Tub sb.

Forms: 4–7 tubbe, 5–6 tobbe, 5–7 tob, 6 toubbo, tube, toob (also 9 dial.), 6–7 tubb, 6– tub. [Com. West Ger.: ME. tubbe = MDu., MLG. tubbe, tobbe, Du. and MFl. tobbe, Flem. tubbe (ü), tibbe, Fris., LG., and EFris. tubbe.]

  1.  An open wooden vessel, wide in proportion to its height, usually formed of staves and hoops, of cylindrical or slightly concave form, with a flat bottom.

  Often with defining word indicating its special use, as alms-tub, bath-t., butter-t., kneading-t., wash-t., etc.: see these words. Also loosely applied to a butt, barrel, or cask.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Miller’s T., 435. He gooth and geteth hym a knedyng trogh, And after that a tubbe and a kymelyn.

1392–3.  Earl Derby’s Exp. (Camden), 224. Pro vasis ligneis … viz tubbes, trowes, boketes et basketes.

1481–90.  Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 228. Item, for a lok for the almes tobbe, ij. d.

1496.  Nottingham Rec., III. 296. For v. tobys.

1509–10.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 269. Paid to a Coper for hopyng of the Tobbys and þe Barelles that longith to the Chirche xvj d.

1526.  Dunmow Churchw. Acc., lf. 5 b (MS.). Payde for a toob and ii. bokks to fett watter, viid.

1531.  Lett. & Pap. Hen. VIII., V. 180. For morter toubbis, cowlis, water buckettes,… etc.

1557.  in Lanc. & Chesh. Wills (1884), 64. iiij Tubbs to salte fleshe in.

1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 3 b. Bath his fete in a depe tob.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 58. Take tub for a season, take sack for a shift.

1645.  Bp. Hall, Remedy Discontent., xvi. 86. Here doe I see a Cynick housed in his Tub, scorning all wealth and state.

1829.  Lytton, Devereux, III. iv. Diogenes in his tub.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., ii. A distorted fir tree, planted … in a tub.

  fig.  1693.  Humours Town, 2. Coop’d up … like a Cinic, in thy Tub of a Study.

  † b.  A sweating-tub formerly used in the treatment of venereal disease; hence, the use of this; see quots. and cf. tub-fast in 10; also called (mother) Cornelius’ tub, and allusively powdering-tub. Obs.

1594.  Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 17. Mother Cornelius tub why it was like hell, he that came into it, neuer came out of it.

1599.  [see POWDERING-TUB 2].

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. ii. 60. Luc. How doth … thy Mistris? Procures she still? Ha? Clo. Troth sir, shee hath eaten vp all her beefe, and she is her selfe in the tub.

1608.  Armin, Nest Ninn., E iv b. Where they should study in priuate with Diogenes in his Cell, they are with Cornelius in his tub.

1676.  Wiseman, Chirurg Treat., VIII. ii. 13. Tub and Chair were the old way of sweating, but [etc.].

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 421/2. He beareth Argent, a Doctors Tub, (otherwise called a Cleansing Tub), Sable; Hooped, Or.

  c.  Gold-mining. A puddling tub.

1859, 1869.  [see PUDDLING vbl. sb. 4, PUDDLE v. 6].

1864.  Rogers, New Rush, II. 47. Miners’ tubs and cradles, left to chance, On the resistless torrent’s surface dance.

1884.  T. Bracken, Lays of Maori, 154. The music of the puddling mill, the cradle, and the tub.

  d.  Used as a measure of capacity, varying with the commodity it contained: see quots.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tub of Tea, the Quantity of about 60 Pounds: of Camphire from 56 to 86 Pounds: of Vermilion from 3 to 4 Hundred Weight.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, s.v., The tub of butter must contain at least 84 lbs.; the tub of camphor is 130 Dutch lbs.

  e.  A small cask or keg of spirit, containing about four gallons. (A smugglers’ term.)

