tub

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.

noun

1. 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.
2. The contents or capacity of such a vessel.
   She added a tub of margarine to the stew.
3. 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. 1920, Theodore Sharpe, My Place in the Shade: And Various Verse, page 27
4. (nautical, informal) 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". 13 March 2019, Drachinifel, 24:52 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned, archived from the original on 2022-10-15
5. (humorous or derogatory) Any structure shaped like a tub, such as a certain old form of pulpit, a short broad boat, etc.
6. A small cask.
   a tub of gin
7. Any of various historically designated quantities of goods to be sold by the tub (butter, oysters, etc).
8. (mining) A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.
9. (obsolete) A sweating in a tub; a tub fast.
10. (slang) A corpulent or obese person.
    Donald tells him to be more realistic. Take those two girls over there, for example. One's a zitface and the other's a tub, so they'd be perfect for them. 2003, Trey Ellis, Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic, page 139

verb

1. (transitive) To plant, set, or store in a tub.
   to tub a plant
2. (transitive, intransitive) To bathe in a tub.
   February 1, 1873, Meredith Townsend and Richard Holt Hutton (editors), "Change of Air and Scene", in The Spectator Don't we all "tub" in England?