Tub

subs. (old).—1.  Formerly a cure for the lues venerea: also SWEATING-TUB and POWDERING-TUB. [The patient was disciplined by long and severe sweating in a heated tub, combined with strict abstinence: cf. SPENSER, Fairy Queene, I. x. 25, 26.] Hence TUB-FAST = the period of salivation.

  1599.  SHAKESPEARE, Henry V. ii. 1. 78.

  1611.  BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, iii., 4.

  1639.  MAYNE, The Citye Match, v. 3 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ix. 377]. One ten times cured by sweating and the TUB.

  1647.  CARTWRIGHT, The Ordinary [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), x. 293].

  1676.  R. WISEMAN, Eight Chirurgical Treatises, VIII. ii. TUB and Chair were the old way of Sweating; but if the Patient swoons in either of them, it will be troublesome to get him out.

  1688.  RANDLE HOLME, Academy of Armoury, B. iii. 11. 441. He beareth Argent, a Doctor’s TUB (otherwise called a CLEANSING TUB), Sable, Hooped, Or. In this pockified and such diseased persons, are for a certain time put into, not to boil up to an heighth, but to parboil.

  2.  (old).—A pulpit. Hence TUB-DRUBBER (-POUNDER, -PREACHER, -THUMPER, or TUBSTER) = a ranting divine: spec. in reproach, of Dissenters (GROSE, ‘a Presbyterian parson’): also TUB-THUMPING, subs. and adj.

  1661.  Merry Drollery, 176 [EBSWORTH]. [A TUB is connected with preaching.]

  1661.  Semper iidem [Harleian Miscellany, VII. 401]. George Eagles, sirnamed Trudge-over-the-World, who, of a taylor, became a TUB-PREACHER, was indicted of treason.

  1692.  J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, ii. 165. Here are your lawful ministers present, to whom of late you do not resort, I hear, but to TUB-PREACHERS in conventicles.

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Letter to Dr. Baynard, in Works, i. 194. The TUB-PREACHERS are very much dissatisfied that you invade their prerogative of hell. Ibid., iii. 68. He (says the TUBSTER) that would be rich according to the practice of this wicked age must play the thief or the cheat. Ibid., iii. 198. Business and poetry agree as ill together as faith and reason; which two latter, as has been judiciously observ’d by the fam’d TUB-DRUBBER of Covent Garden, can never be brought to set their horses together.

  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. v. 17. The consecrated TUB, in which The Gospel Emp’rick was to teach.

  1725.  HEARNE, Reliquiæ, 4 Sept. The doctor … bred a presbyterian (as his brothers were also, his elder brother Samuel Mead having been a TUB-PREACHER).

  1726.  POPE, The Dunciad, ii. 1.

  1849.  C. BRONTË, Shirley, viii. ‘Only the Rev. Moses Barraclough: t’ TUB ORATOR you call him sometimes, I think.’ ‘Ah!’ said the rector…. ‘He’s a tailor by trade.’

  1885.  Observer, 27 Sept. Our thoroughfares are needed, of course, to serve a much more useful class of people than the oleaginous TUB-THUMPERS.

  1888.  A. R. BUCKLAND, The Parochial System at Fault, in The Contemporary Review, liv. Aug., 253. Very modest gifts, belonging to what may be called the TUB-THUMPING school of oratory, have been known to fill a large church with eager congregations, the members of which in some instances had a personal dislike for the preacher.

  3.  (colloquial).—A bath: spec. a sponge-bath, but also (loosely) a DIP (q.v.). Also as verb.

  1610.  JONSON, The Alchemist, iv. 1.

  1637.  MASSINGER, The Guardian, ii. 5. The silver bathing-TUB, the cambric rubbers.

  1839.  HOOD, A Black Job.

  1857.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, i. 2. She had it out of him in the cold TUB before putting him to bed.

  1886.  The Field, 20 Feb. A good TUB and a hearty breakfast prepared us for the work of the day.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, iii. With morning devotions and with morning TUB. Ibid., xix. I join the hero in a peg after his cold TUB.

  1900.  DESART, Herne Lodge, xxvi. A man should [not] make love before others [or] take his TUB in Hyde Park. TUBBING and love-making are innocent, of course, but you don’t want to soap or spoon before your friends.

  4.  (common).—A broad-bottomed, slow-sailing boat; also (loosely) a vessel of any kind. At the Universities = a boat for rowing practice. Hence TUBBING = boating, rowing practice; TO GET TUBBED = to be taught to row.

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, x. 95. So to the river he next day went, and … made his first essay in a ‘TUB.’

  1857.  TOM HOOD, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 144. Awful Muff! Can’t pull two strokes without catching as many crabs; he’d upset the veriest TUB on the river.

  1878.  NOAH BROOKS, The Apparition of Jo Murch, in Scribner’s Magazine, Nov., 81. I laughed, for I knew the Osceola,—an old TUB, built in East Boston; never made more than ten knots an hour.

