▪ I. cub, n.1
(kʌb)
Also 6–7 cubb(e.
[Origin unknown.
It has been compared with a rare Old Irish word cuib dog, but no historical connexion has been traced.]
1. orig. A young fox.
| 1530 Palsgr. 211/1 Cubbe, a yong foxe. 1552 Huloet, Cubbe or yonge ffoxe, vulpecula. 1575 Turberv. Venerie 181 When you have taken the old foxes or badgerdes, and that there is nothing left in the earth but the yong cubbes. 1648 Hunting of Fox 13 His skin..when he is a young Cubbe is usually of a darker colour. 1880 Times 2 Nov. 4/6 No cub is he, but a full-brushed, high conditioned, dog-fox. |
2. a. By extension: The young of the bear and of other wild beasts; also of the whale.
For the young of the bear, lion, etc. the earlier word was whelp, as in all versions of the Bible from Wyclif to 1611.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. i. 29 Plucke the yong sucking Cubs from the she Beare. 1683 Burnet tr. More's Utopia (1684) 13 The old Crow loves his Young, and the Ape his Cubs. a 1687 Waller (J.), Two mighty whales..One as a mountain vast, and with her came A cub. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 334 The lion, or tyger, have seldom above two cubs at a litter. 1823 Scoresby Jrnl. 148 The smallest animals [whales] of the species, mere cubs or ‘suckers’. 1829 Scott Anne of G. ii, With the fury of a bear which had been robbed of her cubs. |
b. transf.
| 1769 Gray Jrnl. in Lakes Wks. 1884 I. 253 Passed by the side of Skiddaw, and its cub called Latterig. |
c. Cub, a junior member of the Scout Association (see scout n.4 2 c). In full Cub Scout, (formerly) Wolf Cub.
| 1922 A. Poyser (title) The Cub Song Book. 1923 Daily Mail 11 June 16 Boy Scouts and Cubs furnished a guard of honour. 1964 M. Kelly March to Gallows xiii. 165, I shan't slip a wicked potion in it... Cubs' honour. |
3. fig. a. An undeveloped, uncouth, unpolished youth.
Compared to the young of the bear, which was fabled to be born in a shapeless condition, and afterwards licked into shape by the mother.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 167 O thou dissembling Cub: what wilt thou be When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case? 1687 Congreve Old Bach. iv. viii, A country squire, with the equipage of a wife and two daughters..But, oh gad! two such unlicked cubs! 1723 Steele Consc. Lovers i. i, Like a bashful, great, awkward cub as you were. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. 64 He thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub. 1884 Hunter & Whyte My Ducats iv. 62, I know the young cubs you'll have to teach. |
b. An apprentice or beginner; spec. an apprentice pilot on a steamboat. orig. U.S.
| [1840 Ninawah (Peru, Ill.) Gaz. 14 May 2/3 Awaiting the arrival of ‘a cub’ (a young speculator).] 1875 ‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly May 567/1 The pilot not on watch takes his ‘cub’ or steersman..and goes out in the yawl. Ibid. 568/2 Nothing delights a cub so much as an opportunity to go out sounding. 1895 Kipling Land & Sea Tales (1923) 72 I'll take him as my cub, for there's no denying he's a resourceful lad. 1966 New Statesman 30 Dec. 956/1 Every cub knows that the first rule of reporting is: never show your story to your subjects before it's on the street. |
† 4. A name formerly given at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, to the surgeon's assistant. (The name ‘dresser’ was substituted in 1738.)
| 1698 St. Thomas's Hosp. Rec. (MS.) 18 June, That no Surgeons cubs or persons of that nature do keep their hatts on before the Physicians or Surgeons of the house. 1702 Ibid. 12 Feb., Orders for Cubbs. That no Surgeon have more than three at one time. |
5. Comb., as cub-bear, cub-fox, (sense 2 c) cub-master, cub-mistress; (sense 3 b) cub-engineer, cub-pilot, cub-reporter; † cub-drawn a., drawn (or ? sucked dry) by its cubs; cub-hunting, hunting young foxes at the beginning of the season; also cub-hunt n. and v.
