tub

See also: tüb

English

Etymology

From Middle English tubbe, tobbe, from Middle Dutch tubbe or Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe, further etymology unknown. Considered to be unrelated to tube.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tŭb, IPA^(key): /tʌb/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌb

Noun

tub (plural tubs)

Tub of cottage cheese, lid, and lidding film

1. A flat-bottomed vessel, of width similar to or greater than its height, used for storing or packing things, or for washing things in.

   He bought a tub of lard to roast the potatoes in.

2. The contents or capacity of such a vessel.

   She added a tub of margarine to the stew.

3. A bathtub.
   • 1920, Theodore Sharpe, My Place in the Shade: And Various Verse, page 27:

     Teach me to love my morning tub, / In waters cold to splash and rub; / O, grant my Turkish towel may flood / Its virtues through my soul and blood.

4. (nautical, informal) A slow-moving craft.
   • 2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 24:52 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned‎^[1], archived from the original on 15 October 2022:

     But, with any ships in the Baltic Fleet that were worth sending - and some that probably weren't worth sending anyway - having already been dispatched, this gave him the perfect excuse to start rounding up old, obsolete vessels which had been rejected in the first place as being old tubs and designated by some of the less-kind officers as the "Sink-by-Themselves Squadron".

5. (humorous or derogatory) Any structure shaped like a tub, such as a certain old form of pulpit, a short broad boat, etc.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     All being took up and busied, some in pulpits and some in tubs, in the grand work of preaching and holding forth.

6. A small cask.

   a tub of gin

7. Any of various historically designated quantities of goods to be sold by the tub (butter, oysters, etc).
8. (mining) A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.
9. (obsolete) A sweating in a tub; a tub fast.
   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
     To the tub-fast and the diet

10. (slang) A corpulent or obese person.
    • 2003, Trey Ellis, Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic, page 139:

      Donald tells him to be more realistic. Take those two girls over there, for example. One's a zitface and the other's a tub, so they'd be perfect for them.

Derived terms

• autem cackle tub
• autem quaver tub
• bathtub
• bran tub
• cat in the meal-tub
• harness tub
• hog-tub
• hot tub
• line tub
• powdering tub
• rum tub
• slack tub
• swill-tub
• tubby
• tub chair
• tub-fast
• tub file
• tub-gig
• tub of guts
• tub of lard
• tub-shower
• tub-thump
• tub-thumping
• tub wheel
• twin tub

 

Translations

broad, flat-bottomed vessel

• Arabic:

  Hijazi Arabic: طَشْت m (ṭašt)

• Belarusian: цэбар m (cebar), цабэрак (be) m (caberak)
• Bulgarian: каче n (kače)
• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 桶 (zh) (tǒng), 盆 (zh) (pén)

• Danish: kar n
• Dutch: teil (nl) m
• Esperanto: kuvo
• Faroese: kar (fo) n
• Finnish: saavi (fi)
• French: bassine (fr) f
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: (small, e.g. for icecream) Dose (de); (large, e.g. for washing or flowers) Kübel (de) m, Bottich (de) m
• Greek: κάδος (el) m (kádos)

  Ancient: πλυνός m (plunós)

• Hungarian: kád (hu)
• Icelandic: ker (is) n
• Irish: dabhach m, umar m, leastar m, tobán m
• Italian: tinozza (it) f, vaschetta (it) f, contenitore (it) m
• Japanese: 桶 (ja) (おけ, oke)
• Khmer: ធុងឈើ (tʰuŋ cʰəə)
• Latin: linter f, cupa f, lacus (la) m
• Latvian: kubls (lv) m
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: toube f
• Norwegian: kar (no) n
• Persian: تغار (fa) (tağâr)
• Plautdietsch: Bett (nds) f
• Portuguese: tina (pt) f
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ка́дка (ru) f (kádka), бадья́ (ru) f (badʹjá), уша́т (ru) m (ušát), коры́то (ru) n (korýto)
• Slovak: kaďa
• Spanish: cuba (es) f, tina (es) f
• Swedish: kar (sv) n
• Tocharian B: kaice
• Yiddish: ביט m (bit)

contents or capacity of such a vessel

• Finnish: saavillinen
• Latvian: kubls (lv) m

bathtub — see bathtub

slow-moving craft

• Dutch: schuit (nl) f
• Finnish: amme (fi), ruuhi (fi)
• French: rafiot (fr) m
• Irish: leastar m, pota m
• Italian: bagnarola f
• Russian: посудина (ru) f (posudina)

Verb

tub (third-person singular simple present tubs, present participle tubbing, simple past and past participle tubbed)

1. (transitive) To plant, set, or store in a tub.

   to tub a plant

2. (transitive, intransitive) To bathe in a tub.
   • February 1, 1873, Meredith Townsend and Richard Holt Hutton (editors), "Change of Air and Scene", in The Spectator

     Don't we all "tub" in England?

Further reading

• tub on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BTU, TBU, but, but-

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tubus (“tube, pipe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈtup]
• Rhymes: -up

Noun

tub m (plural tubs)

1. tube

Derived terms

• tub acústic, tub sonor
• tub auditiu
• tub d'assaig
• tub d'escapament
• tub digestiu
• tub electrònic
• tub flexible
• tub fluorescent, tub de neó
• tub luminescent

 

Related terms

• tubular

 

Further reading

• “tub” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “tub” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tub”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “tub” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Green Hmong

Etymology

From Vietnamese tử, from Middle Chinese 子 (t͡sɨ^X, “son, child”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tu˥/

Noun

tub

1. son
2. child
3. (slang) kid

Juba Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic طُوبَة (ṭūba).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtub/, [ˈtub]

Noun

tub

1. brick

References

• Ian Smith, Morris Timothy Ama (1985) A Dictionary of Juba Arabic & English‎^[2], 1st edition, Juba: The Committee of The Juba Cheshire Home and Centre for Handicapped Children, page 25

Kavalan

Noun

tub

1. lid

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French tube, Latin tubus (“tube, pipe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tub]

Noun

tub n (plural tuburi)

1. tube

   Synonym: țeavă

Declension

Declension of tub

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) tub	tubul	(niște) tuburi	tuburile
genitive/dative	(unui) tub	tubului	(unor) tuburi	tuburilor
vocative	tubule		tuburilor

Swedish

Noun

tub c

1. a tube (container)

   tandkrämstub ― tube of toothpaste

2. a cylinder (container)

   gastub ― gas cylinder

3. a spotting scope

   Synonym: tubkikare

Declension

Declension of tub
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	tub	tuben	tuber	tuberna
Genitive	tubs	tubens	tubers	tubernas

References

• tub in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tub in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tub in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

White Hmong

Etymology

From Proto-Hmong-Mien *tu̯ɛn (“son, boy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tu˥/

Noun

tub

1. son
2. child
3. (slang) kid

References

• Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary‎^[3], SEAP Publications, →ISBN.