rub-a-dub, n.
(ˈrʌbəˌdʌb)
[Imitative.]
1. The sound of a drum being beaten; a drumming sound.
| 1787 Colman Inkle & Yarico ii. i, Little Cupid's his drummer: he has been beating a round rub-a-dub on our hearts. 1833 H. Martineau Manch. Strike i. 16 A rub-a-dub on the drum woke him up. 1891 Barrie Little Minister (1892) 53 The quick rub-a-dub of a drum was heard. |
| attrib. 1863 W. Phillips Speeches iii. 36 A ‘rub-a-dub agitation’, as ours is contemptuously styled. |
2. A pub, a hotel.
| c 1926 ‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 81, I gazed upon the motley crowd Within this ‘rub-a-dub’. 1963 H. Slesar Bridge of Lions iii. 52 He could fathom why rub-a-dub meant a pub. |
Hence
rub-a-dub v.;
rub-a-dub-dub, (
a) the sound of a drum; also
attrib.; (
b)
Austral. and
N.Z. rhyming slang., a pub.
| 1814 Scott Wav. xxxiv, The drum advanced, beating no measured martial tune, but a kind of rub-a-dub-dub. 1831 Lincoln Herald 16 Dec. 3/6 The rub-a-dub-dub sound of these grand instruments. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. v. v, Sergeants rub-a-dubbing openly through all manner of German market-towns. 1887 W. S. Pratt in Gladden Parish Prob. 426 A player whose taste is limited to the rub-a-dub-dub class of music. 1941 [see rubbedy]. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. xv. 270 A hotel becomes known in rhyming slang as a rub-a-dub-dub—by rhyme on ‘pub’. 1971 National Times (Austral.) 13 Dec. 20 ‘Let's grab some Kate and Sydney and a pint of apple fritter at the rub-a-dub-dub.’.. Translated: ‘Let's grab some steak and kidney and a pint of bitter at the pub.’ |