The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Tub \Tub\, n. [OE. tubbe; of Dutch or Low German origin; cf. LG.
tubbe, D. tobbe.]
1. An open wooden vessel formed with staves, bottom, and
hoops; a kind of short cask, half barrel, or firkin,
usually with but one head, -- used for various purposes.
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2. The amount which a tub contains, as a measure of quantity;
as, a tub of butter; a tub of camphor, which is about 1
cwt., etc.
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3. Any structure shaped like a tub: as, a certain old form of
pulpit; a short, broad boat, etc., -- often used jocosely
or opprobriously.
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All being took up and busied, some in pulpits and
some in tubs, in the grand work of preaching and
holding forth. --South.
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4. A sweating in a tub; a tub fast. [Obs.] --Shak.
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5. A small cask; as, a tub of gin.
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6. A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft;
-- so called by miners.
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Tub fast, an old mode of treatment for the venereal
disease, by sweating in a close place, or tub, and
fasting. [Obs.] --Shak.
Tub wheel, a horizontal water wheel, usually in the form of
a short cylinder, to the circumference of which spiral
vanes or floats, placed radially, are attached, turned by
the impact of one or more streams of water, conducted so
as to strike against the floats in the direction of a
tangent to the cylinder.
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