  1883.  W. C. RUSSELL, A Sea Queen, xvi. The name of this deep and wallowing TUB was the Richard and Ann.

  1885.  DICKENS, Dictionary of Oxford, 17. The freshmen are put into harness in TUB-pairs or four-oars.

  1887.  Daily Telegraph, 8 Feb. No other work in the eight was done during day, but some TUBBING was indulged in later in afternoon. Ibid. … Practice in gigs, or more technically styled TUBS (small boats to hold a pair of oarsmen, and in the stern of which the coach steers and advises the rowers).

  1887.  The Field, 5 March. Alexander of Jesus, who has been TUBBED a good deal. Ibid. … A good deal of TUBBING has been got through in the mornings.

  1889.  Morning Advertiser. Pass our time between grinding hard and ‘TUBBING’ on the river.

  1898.  Stonyhurst Magazine, Dec., 149. Every College is always on the look-out for new oarsmen…. One … is … ‘TUBBED’ … taught to row by members of the College eight in boats that are too tub-like to be easily capsized.

  1900.  HUME NISBET, In Sheep’s Clothing, I. ii. Dash me if ever I sail a TUB of his again.

  1901.  Troddles, 106. What sort of a TUB is it? It sounds good…. We can have no end of a lark with a boat of our own.

  5.  (common).—A low-wheeled and deep-welled gig (cf. sense 4) or village cart; a governess-car.

  1849.  FROUDE [CARLYLE, Life in London, xi.]. The brothers [Carlyle] went in a steamer from Liverpool to Bangor, and thence to Llanberis, again in a TUB-gig, or Welsh car.

  6.  (Winchester).—A chest in Hall into which DISPARS (q.v.) not taken by the boys were put. Whence PRÆFECT OF TUB = a præfect whose duty was to examine the quality of meat sent in by the butcher, and after dinner to supervise the collection and distribution of the remains: obsolete (COLLINS) c. 1870. Whence (also) TUB-MESS = the table at which the Senior Præfects sat in Hall (see FARMER, Public School Word-Book, s.v. TUB 2).

  A TALE OF A TUB, subs. phr. (old).—Any kind of nonsense, fooling, or absurdity; a COCK-AND-BULL STORY (q.v.); ROT (q.v.).

  1538.  BALE, A Comedy concerning Three Laws.

  1546.  HEYWOOD, Proverbs. A TALE OF A TUBBE.

  1554.  COVERDALE, An Exhortation to the Cross. You shall see in us that we preached no lyes, nor TALES OF TUBS, but even the true word of God.

  c. 1559.  The Marriage of Wit and Science [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), ii. 335].

  1632.  CHAPMAN, The Ball, iii. 4. Lu. Do not I hear how desperate some ha’ been?… Wi. This is a TALE OF A TUB, lady.

  1633.  JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, Prologue.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, II., Prologue. These are no flim-flam stories, nor TALES OF A TUB.

  1690.  HOWELL, Lexicon Tetraglotton. A TALE OF A TUB, Chose ridicule, conte de cicogne, chanson de ricochet.

  1699.  SWIFT, TALE OF A TUB [Title].

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Works, ii. 11. What other business can a man and woman have in the dark but … to make the beast with two backs? not to pick straws, I hope, or to tell TALES OF A TUB.

  TO THROW A TUB TO A WHALE, verb. phr. (old).—(1) To bait the hook, give a sop, or make capital; (2) to throw dust in the eyes, to divert attention, to emphasize small matters so that attention is distracted from essentials.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 41. He … expatiated on the honours I had gained in the schools … as if it was necessary for a prebendary’s footman to be as learned as his master. However … it served as A TUB TO THE WHALE.

  A CAT UNDER A TUB, phr. (nautical American).—A supposed cause of delay.

  EVERY TUB (VAT, etc.) SHOULD STAND ON ITS OWN BOTTOM, phr. (old).—A simile of independence.

  1538.  LAMBERT [ELLIS, Letters, 533]. EVERY VAT SHALL STAND ON HIS OWN BOTTOM.

  1606.  HOLLAND, Suetonius, 97. Hee had used also before, to STAND UPON HIS OWNE BOTTOM.

  1630–40.  The Court and Times of Charles the First [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 87. Bunyan was later to quote the proverb, ‘EVERY TUB MUST STAND ON ITS OWN BOTTOM’; here men are left to do the same].

  c. 1656.  JOSEPH HALL, Of Contentation, 45. Man, though he be absolute in himself, and STAND UPON HIS OWN BOTTOME, yet [is] he not a little wrought upon by examples.

  1680.  MORDEN, Geography Rectified (1685), 106. Everyone endeavours to STAND ON THEIR OWN BOTTOM.

  1788.  REID, Aristotle, VI. i. 129. When reason acquires such strength as to STAND ON ITS OWN BOTTOM.

  See TUBBY.