Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a butter seller [the butter tubs].

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (orig. US) drums [the shape].

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 61: Ray Eisel, the drummer, was a thin and wiry fly cat who really beat his tubs.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 295: A big brutal Negro [...] punishing his busted tubs, crash, rattle-ti-boom, crash.
1961		R. Russell Sound 99: Yes, it’s time that your boy Hass packed his tubs and moved on.

3. (US gay) a gay bathhouse [SE tub, a bath].

1964		Lavender Lex. n.p.: the tubs:– The turkish baths.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 28: Dates leading to orgasm: 87 (not counting street tricks, the tubs).
1980		A. Maupin More Tales of the City (1984) 7: I will stop expecting to meet Jan-Michael Vincent at the tubs.
1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 tubs, the (noun, plural) gay steam bath.