tubbing

Pluraltubbings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of tub.

   She is tubbing the ferns before the first winter frost.

   The farmhands were tubbing butter for storage all morning.

   Note

   The -ing form of a verb with two jobs: putting something into a tub, and bathing in one. The first always takes an object, as in tubbing ferns or tubbing butter. The bathing use can stand alone or take one: the children were tubbing, she was tubbing the baby. The spelling, with its doubled b, is shared with the noun for a bath and its plural, tubbings.

   The children were tubbing before bed while the kettle boiled.

   She was tubbing the baby by the fire.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of bathing while seated in a tub of water.

   A leisurely tubbing each evening was her favorite way to unwind.

   The old farmhouse had no shower, so weekly tubbing was the norm.

   Similarbath, soak, bathing

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of forming or constructing a tub.

   The workshop's tubbing relied on precisely bent staves.

   Skilled tubbing produced barrels that held water without a drop escaping.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The materials gathered for making tubs, taken together.

   A fresh delivery of tubbing arrived at the cooperage.

   Good tubbing had to be seasoned before the staves were cut.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A watertight lining of timber or metal around a mineshaft, used to safely pass through quicksand, water, and similar unstable ground.

   The engineers fitted cast iron tubbing to seal the shaft against the underground spring.

   Without proper tubbing, the shaft would flood before reaching the coal seam.

   Similarlining, casing

   Note

   A shaft-sinker's word in which the mine shaft itself becomes a kind of tub, one built to keep water out rather than in. Miners usually name it by its material: timber tubbing, concrete tubbing, cast iron tubbing. It works as a mass noun (the shaft was lined with tubbing) and also as a count noun for one particular lining. Its purpose is getting a shaft safely through quicksand and water-bearing ground.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A hazing or initiation ritual in which the victim's head is forced and held underwater.

   The team's brutal tubbing left two recruits in the hospital.

   Reports of tubbing prompted the academy to expel several seniors.

   Similarducking, dunking

7. 7
   noununcountable

   Rowing in roughly built boats, especially as a pastime.

   Tubbing on the river was a popular pastime among the students.

   They spent the vacation tubbing along the quiet canal.

   Similarboating, rowing, paddling

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