothes.

4. the amount a tub will hold.

5. Informal. a short and fat person.

6. Nautical. an old, slow, or clumsy vessel.

7. British Informal. a bath in a bathtub.

8. Mining. an ore car; tram.

9. Military Slang. a two-seat aircraft, especially a trainer.

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verb (used with object)

tubbed, tubbing

1. to place or keep in a tub.

2. British Informal. to bathe in a bathtub.

verb (used without object)

tubbed, tubbing

1. British Informal. to bathe oneself in a bathtub.

2. Informal. to undergo washing, especially without damage, as a fabric.

   This cotton print tubs well.

tub British  

/ tʌb /

noun

1. 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

2. a small plastic or cardboard container of similar shape for ice cream, margarine, etc

3. Also called: bathtub. another word (esp US and Canadian) for bath 1

4. Also called: tubful. the amount a tub will hold

5. a clumsy slow boat or ship

6. informal (in rowing) a heavy wide boat used for training novice oarsmen

7. Also called: tram, hutch.

   1. a small vehicle on rails for carrying loads in a mine

   2. a container for lifting coal or ore up a mine shaft; skip

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verb

1. informal to wash (oneself or another) in a tub

2. (tr) to keep or put in a tub

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tubber
  noun
• undertub
  noun
• tubbable
  adjective
• tublike
  adjective
• untubbed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tubs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of tub

1350–1400; Middle English tubbe (noun) < Middle Dutch tobbe; cognate with Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe

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Explanation

A tub is a wide, open container. You might have a tub of butter in your fridge, but if your mom tells you to hop in the tub, stay out of the kitchen. She means it's time for a bath. Tub is an informal word for bathtub, the fixture in your bathroom that can be filled with water and bathed in. Other tubs are containers used to hold liquid or other materials — think of a tub of margarine or a tub of ice cream. In the 17th century, tub was slang for "pulpit" or "lectern," and a tub thumper was an overly enthusiastic orator or preacher.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tub tubs tubbed tubbing

“A walk to the Grove, a movie over a shared tub of popcorn, and a stop at the Kibitz Room on the way home.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Alan Dorfman held an Etch A Sketch over a laundry tub, picked up a hacksaw and sawed the device in half, spilling silver powder everywhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

The primary bathroom boasts a marble soaking tub, following the home’s elegant aesthetic.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

But at £32.99 for a 420g tub, she's feeling the high price and tries to make the product stretch.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Karl grimaced as I poured warm water over his feet into the tub.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

And if you’re sending people home with leftovers, keep deli tubs or cute jars ready to fill.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

Pedestrians in plastic rain ponchos trudged through murky floodwaters in Bangkok's east -- knee-deep in some areas of a grocery store parking lot -- floating their belongings in plastic tubs alongside them, AFP journalists saw.

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

The couple said they were currently in desperate need of baby formula and often had only a handful of tubs left in stock.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

There are hot tubs and cold tubs and a players-only sauna, while every locker is outfitted with a leather zero gravity chair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

Water carriers, just outside, their barrows laden with great tubs of water, passed to and fro all day, the water splashing out of the tubs upon the stones.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

Then I turned the corner: Freezers lined with beautiful tubbed sauces and pastas.

From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026

They generally admired Romney's pink-cheeked Willett Children for seeming recently tubbed and scrubbed yet true-to-life.

From Time Magazine Archive

After a fortnight's tubbing in pair-oars, the better candidates are tubbed daily in fours, and the autumn races are on the horizon.

From An American at Oxford by John Corbin

Then he tubbed and dressed, and had a comfortable breakfast all by himself; for he was too experienced a traveller by this to let melancholy partings spoil his appetite.

From For Fortune and Glory A Story of the Soudan War by Walter Paget

Have your prospective souvenir tree already tubbed and waiting.

From The Amateur Garden by George Washington Cable

He then takes her to a winter wonderland for some light luging and hot tubbing.

From Time ● Jan. 14, 2014

The linen wears well, washes beautifully, and acquires a finer sheen with every tubbing.

From The Myrtle Reed Cook Book by Myrtle Reed

Gingold was tubbing yesterday and Fitzroy was coaching.

From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by Compton MacKenzie

This tubbing was perfectly tight, all the surfaces of the joints having been made even and provided with strips of lead one-tenth of an inch thick.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 508, September 26, 1885 by Various

After two yards of soil had been removed from beneath the edge of the tubbing, the earth began to give way.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 508, September 26, 1885 by Various

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