tube

Pluraltubes

Formstubes, tubing, tubed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Any hollow object or structure with a cylindrical shape.

   Water drained from the tank through a narrow rubber tube.

   Glass tubes of different lengths lined the shelves of the lab.

   Similarpipe, hose

   Note

   The general sense the others narrow down from. It came through Middle French from Latin tubus, "tube, pipe", a relative of tuba, the long war-trumpet, and perhaps of tibia, which meant a reed-pipe as well as a shinbone; beyond that the origin is obscure. Hollowness along a length is the whole test, so a rubber hose, a glass lab vessel and a cardboard roll all qualify.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A roughly cylindrical container, usually crimped shut at one end and closed with a screw cap, used to hold and dispense semiliquid substances.

   He squeezed the last of the paint from the tube onto his palette.

   The pharmacist handed her two tubes of antibiotic ointment.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialCanadaUS

   A television set.

   After work he likes to sit back and watch the tube for an hour.

   Millions of viewers were glued to the tube for the final episode.

   Similartelly

   Note

   North Americans named the set after the picture tube inside it. The word almost always takes the article: people watch the tube, or sit in front of it like the narrator of Green Day's "Longview" (1994), changing channels for an hour or two. Boob tube is the scornful version, and British speakers say telly instead.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialBritish

   The London Underground railway system, often called the Tube; the name first meant only its deep-level lines, which run in round tunnels, not the shallower lines in rectangular ones.

   It's quicker to take the Tube to King's Cross than to get a taxi in the rush hour.

   The nearest Tube station is a five-minute walk from the hotel.

   Note

   Everyday British speech calls it the Tube, usually with the article and often with a capital T; the name is also a trademark. It is casual talk, and its verb is take: you take the Tube to Waterloo or into town. The word can still name a single line, too: Modern Railways in 1962 called the Victoria Line "the new tube".

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To ride on an inflated inner tube, especially while floating down a river.

   On hot weekends, students tube down the river with coolers tied between them.

   She had never tubed before and spent most of the trip spinning in slow circles.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In surfing, a wave that pitches forward as it breaks, leaving a hollow space inside it.

   She crouched low and stayed deep inside the tube until the wave spat her out.

   The reef break throws fast, hollow tubes when the swell comes from the south.

   Similarbarrel

   Note

   Surfers ride through a tube rather than over it: the board runs along the wave's face while the lip arches overhead, and the aim is to come out before the hollow closes. Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer (1966) uses it of a rider on a streak, with Butch "coming through one unbelievable tube after another".

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To provide something with a tube, or to enclose something in one.

   Machines tube the paint and crimp the ends shut in a single pass.

   The crew tubed every seedling in plastic mesh to keep deer away.

   Similarencase, sheathe

8. 8
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To intubate a patient, inserting a tube into a body passage such as the windpipe.

   If his oxygen keeps dropping, we'll need to tube him.

   The ER team tubed the crash victim within minutes of arrival.

   Similarintubate

   Oppositeextubate

   Note

   Clinicians' shorthand for intubate, at home in quick talk on the ward. It sits naturally in the passive, as in the patient was tubed, and after need to, as in we may need to tube her; charts and formal writing keep the full word.

9. 9
   nounslangAustraliacountable

   A can of beer.

   He reached into the esky and cracked a tube.

   They knocked back a few tubes on the back deck while the footy was on.

   Similarcan, tinnie

   Note

   Australians drink from tubes, tinnies and stubbies: the first two are cans, the third a bottle, and a slab is a case of either. A tube gets cracked rather than opened, and crack an ice-cold tube was familiar enough to turn up in the Foster's ads.

10. 10
    noundialectalScotlandcountable

    A foolish or stupid person; an idiot.

    Don't be such a tube. The bus stop's right behind you.

    Some tube from the office reversed his car into our gate.

    Similaridiot, fool, twit, dope

    Note

    Scottish slang that is usually thrown straight at someone, and it can be sharpened with bloody: Christopher Brookmyre's Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (2007) has "Don't be a bloody tube, Jack." Tone decides whether it teases a friend or stings in an argument, but either way it belongs among the Scottish terms of abuse.

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