sub
Pluralsubs
Pluralsubs
- 1Short for submarine sandwich: a sandwich made on a long roll.
The deli on the corner makes the best meatball sub in town.
We ordered a six-foot sub for the office party.
Similarsubmarine, hoagie, hero, grinder, torpedo
Note
The sandwich began among Italian Americans in the northeastern United States, and sub is now the usual name across the English-speaking world. The same long roll also goes by regional names, among them hero, hoagie, grinder, po' boy, spuckie and torpedo. A deli offering a hoagie or a hero is selling much the same thing as one offering a sub.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- The sandwich originated among Italian Americans in the northeastern United States. en.wikipedia.org
- 2Short for substitute: a person who stands in for another, especially a substitute teacher or a player who comes off the bench in a game.
The district is so short of teachers that every sub on its list gets a call before seven.
Our best sub came off the bench and scored twice in the fourth quarter.
Note
In sports the plural can name the reserves as a group: in Philip Scruggs's There Can Be Victory (1930), a player is "pigeon-holed on the subs" instead of playing varsity. In a school, a sub is a single substitute teacher, and in both settings the clipping is informal.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Philip Scruggs wrote There Can Be Victory. en.wiktionary.org
- The work contains the exact phrase “pigeon-holed on the subs,” describing a player kept among the substitutes instead of playing varsity. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Short for submarine, or for submersible: a vessel that travels underwater.
An enemy sub was tracked shadowing the convoy for three days.
The nuclear sub can stay submerged for months without surfacing.
Note
Many words that begin with sub- are cut down to this one syllable, so the boat shares its short name with a crowd of others, and the setting tells them apart. A sub that dives, surfaces or patrols is the vessel, like the "Russian subs creepin' around" in James Cameron's The Abyss (1989), while the long sandwich is the one ordered at a deli.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Sub is a shortened form of several words beginning with sub-. en.wiktionary.org
- The Abyss is a 1989 film written and directed by James Cameron. en.wikipedia.org
- The phrase "Russian subs creepin' around" occurs in The Abyss; the speaker is Alan "Hippy" Carnes, played by Todd Graff. en.wiktionary.org
- 4To act as a substitute for someone or something, especially to work as a substitute teacher.
I'm subbing for Dave on the late shift this week.
Applesauce can sub for oil in many muffin recipes.
UsageUse for before what is replaced: sub for a colleague. The forms are subbing and subbed.
Similarsubstitute, cover
- 5Short for subwoofer: a loudspeaker designed to reproduce the deepest bass frequencies.
The home theater package comes with five speakers and a wireless sub.
The bass line was so deep that only the sub could really reproduce it.
Note
Its territory is subbass, the range beneath ordinary bass, which is why a sub works alongside the other speakers in a system rather than on its own.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Subwoofers reproduce sub-bass frequencies. en.wikipedia.org
- Sub-bass occupies the lowest part of the bass range. fulcrum-acoustic.com
- A subwoofer supplements speakers covering higher frequencies. en.wikipedia.org
- 6Short for subscription: a sign-up to follow or pay for an online channel or feed, or by extension a person who has subscribed.
The streamer thanked each new sub by name during the broadcast.
A paid sub to the channel unlocks ad-free videos and a members-only chat.
Note
On a channel or feed the word slides between the act and the person: a creator who gets ten new subs after a video has gained ten subscriptions and ten subscribers in one stroke. That is why a count of subs reads as the size of an audience.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Ten new channel subscriptions correspond to ten new subscribers; the count measures the subscribed audience. support.google.com
- 7Short for subcontractor: a person or company hired by another contractor to carry out part of that contractor's work.
The general contractor blamed the delay on a sub who never delivered the windows.
Every sub on the site has to show proof of insurance before starting work.
Note
The sub stands one step down the chain: hired by another contractor, often a general contractor, and so employed by that firm rather than directly by the customer.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A subcontractor works below another contractor in the contracting chain and may be hired by a general contractor; 'employed' here means engaged to perform work. en.wikipedia.org
- 8Short for subtitle: the on-screen text of a film's or show's dialogue.