1835.  Marryat, Three Cutters, ii. I made three seizures, besides sweeping up those thirty-seven tubs.

1869.  R. M. Ballantyne, Deep Down, xiv. 180. They do say that the boatsmen [coast-guards] are informed about the toobs.

1884.  J. C. Egerton, Sussex Folk & Ways, v. 65. This cottage … has … been as full of tubs from top to bottom as ever it could hold.

  f.  vulgar colloq. Applied to a corpulent person.

1897.  Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 316. With a moon-faced tub of a woman I’d never seen before,… hanging on to me.

  2.  A bathing-tub, bath-tub (of any shape); colloq. or jocularly, a bath; hence, the action or practice of taking a bath, esp. on rising.

[1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 94. The room would be close wherin you place your bathing tub.]

1849.  Knife & Fork, 11. They … have an hereditary aversion for the Saturday tub.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iii. A great splashing in an inner room stopped … and Drysdale’s voice shouted out that he was in his tub.

1865.  ‘C. Bede,’ Rook’s Gard., etc., 251. It must have been prior to the date of the institution of the tub.

1893.  A. Lang, St. Andrews, i. 15, note. George Wishart astonished his contemporaries by taking cold tubs.

  3.  Applied to a slow clumsy ship, esp. one which is too broad in proportion to its length; often humorous or contemptuous; also, a short, broad boat; spec. a stout roomy boat used for rowing practice, as distinguished from a racing-boat; cf. tub-gig, tub-pair (see 10), TUB v. 4.

a. 1618.  Raleigh, Invent. Shipping, 9. In Cæsars time, the French Brittains … had very untoward Tubs in which they made Warre against him.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 54. And now my child at sea is in a tub.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb., II. iv. (1861), 52. Here the rapid tide … seizing on the gallant tub…, hurried it forward with a velocity unparalleled in a Dutch boat, navigated by Dutchmen.

1827.  Blackw. Mag., XXI. 398. One was four feet broader, another was as much shorter than the Victory, and they were in comparison all Tubs.

1841.  J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, III. 4. No lighter boat, except the little tubs used for rowing off from the beach, could be obtained.

1853.  ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, x. He next day … made his first essay in a ‘tub.’

1901.  D. B. Hall & Ld. A. Osborne, Sunshine & Surf, iv. His old tub of a vessel … was known from one end of the Pacific to the other.

  4.  Applied contemptuously or jocularly to a pulpit, esp. of a nonconformist preacher: cf. TUB-PREACHER, -THUMPER.

1643.  Owen, Duty of Pastors & People, viii. Must a master of a family cease praying in his family,… for fear of being counted a preacher in a tub?

1680.  Dryden, Prol. to University of Oxford, 13. Jack Presbyter shall here erect his throne, Knock out a tub with preaching once a day.

1710.  Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), II. 351. A huge Bonfire was made, and the Tub in w^ch he used to hold forth was plac’d on y^e top of the Pile.

1728.  Pope, Dunc., II. 2. A gorgeous seat, that far out-shone Henley’s gilt tub, or Fleckno’s Irish throne.

1891.  Spectator, 5 Dec., 804/2. Let the pulpit speak, and the tub too—there will still be too much sleep.

  5.  Coal-mining. ‘Originally a mining bucket, now specially applied to the open-topped box of wood or iron, mounted on wheels, in which coal is brought from the face to the surface. It has supplanted the old ‘corf,’ which was a basket carried on a tram. The tram and tub are now, in most cases, a single structure’ (Heslop, Northumb. Gloss., 1894). Cf. CORF 2, TRAM sb.² 2.

1851.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 54. Tub, an open-topped box of wood or iron, attached to a tram, and used in conveying coals from the working places to the surface.

1859.  R. Hunt, Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (ed. 2), 222. Cages [in coal mines] are attached to the wire rope, and these move in guides in the pit. The tub (8 cwt.) is placed in those [cages], and when drawn to the surface placed in the teaming cradles.

