chub

Etymology 1

From chub (“short, thick fish species used as bait"; used metaphorically since 1558 for "lazy person”), from Middle English chubbe (“chub (the river fish)”), recorded since c.1450, probably an assibilated form of cub (“a lump, heap, mass”) and cob, from Middle English *cubbe (found only in derivative cubbel (“a block to which an animal is tethered”)), from Old Norse kubbr, kumbr (“block, stump, log”) and/or Old Norse kumben (“stumpy”). Cognate with Icelandic kubbur (“block, cube”), Norwegian kubb, kubbe (“block, stump, log”), Swedish kubb (“block, log”), and perhaps to Icelandic kubba (“to hew, chop, lop”) and Russian кубышка (kubyška). More at cob, kibble.

noun

1. One of various species of freshwater fish of the Cyprinidae or carp family, especially:
   1. A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus)
   2. In Europe, its close relatives, notably the fallfish.
2. (by extension) Any of various vaguely related marine or freshwater fishes.
   1. In North America, a black bass.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from chubby.

noun

1. (slang, countable) A chubby, plump person.
   1. (LGBT slang, countable) An overweight or obese gay man.
2. (uncountable) Excess body fat.
   so all this chub and lack of fitness will be something I embrace in two days when I quit my new diet and exercise plan. 2014, David Tieck, Ok, Intriguing, page 149
3. An erection (erect penis).
   I shift in my seat trying to get comfortable refusing to believe that my dick is in full chub mode right now because of the girl whose pigtails I used to pull to try to drive her crazy when she was younger. 2017, Piper Rayne, Sexy Beast
   The DA was a hot young woman who gave me a chub when she finally showed up in a business skirt with a slit in the side, after I had sat around waiting for her for three hours. 2018, J.R. Hamilton, Low: Charlie's Drunkalogue
   He briefly wondered what Carey might look like naked in his new womanly body, then realized his thoughts were in bad form, thankfully before he had a chance to get an inappropriate chub. 2019, Chad Stroup, Sexy Leper
4. A plastic or other flexible package of meat, usually ground meat or luncheon meat.
   One thing that makes recovering product harder is grocery stores' and restaurants' practice of regrinding one company's lot, or "chub," of meat with those from other companies, thus making trace-back harder. 1998, Center for Public Integrity, Safety last: the politics of e. coli and other food-borne killers
   Chub packaging is versatile. Package sizes can range from miniature tubes up to 150-mm diameter and 1220 mm in length (6-in. diameter and 48 in. long). Virtually any pumpable paste can be filled into a chub pack 1999, Walter Soroka, Fundamentals of packaging technology
   A typical gelbwurst chub is 24 inches long and about 2V2 inches thick. 2001, John R. Romans, The meat we eat
   Once opened, use or freeze the meat within one day. Tube or chub packaging is used for fresh or frozen ground beef. Use or freeze fresh meat chubs within a day 2004, Alberta Beef Producers, I Love Alberta Beef, page 15
   A time/temperature history for either the product (4.5 kg chubs of coarse-ground beef) or the storage environment ... After inoculation, the surface of each 4.5-kg coarse-ground beef chub contained six samples inoculated with E. coli 2007, Greg M. Burnham, Predicting pathogen growth and death in raw meat and poultry, page 86

Etymology 3

verb

1. (US, Texas politics) To stop a bill from being passed using procedural delays.
   Did You Know? in 2009, House Democrats chubbed to death a bill to require voters to present valid ID at the polls because they feared that it would keep low-income and elderly citizens from voting. 2014, William Earl Maxwell, Texas Politics Today, Boston, M.A.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, published 2013–2014, page 207
   In the House, as the session approached its end, Democrats "chubbed" the bill to death (a tactic similar to filibustering) – and, in the process, killed many other bills that were waiting in line behind it. 14 January 2011, Richard Whittaker, Wells Dunbar, Lee Nichols, Jordan Smith, “This Way to the Big Top!”, in The Austin Chronicle, Austin, T.X.: Austin Chronicle Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-17