The fansub group rushed the release, and the subs kept showing up a full second after each line was spoken.
I watched the whole series with Spanish subs, pausing whenever a sub flashed by too fast.
UsageUsually plural: turn the subs on, watch a film with Spanish subs.
Note
One sub is a single caption, which may run to two lines, the unit a fan translator times and corrects.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Individual subtitle units can be timed and edited by a subtitler. aegisub.org
- 9To add subtitles to something, usually a film or television program.
Volunteers usually sub each episode within a day of its release in Japan.
The studio never subbed the director's early films, so fans did it themselves.
Similarsubtitle
- 10Short for submissive: a person who submits to a dominant partner in BDSM.
The workshop stressed that the dom and the sub agree on limits before any scene begins.
He found he enjoyed being the sub far more than taking charge.
Note
The word often travels with its counterpart: a dom and a sub, as in Laurell K. Hamilton's The Harlequin (2007), or a sub and a top, as in Paul Baker's Fantabulosa (2002). It names a role a person takes within the relationship, not a timid character; that wider meekness belongs to the adjective submissive.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Laurell K. Hamilton wrote The Harlequin, first published in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
- The Harlequin pairs the terms sub and dom. en.wiktionary.org
- Paul Baker's Fantabulosa was first published in 2002. lancaster.ac.uk
- Fantabulosa uses sub alongside top. en.wiktionary.org
- 11To replace a player during a game with a substitute, either taking the player off or bringing the substitute on.
Fans booed when the manager subbed their favorite striker in the 60th minute.
If he doesn't improve after the break, they'll sub him.
UsageOften passive, with the player as subject: he was subbed at half time.
Similarsubstitute, replace
- 12Short for subscription: a payment for membership of a club, or for something similar such as a regular magazine.
The treasurer reminded members that subs were due, and that a late sub would cost an extra five pounds.
I let my sub to the film magazine lapse when the price went up.
UsageOften in the phrase pay one's subs for club dues: members pay their subs.
Note
With magazines and papers it counts arrangements, as when H. L. Gold boasted in Galaxy Science Fiction (1951) that the magazine had "several times as many subs as any other science fiction magazine."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- H. L. Gold made the quoted claim in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951; it appears in his September editorial, “Annual Report.” archive.org
Less common meanings
- 13Short for subreddit: one of the many forums on Reddit, each devoted to a particular topic.
Posting the same link to every sub you can find will get you banned fast.
The gardening sub on Reddit runs a weekly thread for beginners' questions.
Note
Reddit's communities are called subreddits, and regulars shorten the word to sub in posts and comments, often in phrases such as the cooking sub or the sub's rules.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Reddit's communities are called subreddits. support.reddithelp.com
- 14To subscribe, signing up to receive something regularly.
Don't forget to sub to the channel so you never miss a new episode.
Half the chat subbed during the charity stream.
UsageUse to before what you sign up for: sub to the channel.
Similarsubscribe
Oppositeunsubscribe
Note
A viewer who subs becomes one of a channel's subs, so the verb and the noun count the same people.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Viewers who subscribe to a channel become its subscribers. support.google.com
- 15To take the submissive role in BDSM play or in a BDSM relationship.
Some people prefer to sub, while others like to switch roles from one scene to the next.
Having subbed for years, she knew how to set clear limits with a new partner.
Oppositedom
Note
The role is one a person can move in and out of: in Tiffany Reisz's Little Red Riding Crop (2012), a Dominatrix has spent longer as a sub, ten years in a collar, than in her present role. The verb often comes with experience in view, as in you've never subbed before, and it names what the submissive partner does.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Tiffany Reisz wrote Little Red Riding Crop. tiffanyreisz.com
- The story describes a dominatrix who previously spent ten years in a collar as a submissive, longer than she has been a dominatrix. en.wiktionary.org
- The wording “you've never subbed before” is attested. en.wiktionary.org
- 16Short for subordinate: a person who works under the authority of someone of higher rank.