1893.  Athenæum, 21 Oct., 551/3. The old-fashioned ‘tub’ in the cut ‘A Coal Mine’ will hardly be recognized by the present generation of pitmen in the greater part of England, who, though they still use the word, no longer know the thing, which has been replaced by small trucks which run on rails into the cage [etc.].

1894.  Heslop (as above), The tub, containing twenty-four pecks [is] three feet in length, thirty inches in width, and twenty-six in depth.

  b.  The lining of a pit-shaft.

1839.  [implied in tub-plank in 10].

1855.  Orr’s Circ. Sc., Inorg. Nat., 237. In all cases, the foundation of a permanent tub should rest on a water-tight stratum.

1860.  Weale, Dict. Terms (ed. 2), Tub, a cast-iron cylinder put in the shaft instead of bricking.

1877.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Tub,… a casing of wood or of cast-iron sections … lining a shaft.

  6.  † a. On the early railways vulgarly applied to an open truck or a seatless carriage. Obs.

1886.  H. S. Brown, Autobiog., vii. (1887), 30. We called it a ‘stand up’ and it also went by the name of ‘a tub.’

1890.  N. & Q., 7th Ser. IX. 470/2. At the time when the railway between Nottingham and Grantham was opened forty years ago, carriages of the lowest class,… third or fourth, were something like [what] cattle-trucks are now, and were known colloquially as ‘tubs.’

  † b.  A covered carriage or conveyance. Obs. c. ? = tub-gig (a) (see 10).

1889.  John Bull, 2 March, 142/2. Tubs we ca’ the covered carriages, tubs wasn’t known in these parts.

1911.  F. Harrison, Autobiog. Mem., II. xxiv. 73. It was the age of ‘tubs,’ and they often took Jane Brice, my mother and Ellinor Abraham (afterwards Lady Bethell) as sitters.

  7.  Naut. See quot.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Tubs, Topsail-halliard, circular framed racks in which the topsail-halliards are coiled clear for running.

  8.  A local name of the gurnard, esp. the sapphirine gurnard, Trigla hirundo. Also tub-fish (see 10).

Couch takes this as a contraction of Cornish tubbot, -ut.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 32. Of flat [fish there are] Brets, Turbets, Dories,… Tub, Breame &c.

1836.  Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, I. 42. From West bay to the Land’s End, where the Gurnards are called Tubs, Tubfish and, in reference to colour, Red Tubs.

1861.  Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 109 § 4. All migratory fish of the genus salmon,… salmon,… buntling, guiniad, tubs, yellow fin, sprod, herling,… or … any other local name.

1863.  Rep. Sea Fisheries Comm. (1865), II. 404/2. A tub … is a large specimen of the guruet…. Hake and tubs are the most we catch.

  9.  In proverbial phrases: † a. A tale of a tub, an apocryphal tale; a ‘cock and bull’ story. Obs. b. (To throw out) a tub to the whale, to create a diversion, esp. in order to escape a threatened danger. c. Every tub must (or let every tub) stand on its own bottom: cf. BOTTOM sb. 11 b.

  a.  1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 371/2. Consider the places & his wordes together, & ye shal find al his processe therin a fayre tale of a Tub. Ibid. [see TALE sb. 5 b].

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 144. A tale of a tub, thy tales taste all of ale.

1631.  Lenton, Charac., F ix b. Oft-times hee goes but to the next Tauerne, and then very discreetly brings her home a tale of a Tubbe.

1709.  O. Dykes, Eng. Prov. & Refl. (ed. 2), 57. If one talks of Chalk, another will talk of Cheese still, or tell a Tale of a Tub.

1734.  [see TALE sb. 5 b].

  b.  1704.  Swift, T. Tub, Author’s Pref. 14. Sea-men have a Custom when they meet a Whale, to fling him out an empty Tub,… to divert him from laying violent Hands upon the Ship…. It was decreed, that in order to prevent these Leviathans from tossing and sporting with the Commonwealth (which of it self is too apt to fluctuate) they should be diverted … by a Tale of a Tub.

