Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bathtub) a boat; thus transatlantic liners, esp. as venues for crime; thus work the tubs under work v.

a.1618		W. Raleigh Invention Shipping 9: In Cæsars time, the French Brittains [...] had very untoward Tubs in which they made Warre against him.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 13 Aug. 3: What Cargo had the Old Tubs in ’em?
1824		E. Mack Cat-fight 150: Nor less did Pluto and his jeering court Of their tub-merchant make their jest and sport.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes III 37: I removed my household goods, my wife, two servants, and a horse, on board a wretched little tub of a steam-boat.
1865		‘Artemus Ward’ Among the Mormons in Complete Works (1922) 191: She is a miserable tub at best, and hasn’t much more right to be afloat than a second-hand coffin has.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 32: ‘Blast his impudence,’ muttered Murphy; ‘How I should like to sink his old tub where she lies, and drown every soul on board.’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter III 94: Many an old rotten tub had he stuck the unwary with, always receiving a percentage on the sale.
1882		Bristol Magpie 27 July 5/2: The good old tubs strolled leisurely home from a three, six, or seven years’ cruise.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 47: [I] took passage on an ancient tub called the ‘Paul Jones.’.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 2/1: My friend the American Bulldog, himself a sailor, says that the States must be fools to send their twopenny-halfpenny tubs to be a laughing stock for Europe.
1898		F. Norris Moran of the Lady Letty 39: I’m the boss of the bathtub.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 110: One of them orders you and some other meek and mild Fresher in to ‘tub,’ which you find is a boat.
1903		N. Gould Straight Goer (1915) 16: ‘I might have been tossing about in some old tub on the ocean all my life’.
1912		A. Brazil Fourth Form Friendship 221: [of a dinghy] ‘She’s a dreadfully heavy old tub [...] but she’s seaworthy’.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 165: The old tub took two days and a night to waddle from Ushant to Finisterre.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 64: On the Erin’s King that day round the Kish. Damned old tub pitching about.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 239: If I can get on some kind of tub that puts to sea [...] by God I’m going to do it.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Princess O’Hara’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 435: He is a great hand for riding the tubs back and forth between here and Europe and playing stud poker with other passengers.
1942		Kerouac letter Nov. in Charters I (1995) 31: Grab a nice clean tanker or freighter, not a rotten swarming tub like the Dorchester.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 139: The old tub began to roll up an’ down, hither an’ thither as the gale got worse.
1960		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Red Sea Sharks 32: So that’s the tub we’re going to board.
1961		F. O’Connor An Only Child (1970) 77: Steve worked on a tub called the Hannibal.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 148: So I’m on that tub an’ wot happens? This girl lets me chat her up.
1981		G. Young Slow Boats to China (1983) 76: A small and rusty tub swerving too fast into a berth.
1990		Beano Comic Library No. 190 34: This old tub can fairly shift when she’s got a nice head of steam!
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 June 20: Our tub was actually passing Charing Cross bridge.

2. a pulpit.

