tube

English Online Dictionary. What means tube‎? What does tube mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle French tube, from Latin tubus (“tube, pipe”), related to tuba (“long trumpet; war-trumpet”), of obscure ultimate origin, but possibly connected to tībia (“shinbone, reed-pipe”), see there.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tyōōb, IPA^(key): /tjuːb/
• (yod-coalescence) enPR: chōōb, IPA^(key): /tʃuːb/
• (yod-dropping) enPR: tōōb, IPA^(key): /tuːb/
• Rhymes: -uːb

Noun

tube (plural tubes)

1. Anything that is hollow and cylindrical in shape.
2. An approximately cylindrical container, usually with a crimped end and a screw top, used to contain and dispense semiliquid substances.

3. (British, colloquial, often capitalised as Tube, a trademark) The London Underground railway system, originally referred to the lower level lines that ran in tubular tunnels as opposed to the higher ones which ran in rectangular section tunnels. (Often the tube.)
   1. (obsolete) One of the tubular tunnels of the London Underground.
4. (Australia, slang) A tin can containing beer.
   • 2002, Andrew Swaffer, Katrina O'Brien, Darroch Donald, Footprint Australia Handbook: The Travel Guide [text repeated in Footprint West Coast Australia Handbook (2003)]

     Beer is also available from bottleshops (or bottle-o's) in cases (or 'slabs') of 24-36 cans (‘tinnies' or ‘tubes') or bottles (‘stubbies') of 375ml each.
5. (surfing) A wave which pitches forward when breaking, creating a hollow space inside.
6. (Canada, US, colloquial) A television. Compare cathode ray tube and picture tube.

   Synonyms: (derogatory) boob tube, (British) telly
7. (Scotland, slang) An idiot.

Usage notes

Use for beer can was popularised in UK by a long-running series of advertisements for Foster's lager, where Paul Hogan used a phrase "crack an ice-cold tube" previously associated with Barry Humphries' character Barry McKenzie. (For discussion of this see Paul Matthew St. Pierre's book cited above.)

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:tube

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tube (third-person singular simple present tubes, present participle tubing, simple past and past participle tubed)

1. (transitive) To supply with, or enclose in, a tube.

2. To ride an inner tube.

3. (medicine, transitive, colloquial) To intubate.

See also

• tube on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• bute, Bute, Tebu

Estonian

Noun

tube

1. partitive plural of tuba

French

Etymology

From Latin tubus (“tube, pipe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tyb/

Noun

tube m (plural tubes)

1. pipe
2. tube
3. (informal, music) a hit

   Chacune de ses chansons était un tube. ― Every one of his/her songs was a hit.

4. (slang) money

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Romanian: tub
• → Turkish: tüp

Further reading

• “tube”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• bute, buté

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtu.be/
• Rhymes: -ube
• Hyphenation: tù‧be

Noun

tube f

1. plural of tuba

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.be/, [ˈt̪ʊbɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.be/, [ˈt̪uːbe]

Noun

tube

1. vocative singular of tubus

Middle French

Etymology

From Latin tubus.

Noun

tube m (plural tubes)

1. conduit; canal; pipe

Descendants

• French: tube
  • → Romanian: tub
  • → Turkish: tüp
• → English: tube

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tube, supplement)

Scots

Alternative forms

• choob

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tjub/, /tʃub/

Noun

tube (plural tubes)

1. wanker, asshole, dickhead