1728–31.  Lett. fr. Fog’s Jrnl. (1732), II. 73. It has been common to throw out something to divert and amuse the People, such as a Plot, a Conspiracy, or an Enquiry about Nothing,… which Method of Proceeding, by a very apt Metaphor, is call’d Throwing out the Tub.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. vii. 55. If he cannot throw out a tub to the whale;—that is to say, if he cannot divert her from resenting one bold thing, by uttering two or three full as bold.

1768.  Earl Malmesbury, Diaries & Corr., I. 23. We find it a mere tub to amuse the whale.

1826.  J. Doyle, Ess. Cath. Claims, 248. Some tub for a whale of prejudice to knash its teeth against.

1912.  Nation, 29 June, 465/2. He throws a tub to the High Church whale.

  c.  1730–6.  Bailey (folio), s.v., Every Tub must stand upon it’s own Bottom.

1772.  Graves, Spir. Quix. (1820), I. 171. Every tub must stand upon its own bottom.

1885.  ‘H. Conway,’ Fam. Affair, xxix. I think it’s better to let every tub stand on its own bottom.

  10.  attrib. and Comb., as tub-bath, -boat, -ear (EAR sb.¹ 8), -eight (EIGHT B. 2 b), -end, -hoop (in quot. transf.), -kennel, -life, -plank, -plant, -pulpit, -timber, -washing; objective, as tub-buyer, -carrier, -filler, -maker; in sense 4, as tub-lecture, -meeter, -minister, -orator; also tub-bellied, -brained, -coopering, -keeping, -like, -shaped adjs.; also tub-butter, butter packed in tubs for keeping or export; tub-camphor, camphor imported in tubs (from Japan); tub-cart = tub-gig (a); tub-chair, a deep semicircular chair resembling a tub; tub-dress, a dress of washing material: cf. tub-frock; tub-drubber = TUB-THUMPER; tub-engine, a contrivance for raising water by means of a chain of tubs or the like; tub-fake (FAKE sb.¹), the coiled tow-line in the line-tab of a whale-boat (Cent. Dict., 1891, cites J. W. Collins); † tub-fast, abstinence during treatment in the sweating tub: cf. 1 b; tub-fish = sense 8; tub-frock = tub-dress; tub-gardening, cultivation of plants or trees in tubs; tub-gig, (a) a deep low-hung gig with rounded corners and seats facing inwards; a governess car; (b) = tub-pair; tub-gin = tub-engine; † tub-hunter, a parasite, a sponger; tub-loader, Coal-mining: see quot.; tub-oar, the oar next the line-tub in a whale-boat; so tub-oarsman, one who attends to the running of the line when in use (Cent. Dict., 1891); tub-pair, a pair-oared practice boat (College slang); tub-plot, cf. Meal-tub Plot (MEAL sb.¹ 3 b); tub-race, a race in which the competitors use tubs instead of boats; tub-saw, a cylindrical saw; tub-size v. trans. to size (paper) in a tub or vat; to hand-size, as distinguished from engine-size; tub-skirt, tub-suit: cf. tub-dress; tub-sugar, sugar packed in chests and covered with fine clay (Cent. Dict., 1891); † tub-tail, a farthingale or hooped skirt; one who wears this (contemptuous); tub-trimmer, ? a cooper; in quot. fig.; tub-wheel, (a) the wheel of a colliery ‘tub’; (b) a horizontal water-wheel with spiral floats; = DANAIDE; (c) a rotating drum in which hides are washed (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); tub-woman, a woman who carries a tub or tubs; also a woman suggesting a tub in figure. See also TUBMAN, TUB-PREACHER, TUB-THUMPER, etc.

1896.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 850. Each patient receives a *tub-bath of twenty minutes at 70° every third hour.

