tub

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the amount that a tub will hold

   a tub of water

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   The contents or capacity of such a vessel.

   She added a tub of margarine to the stew.

4. 4
   noun

   A bathtub.

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   A slow-moving craft.

   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".

6. 6
   noun

   Any structure shaped like a tub, such as a certain old form of pulpit, a short broad boat, etc.

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

7. 7
   noun

   A small cask.

   a tub of gin

8. 8
   noun

   A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.

   The Winchburgh Shale Line is of 2 ft. 6 in. gauge. The surface trucks or tubs are cuboidal metal boxes mounted on unsprung four-wheeled chassis.

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.