# tub

Pronunciation: say "TUB" /tʌb/

## Noun

1. A bathtub; the fixture in a bathroom in which a person bathes.
   - Simple: A large container in the bathroom that you fill with water and wash yourself in.
   - _After the long hike, all she wanted was a hot soak in the tub._
   - _He scrubbed the tub until the porcelain gleamed._
2. A flat-bottomed, open vessel, about as wide as it is tall or wider, used for storing or packing things, or for washing things in.
   - Simple: A wide, round, open container with a flat bottom, used for washing things or for keeping things in.
   - _Farmers packed the salted fish into wooden tubs for the winter._
   - _He soaked the stained work clothes overnight in a tub of soapy water._
3. The contents of a tub, or the amount that a tub can hold.
   - Simple: The amount that a tub can hold, or everything inside it.
   - _The recipe calls for an entire tub of soft margarine._
   - _They went through three tubs of popcorn during the double feature._
4. A small cask; a little barrel for liquids such as beer, wine, or spirits.
   - Simple: A small barrel used for holding drinks or other liquids.
   - _The smugglers rolled tubs of brandy up the beach by moonlight._
   - _Each tub of gin held about four gallons._
7. A slow-moving boat or ship. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A boat or ship that moves very slowly.
   - _The troopship was a rusty tub that wallowed in every swell._
   - _It took our tub almost a week to make the crossing the liner did in two days._
8. An overweight or obese person; a disparaging slang term. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude, unkind word for a fat person.
   - _The tabloid cruelly branded the retired boxer a washed-up tub._
   - _I caught my reflection in the window and wondered when I'd become such a tub._
9. A box or bucket used to haul coal or ore up a mine shaft.
   - Simple: A big box or bucket used to carry coal or rock up out of a mine.
   - _A loaded tub jumped the rails halfway up the incline._
   - _Miners were paid by the number of tubs they filled each shift._
10. The bare body shell of a car, without doors, hood, trunk lid, or fenders, that is lowered onto the chassis during assembly or, in unibody designs, forms the vehicle's main structure.
   - Simple: The main body of a car, without its doors, hood, or fenders, that everything else is attached to.
   - _Restorers stripped the tub to bare metal before welding in new floor panels._
   - _In a unibody design, the tub itself carries the structural loads._
11. Any structure resembling a tub in shape, such as an old boxed-in pulpit or a short, broad boat; used mockingly or humorously.
   - Simple: A joking or unkind name for anything with a short, round shape, like a small wide boat.
   - _The congregation watched the minister mount his paneled tub above the pews._
   - _He gamely rowed the regatta in a beamy little tub of his own making._
12. Any of various fixed quantities of goods, such as butter or oysters, historically sold by the tub.
   - Simple: An old fixed amount used when selling goods such as butter or oysters.
   - _The ledger recorded four tubs of butter received from the Hudson Valley dairy._
   - _Oystermen sold their catch by the tub straight from the boat._

## Verb

5. To bathe in a bathtub.
   - Simple: To take a bath in a bathtub.
   - _He prefers to tub at night, with a book propped on the rim._
   - _After a long shift, she tubs in water as hot as she can stand._
6. To plant, set, or store something in a tub.
   - Simple: To put a plant or other thing in a tub to grow or keep it.
   - _Gardeners tub tender shrubs in the fall and move them into the greenhouse._
   - _The dairy tubbed the fresh butter before shipping it to market._

## Noun

13. A session of sweating in a heated tub while fasting, formerly undergone as a medical treatment. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old kind of treatment where a sick person sat and sweated in a hot tub.
   - _Three weeks of the tub left him weak but, the surgeon swore, cured._
   - _He endured his tub in silence, sweating and fasting as the physician directed._

## Origin

From Middle English tubbe or tobbe, from Middle Dutch tubbe or Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe; its further origin is unknown. It is thought to be unrelated to tube.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tub (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).