1846.  J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 263. Before the South-down sheep were improved, they were very flat on the ribs, and *tub-bellied.

1853.  Brit. Q. Rev., July, 108. Crossing the narrow water-way in one of the heavy *tub-boats of the country.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., To Rdr. Many a *tub-brain’d Cynicke, who because any thing … is too large for the straite hoopes of his apprehension, he peremptorily concludes it is a lye.

1829.  S. Shaw, Hist. Staffordsh. Potteries, iv. 105. The common people of the district at the present day, call Irish *Tub Butter, Pot Butter.

1830.  Spons’ Encycl. Manuf., 574. Japanese camphor … is also known as ‘Dutch,’ or *‘tub’ camphor,… from its being imported to Europe in tubs covered with matting, each placed within a second tub.

1899.  Baring-Gould, Bk. of West, II. 275. The *‘tub-carriers,’ who conveyed the kegs on their backs.

1906.  Daily Chron., 26 Sept., 4/4. Three little girls … clambering and pushing their way into the *tub-cart.

1839.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., to Mrs. Welsh, 7 April (1903), I. 76. Carlyle in his grey plaid suit, and his *tub-chair. Ibid. (1847), Lett. (1883), II. 20. In a tub-chair—a little live bundle of flannel shawls.

1818.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xii. The devil’s in the pedling *tub-coopering carle!

1909.  Philad. Public Ledger, 24 June, 5/1 (Advt.). Women’s and Misses’ Stylish *Tub Dresses.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Wks. (1730), IV. 199. Faith and Reason…, as has been judiciously observ’d by the fam’d *Tub-drubber of Covent Garden, can never be brought to set their Horses together.

1533.  MS. Rawl. D., 776, lf. 170. For ij *Tubb Eares of woode sett on the same tubbe.

1901.  Daily News, 22 Feb., 5/1. The boats used in these novice races are clinker built…. They are outrigged, but have fixed seats. At Oxford and Cambridge they are generically known as *‘tub’ eights.

1542.  Richmond Wills (Surtees), 30. Two trowes, and a bowtyn ton, and a *tube ende.

1702.  T. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 55. Your *Tub-Engines, or Chain-Pumps, may draw forth the Water.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 85. Bring downe Rose-cheekt youth to the *Tubfast, and the Diet.

1820.  Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 176. A man, designated *‘tub-filler,’ with a ladle of copper, was employed in filling a hogshead with chopped blubber.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. v. § 3. 136. *Tub-fish, Piper.

1769.  Pennant, Zool., III. 233. The Red Gurnard … agrees in its general appearance with the tub fish.

1888.  Goode, Amer. Fishes, 304. The Tub-fish, T[rigla] hirundo, is of frequent occurrence on the west coast of Scotland.

1909.  Westm. Gaz., 1 Feb., 5/2. What we have for some time now called *‘tub frocks’ are certainly the best for the South.

1904.  Daily News, 9 Aug., 5. A most fascinating article, entitled *‘Tub-Gardening.’

1836.  Sir G. Head, Home Tour, 433. I pursued my journey to Whitehaven, in a covered car, or *‘tub-gig,’ for which vehicle the title of the ‘conveyance’ is generally applied.

1884.  Froude, Carlyle, Life in Lond., xi. I. 316. The brothers went in a steamer from Liverpool to Bangor, and thence to Llanberis, again in a ‘tub-gig,’ or Welsh car.

1888.  Woodgate, Boating, 72. Lessons in a tub-gig are the best remedies for this fault.

1702.  T. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 21. As easily learn’d as their driving of a Horse in a *Tub-Gin. Ibid., 57. My Engine … will clear an old work … as readily as your Tub-Gins or Chain-Pumps.

1892.  Pall Mall G., 24 Oct., 2/3. Hoops, or (as they were called in Queen Anne’s time, when they reached their maximum proportions) *tub-hoops.

