Chiefly dial. Also 6–7 cubb(e. [Of uncertain history, but to be compared with some LG. words: EFr. kübbing, kübben in same sense as this word, LG. kübbung, kübje a shed or lean-to for cattle, EFr. kübbe, küb, Du. kub, weir-basket or weel for fish (cf. Dornkaat Koolmann, and Grimm, s.v. koben): the latter is cognate with OE. cofa, COVE, but in sense closely agrees with this word.]
a. A stall, pen or shed for cattle; also, a coop or hutch. b. A crib for fodder; a chest, bin, or other receptacle.
1546. Confut. N. Shaxton, H vj b (T.). The anchors also, and charter-monks, vowed they not to die in theyr houses? And why are they not turned out of theyr cubbes, if vowes may not be broken?
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. p. lxvii. Mending posts and rayles about the deer house and the long cubb.
a. 1644. Laud, Acct. Chancellorship, 132 (T.). The great leidger-book of the statutes is to be placed in archivis among the university charters, and not in any cub of the library.
1675. T. Tully, Let. Baxter, 9. You are pleas’d … to put me … in the Cubb with divers mean and contemptible Malefactours.
1789. W. Marshall, Gloucestershire, I. 231. They have their fill of hay given them … in cribs—provincially ‘cubs’—of different forms and descriptions.
1824–8. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. (1846), I. 56/1 (W.). I would rather have such as good mother in cub or kennel, than in my closet or at my table.
1870. Eng. Mech., 21 Jan., 447/3. In this hearth are two apertures leading into the ‘Cubs’ … which are used for receiving the ore, when ready to be drawn out.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropshire Word-bk., Cub, (1) a chest used in stables to hold corn for the horses. (2) a boarded partition in a granary to store corn…. (4) a pen for poultry or rabbits.