1642		Three-fold Discourse Between Three Neighbours 3: Those you resemble to the inferior Clergy that take all the pains: and thus in your Tubs [...] you tax all the world.
1648		‘The Rebellion’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 167: Take Pryn and his club, or Smec and his tub, / Or any Sect, old or new.
1653		J. Taylor Ale ale-evated 5: [T]he Barrell is turned into a Tub, and the Tub transformed into a suitable Pulpit.
a.1661		‘A Song’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 223: First to tell [...] How I once did trot / With great Zealot to a Lecture, / Where a Tub did view, / Hung with aprons blew.
a.1680		Rochester ‘A Satire Against Man’ Works (1721) 4: This made a whimsical Philosopher / Before the spacious World his Tub prefer.
1691		N. Ward ‘Reflections on a Country Corporation’ Writings (1704) 22: ’Tis true, the Pastors of the Zealous, / Such Doctrines will in Tub reveal-us.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:5 17: Squeez’d in, and Elbow’d pretty near / The consecrated Tub.
1711		N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus III 37: Some of the more Revengeful Mob, / Who took the Pulpit for a Tub; / The Sacred Hut in pieces Pull’d.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 14: The Tub-preaching Saint was so Zealous a Blade.
1728		Pope Dunciad II 2: High on a gorgeous seat, that far out-shone Henley’s gilt tub, or Fflecknoe’s Irish throne .
1737		Pope Mother Gin 15: Herds of city Saints elected, As Bell-weathers and Bulls, for noise respected [...] who from their tubs Make bulls in praise of Schism and Calves-head clubs.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 495: With pious face; on Bethnal-Green, / An inspir’d cobler mount a tub, / And preach to ev’ry ragged scrub.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 149: When Squintum first mounted the clerical tub, / He had little or nothing to say to the mob.
1840		‘Gloucestershire Bumpkin’ Lover’s Harmony No. 18 138: Then up jumps a man into a tub [....] he turn’ up the whites of his eyes, / And for mercy upon us did heartily pray.
1878		‘’Arry on the Turf’ Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: I know as you won’t mount the tub, as some sneaks I ’ave spoke to ’ave done.
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 174: You bible-sharps that thump on tubs, / You lurkers on the Abram-sham.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Oct. 18/1: Alas, alack, it’s very rough, / The man the parsons so acclaim / For touching not the cursed stuff / Has drink connections just the same. / He won’t announce it from a tub, / But beer is in his family.

3. (mid-17C) the vagina.

1661

Mercurius Democritus 22 May 5: Then merry Lasses jocund be and drink a Syllibub, / But never let a Round-head see the way into your Tub .

4. a coach, esp. a form of covered carriage known as a ‘chariot’.

1699		N. Ward London Spy VII 151: Our Stratford Tub, by the Assistance of its Carrionly Tits of different Colours, had out-run the Smoothness of the Road.
1700		N. Ward ‘A Step to Stir-Bitch-Fair’ in Writings (1704) 248: By the time I got thither, the Country Tub-Driver began to be Impatient, all the Company but my self being already come.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Dinner’ in Songs 1 (1842) 215/2: ‘Oh yes, her ladyship brought me home in her ladyship’s tub’.
1801		Sporting Mag. Mar. XVII 309/2: Our Belles and Beaux / Go riding in a Tub.
1843		T. Carlyle in Froude Life in London (1884) 307: I was taken in the ‘tub’ to Cowbridge.

5. from sense 3, a promisucuous woman, a prostitute.

1842

Wkly Rake (NY) 30 July n.p.: wants to knowWhat O.N. [...] meant when he called a decent woman ‘ a tub’’.

6. a seatless carriage used on the early railways.

1886

H.S. Brown Autobiog. (1887) 30: We called it a ‘stand up’ and it also went by the name of ‘a tub’ .

7. (US) a fire engine.

1864

Student and Schoolmate Jan. 3: The rope was only half manned and wishing to make myself useful [...] I joined the party in charge of the ‘tub’ [OED].

8. a glass containing approx. one pint.

1893		Sun (NY) 21 Apr. 7/2: If the hoister is on intimate terms with these schooners [of beer] he familiarly calls them ‘tubs’ or ‘high hats’. Some prefer to call them ‘geesers’.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 21: When beer is ordered in these places [i.e. a ‘barrel house’] the customer orders a ‘tub’ and receives a glass holding nearly a pint.

9. a car.

1917		G. Bowerman diary 19 Oct. in Carnes Compensations of War (1983) 38: I employ my time washing and greasing my old tub.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 293: This here tub’s all shot to pieces.
1937		J. Worby Other Half 177: Well, if you’re insured heavy enough I’ll get the best out of this tub.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 75: We gotta nice yellow speed tub outside. Maybe you’d like to come for a little ride.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Broken Melody’ in Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I’d grabbed the frightened wren and yanked her back into my tub.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 76: We had only gone a few blocks when we noticed the old tub was practically out of gas.

10. (UK Und.) an omnibus, a bus; thus work the tubs under work v.

1986

T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 120: The school bus is an old tub.

11. a truck.

1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 237: I might be able to get the old tub going and I might not.
1959		B. Naughton ‘Late Night on Watling Street’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 10: I’ll wait for you in my tub. We’ll drive off together.

12. (Aus. prison) a sanitary bucket.

1967

‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xli 4/5: tub: Sanitary bucket used in prisons.