tubby, a.
(ˈtʌbɪ)
[f. tub n. + -y.]
Resembling or suggesting a tub.
1. Tub-shaped, tub-like; of rounded outline, and stout or broad in proportion to the length; of a person, corpulent.
| 1835 Anster tr. Faustus ii. v. (1887) 269 Come, short-horned, thick Devils, tubby, stubby. 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 14 They are mostly square and squat in rigging, and somewhat tubby in build. 1885 Pall Mall G. 9 June 2/2 In 1690..he [Stradivarius] began to improve his model, bringing it flatter, the great secret of the true violin as opposed to the old tubby model. 1891 Kipling Plain Tales from Hills vii. 54 Fat Captains and tubby Majors. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 4/2 Driving a tubby [motor] car. |
2. Sounding like a tub when struck; dull or wooden in sound. Of a sound of this quality.
| 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (ed. 3) xvi. 90 The dead, lumpish, tubby tones of the fourth and fifth strings of the guittar. 1883 Haweis My Musical Life (1884) I. 95 He [the violin] goes ‘tubby’ (a term used to express a dull vibration). 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 869/2 Tubby.., characterised by reverberant booming for frequencies which are familiar when barrels are struck. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 243 Boomy, subjective description of a sound quality which has resonances in the low frequencies, or a broad band of bass lift. Expressions with similar shades of meaning are tubby or, simply, bassy. 1981 Popular Hi-Fi Mar. 81/3 Drum sound was tubby on both decks. |