- 17Short for subeditor: a newspaper or magazine journalist who edits reporters' copy for accuracy, style and length and often writes headlines.
The night sub trimmed the report by fifty words so it would fit on the page.
Every sub on the business desk checked the figures before the paper went to press.
Note
What a sub does depends on the paper. In British newsrooms the sub is the copy editor who checks, corrects and trims stories, while subeditor can also mean an assistant editor working in one department. The work has its own verb, to sub a story.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Subeditors in British newsrooms check, correct and trim stories. theguardianfoundation.org
- 18To do the work of a subeditor or copy editor.
Freelancers who sub copy for the national papers are usually paid by the shift.
She spent ten years subbing on the features desk before becoming a columnist.
UsageTakes the copy as object, sub a story, or stands alone: she subs on the features desk.
- 19Short for submission: a story, poem or other piece of work sent to an editor or publisher for consideration.
The fiction editor works through every sub in the queue, but replies can take six months.
Her first sub to the anthology came back with a kind rejection note.
UsageIn a cover letter, write the full word, submission.
Note
Writers and editors use the clipping as shop talk for the manuscript itself: a sub waits in an editor's queue, goes out to an anthology, or comes back with a rejection note.
- 20
- 21Short for subsistence money: part of a worker's wages paid before the work is finished.
New hires could draw a sub at the end of their first week rather than wait a month for full pay.
The foreman kept a record of every sub paid out and deducted each one from the final paycheck.
Note
The name explains the custom: subsistence is what a person needs to stay alive, so a sub is money to live on until the full wages come. Because it is part of those wages paid early, it comes off the final pay; it is an advance, not a bonus.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The wage sense of sub is shortened from subsistence money. en.wiktionary.org
- Subsistence means the necessities for staying alive. en.wiktionary.org
- A sub provides living money before full wages are paid. hansard.parliament.uk
- The advance is deducted from later wages rather than added as a bonus. en.wiktionary.org
- 22Short for subject: a course or area of study in school, such as English, math or chemistry.
Which sub do you have after lunch, English or Filipino?
He dropped one sub because its schedule clashed with his part-time job.
Note
In Philippine English the clipping is everyday school talk: a student might pass every sub but one. It stands for subject only as a field of study; the subject of a sentence and a monarch's subject keep the full word.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Sub is a clipping of subject in the academic sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 23Short for subaltern: a junior army officer below the rank of captain, such as a lieutenant, especially in the British army.
Fresh from training, the sub was given command of a platoon on the frontier.
He was known as 'Mad Carew' by the subs at Khatmandu, He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell; But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks, And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.
1911, J. Milton Hayes, The Green Eye of the Yellow GodNote
A subaltern is a British army officer below captain, a lieutenant or second lieutenant, and sub was the colloquial name for one. In J. Milton Hayes's The Green Eye of the Yellow God (1911), it is "the subs at Khatmandu" who call a reckless man Mad Carew; the clipping is older than the poem, recorded by the 1860s, and now sounds dated.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- A British army subaltern is an officer below captain, specifically a lieutenant or second lieutenant. en.wiktionary.org
- Sub was a colloquial shortening of subaltern. en.wiktionary.org
- J. Milton Hayes wrote The Green Eye of the Yellow God. en.wikisource.org
- The poem was first published in 1911. en.wikipedia.org
- The poem says that the subs at Khatmandu knew the man as Mad Carew. en.wiktionary.org
- The poem portrays Carew as reckless. en.wikisource.org
- The clipping predates that era: it already appears in the 1864 edition of The Slang Dictionary, page 250. archive.org
- 24Under; a preposition taken over from Latin and placed before a noun.
- 25Short for subroutine: a block of computer code called to perform a task, sometimes specifically one that returns no value.
- 26To coat a surface, such as a wafer or a microscope slide, with a thin layer that sticks to it and flattens it or holds a sample.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
A shortened form of any of various words beginning with sub-.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Sub is a shortening of various words beginning with sub-. en.wiktionary.org