1600.  Dr. Dodypoll, III. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 125. You are a sweet smell-feast, Doctor; that I see. Ile [have] no such *tub-hunters use my house.

1900.  Speaker, 10 Feb., 506/1. The *tub-keeping philosopher with the Psalmist crying ‘All men are liars.’

1908.  Rhys Davids, Early Buddhism, i. 7. When he [Diogenes] lived, like a dog, in his *tub-kennel.

1709.  O. Dykes, Eng. Prov. & Refl. (ed. 2), 56. From a Pulpit-Harangue, to a *Tub-Lecture of extemporary Zeal.

1857.  Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, i. 2. People who … lived in tubs, and used gravely to maintain the superiority of *tub-life to town-life.

1832.  Preston Chron., 1 Dec., 4/5. These are built in the true Dutch style, with broad bottoms and tub-like sterns, so that they at once draw but little water, and are very stout.

1867.  Morn. Star, 12 April. The miserable pompes à incendies that do duty in their own streets [Paris] … these weak *tublike structures.

1895.  W. Wright, Palmyra & Zenobia, xxix. 371. The tublike turban of the Druzes.

1891.  Labour Commission Gloss., *Tub Loaders, men who hew at night-time and on other occasions, while the pit is not drawing coals, and fill the empty tubs left in the pit.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, I. 153. The Tories, and the *Tub-meeters, That roosted near Leadenhall.

1661.  Gauden, Hooker’s Eccl. Pol., Ded. 4. Those club-masters and *tub-ministers, who sought … to overthrow the ancient and goodly fabric of this church and kingdom.

1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, viii. ‘The Rev. Moses Barraclough: t’ *tub orator.’… ‘Ah!’ said the Rector … ‘He’s a tailor by trade.’

1870.  Daily News, 11 Feb. The president … had Messrs. Moss, Burgess, Payne, Baker, Mirehouse, and Lewis out in *‘tub’ pairs, a mode of improvement which has been generally found very beneficial to the individual members of the crew.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 973. The upper ends of the first set of *tub-planks being cut square and level all round, the second spiking crib … is fixed.

1801.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), III. 455. The poor arts of *tub-plots, &c. were repeated till the designs of the party became suspected.

a. 1791.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), VIII. 332. Let there be no … *tub-pulpit, but a square projection, with a long seat behind.

1903.  Sir W. J. Farrar, in Mem. Abp. Temple (1906), I. vi. 86. I don’t think Temple joined in the attempted *tub-race.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Cylindrical Saw … is variously called a *tub-saw, drum-saw, barrel-saw.

1888.  F. G. Lee, in Archæologia, LI. 363. A circular *tub-shaped font.

1880.  J. Dunbar, Pract. Papermaker, 55. *Tub-sizing, preparation of the gelatine.

1887.  Harper’s Mag., June, 124/2. If paper is to be ‘tub-sized’ as well as ‘engine-sized,’ an animal size … is mixed with dissolved alum and placed in a tub or vat, through which the web of paper is run after leaving the first set of driers.

1909.  Philad. Public Ledger, 24 June, 7/7 (Advt.). *‘Tub’ Skirts … Nice quality linen in white, tan & blue.

1595.  Gosson, Quippes Upst. Gentlew., 161, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 257. Therefore *tub-tailes all may rue, That they came from so vile a crue.

1591.  Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 173. All the *tubbe tymber thatt I have hewene.

1589.  Hay any Work, Title-p., An vnskilfull and a deceytfull *tubtrimmer.

1886.  C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 133. *Tub-washing is sometimes more convenient for small flocks.

1851.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 7. The small diameter of the *tub wheels.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Tub-wheel, a peculiar kind of wheel to a water-mill.

1660.  Okie’s Lament., 33. A Fat *Tub-woman was my Goddesse great of War.

1727.  Capt. S. Brunt, Voy. to Cackl., 34. They carried two Pails a-piece with a Yoke, like our Tub-women.