| 1834 H. Brackenridge Recoll. vii. 79 Some would rather pass for cub bears than be disappointed in their endeavours to attract attention. |
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. i. 12 This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch. |
| 1875 ‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly Jan 71/1 They..learned to disappear when the ruthless ‘cub’-engineer approached. |
| 1684 T. Goddard Plato's Demon 237 A little Cubb Fox. |
| 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. III. 121 Entertaining a party of friends for cub-hunting. 1870 D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rural Sports 489 It is not common to cub hunt in the country intended for the winter practice. Ibid. A September cub hunt. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 25 Mar. 9/1 To run a troop and pack requires a certain amount of money, which it is hardly fair to ask the individual Scoutmasters and Cubmasters to find. 1927 Daily Mail 12 July 10/4 A Hastings Rover Cub-master. |
| 1927 Daily Tel. 21 June 3/2 A child who had fallen into a mill stream..was rescued by a local cubmistress. 1970 J. Wainwright Prynter's Devil vii. 160 Shut up, if you can't do anything but make noises like an outraged cub-mistress. |
| 1859 ‘Mark Twain’ in Univ. Missouri Stud. (1938) XIII. 57/2 Our friend Sergeant Fathom, one of the oldest cub pilots on the river. 1875 ― in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 217/1 (heading) A ‘cub’ pilot's experience; or, learning the river. |
| 1899 J. L. Williams in Scribner's Mag. XXV. 277 (title) The cub reporter and the king of Spain. 1908 A. Ruhl Other Americans ii. 9 The mere gringo feels like a cub reporter at the office of a campaign committee. 1925 E. Wallace King by Night xli. 183 Bobby was a cub reporter on my newspaper in Sacramento. |
▪ II. cub, n.2 Chiefly dial.
(kʌb)
Also 6–7 cubb(e.
[Of uncertain history, but to be compared with some LG. words: EFr. kübbing, kübben in same sense as this word, LG. kübbung, kübje a shed or lean-to for cattle, EFr. kübbe, küb, Du. kub, weir-basket or weel for fish (cf. Dornkaat Koolmann, and Grimm, s.v. koben): the latter is cognate with OE. cofa, cove, but in sense closely agrees with this word.]
a. A stall, pen, or shed for cattle; also, a coop or hutch. b. A crib for fodder; a chest, bin, or other receptacle.
| 1546 Confut. N. Shaxton H vj b (T.), The anchors also, and charter-monks, vowed they not to die in theyr houses? And why are they not turned out of theyr cubbes, if vowes may not be broken? 1634 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons (1860) App. p. lxvii, Mending posts and rayles about the deer house and the long cubb. a 1644 Laud Acct. Chancellorship 132 (T.) The great leidger-book of the statutes is to be placed in archivis among the university charters, and not in any cub of the library. 1675 Tullie Let. Baxter 9 You are pleas'd..to put me..in the Cubb with divers mean and contemptible Malefactours. 1789 W. Marshall Gloucestershire I. 231 They have their fill of hay given them..in cribs—provincially ‘cubs’—of different forms and descriptions. 18.. Landor (W.), I would rather have such..in cub or kennel than in my closet or at my table. 1870 Eng. Mech. 21 Jan. 447/3 In this hearth are two apertures leading into the ‘Cubs’..which are used for receiving the ore, when ready to be drawn out. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk., Cub, (1) a chest used in stables to hold corn for the horses. (2) a boarded partition in a granary to store corn..(4) a pen for poultry or rabbits. |
▪ III. cub, v.1
(kʌb)
[f. cub n.1 Cf. whelp vb.]
1. trans. and intr. To bring forth cubs.
| 1755 in Johnson. 1843 Marryat M. Violet xliv. 369 note, It [the puma] will seldom attack unless when cubbing. 1864 Moral Statist. Glasgow 299 When the tigress cubs a lamb, when the vulture breeds a dove. |
2. to cub it: to live as a cub.
3. intr. = cub-hunt v. s.v. cub n.1 5. Chiefly as pres. pple. Cf. cubbing vbl. n.
| 1926 Glasgow Herald 21 Sept. 7/2 We were cubbing on the high ground above Anstruther. 1931 Daily Express 14 Oct. 1/5 They were out cubbing yesterday. |
▪ IV. cub, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
(kʌb)
[f. cub n.2]
trans. To confine as in a ‘cub’; to coop up.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. v, What misery..must it needs bring to him..to be cubbed vp vpon a sudden. 1629 Mabbe tr. Fonseca's Devout Contempl. 46 David's souldiers..would faine haue set vpon Saul, when they had him cub'd vp in the caue. 1693 Dryden Persius' Sat. v, Cubb'd in a cabbin, on a mattrass laid. 1791 Gent. Mag. LXI. ii. 809 It is the fashion..for all the English to be cubbed up in the Fauxbourg St. Germain. 1882 W. Worcester Gloss., Cub, to confine in small space. Cubbed-up, bent, crumpled. |