tube--prophetes.ai

▪ I. tube, n.
    (tjuːb)
    [a. F. tube (1460 in Godef. Compl.), ad. L. tub-us.]
    I. Artificial.
    1. a. A hollow body, usually cylindrical, and long in proportion to its diameter, of wood, metal, glass, or other material, used to convey or contain a liquid or fluid, or for other purposes; a pipe.
    A more recent and more generic term than pipe, in which the form of the thing is chiefly considered, and thus used in reference to many things to which pipe is not applied, pipe being an older term retained for tubes used for the passage of liquids, smoke, air, or gas, while tube is applied to most recent inventions; but the distinction is often arbitrary, depending on the custom of the workshops.

1658 Phillips, Tube,..any long pipe through which water or other liquid substance is conveyed. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. i. 33 The Mercury in the [barometric] Tube fell down lower, about three inches, at the top of the Mountain then at the bottom. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. iv. §3 When the Sucker in a Pump is drawn, the space it filled in the Tube is certainly the same, whether any other body follows the motion of the Sucker or no. 1837 Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 206 [In] a solar microscope..B, the tube containing the condensing lens. 1846 Greener Sc. Gunnery 288 Lateral pressure on the sides of the tube of the gun. 1861 N. A. Woods Pr. Wales in Canada & U.S. 122 The whole Tube [of a tubular bridge] was first actually built in England and sent out piece meal.

b. = tubing, material of a tubular form.

1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 78 Some feet or yards..of that more pliable composition tube, employed by the makers of beer engines. 1893 J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 87 A piece of india rubber tube.

2. In specific applications usually indicated by context. a. A glass or other tube used in chemistry; esp. = test-tube. tube of safety = safety-tube (safety 11).

1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 60 Melt the phosphorus in boiling water, and apply to it one of the ends of the tube, while you hold the other in your mouth. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 207 A tube of safety is a tube open at its upper end, and having its lower end plunged in water. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. i. (1842) 21 Glass tubes of various sizes closed at one end. Ibid. xiv. 307 The best tubes are those made of Bohemian potash glass, and used by Liebig in his analyses of organic bodies.

b. A tubular surgical instrument; a cannula; an intubation-tube.

1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 7 The tube is to be passed downwards until it again reaches the substance to be extracted. 1857 Dunglison Med. Lex., Tube, Œsophageal, stomach tube... Rectal tube, defecation tube. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., (Surgical tubes) a. An esophageal tube, capable of being passed into the stomach. b. An elastic gum tube passed per anum into the colon... c. A tracheal tube. 1902 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 July, Owing to the depth of the wound two drainage tubes were introduced at the time of operation.

c. A fire-tube or water-tube in a steam-boiler; a boiler-tube.

1833 N. Arnott Physics (ed. 5) II. 32 In a long waggon⁓shaped boiler the tubes..should be made flat and broad enough to reach from side to side. 1903 Daily Chron. 7 Jan. 7/2 In the fire-tube or cylindrical boiler the fire and smoke went through the tubes, and in the water-tube the fire was outside the tubes and the water passed through them.

d. A small collapsible cylinder of tin or lead used to hold semi-liquid substances, as oil-colours.

1841 Rand Patent Specif. No. 8863 Their contents may easily be squeezed out by collapsing the said tubes or cases. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. 2643/1 Collapsible tin tubes for artists' colors. 1881 [see tube-colour in 12 b].

e. In wool or worsted spinning: cf. tube yarn in 12 b, and tube v. 2.

1884 West. Morn. News 5 Sept. 7/4 The foreign yarn trade keeps pretty brisk, particularly in lustre wefts, and similar yarns on the tube.

f. (See quot.)

1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Tube,..4. the barrel of a chain⁓pump.

g. Electronics. A sealed container, evacuated or gas-filled, containing two or more electrodes between which an electric current can be made to flow; spec. (a) a cathode-ray tube; (b) (chiefly U.S.) a thermionic valve. Freq. in Comb. with preceding n., as discharge tube, electron tube, picture tube, vacuum tube, qq.v.

1859, etc. [see vacuum tube 2]. 1898, etc. [see discharge n. 3 b]. 1905 Electrician 16 June 335/1 The phosphorescent spot on the screen of the tube follows strictly any changes which occur in the strength of the field. 1915 Ibid. 21 May 241/2 In the X-ray tube..the space charge effects are very much exaggerated. 1922 C. W. Taussig Bk. of Radio ix. 111 The tubes used are 5 watt transmitting tubes. 1940 H. M. Watson et al. Understanding Radio v. 223 As you experiment with this one-tube set, you will hear many stations faintly. 1947 R. Lee Electronic Transformers & Circuits i. 3 The limitations which inhere in transformers often influence the choice of amplifier tubes. 1973 G. J. King Newnes Colour Television Servicing Man. I. i. 29/2 The output direct from the tripler is too high an impedance to accommodate the normal beam current swings of the tube without serious voltage fluctuations. 1981 Nashelsky & Boylestad Devices iv. 128 Production rose from about 1 million tubes in 1922 to about 100 million in 1937.

h. inner tube: see inner a. 1 i. Also ellipt.

1894 Albemarle & Hillier Cycling 471 The outer arch is removed, the inner tube carefully examined, the hole discovered—if necessary by inflating the tube and immersing it in water. 1904 A. B. F. Young Complete Motorist (ed. 2) xi. 246 When the tube and cover are both in place..the air chamber is inflated by means of a pump. 1979 United States 1980/81 (Penguin Travel Guides) 367 You can buy tubes..at gas stations and stands along the route.

i. A telephone. Cf. sense 7 a and speaking-tube. colloq. or slang.

[1873 C. M. Yonge Pillars of House II. xiii. 38 Mr. Underwood breathed through a mysterious tube, and Edgar appeared.] c 1899 C. H. Chambers in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) III. 401 (Rings off, and hangs up tube.) That is another mistake—that telephone. 1959 Esquire Nov. 70 Tube, can be television, but usually telephone. Example: Buzz me on the tube. Call me up.

j. A type of skate (see quot.).

1923 E. Jessup Snow & Ice Sports 220 The ‘tubes’ are a comparatively recent departure in skate design... The blade..is set in a long hollow tube. Similar but wider tubes support the heel and front plates.

k. the tube, television, a television set; also, the boob tube [see boob n. 3]; cf. the box s.v. box n.² 3 j. colloq. (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

1959 [see sense 2 i above]. 1965 Sunday News (N.Y.) 4 Oct. 2 She..is making a name for herself as a singer on the tube. 1966 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) Fall 1 Let's catch the late show on the boob tube. 1972 Observer 31 Dec. 24/1 Turning to the tube in order to redress the balance with a spot of the old festive vulgarity. 1977 M. French Women's Room (1978) ii. 115, I sit and watch the stupid boob tube. 1979 Radio Times 11–17 Aug. 19/1 ‘I see you on the tube a lot,’ an American said to me recently in a pub. ‘Oh really,’ I replied, ‘the Piccadilly line?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘the tube, the dream machine.’

l. down the tube(s), lost, finished, in trouble; freq. in to go down the tube(s) = to go down the drain s.v. drain n. 1 e. slang (orig. U.S.).

1963 Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 168 To fail to pass an examination:..go down the tubes. 1975 New Yorker 5 May 32/1 It would be ludicrous to end on a note of Chris going down the tube. 1977 J. D. MacDonald Condominium xii. 122 We've got too many goodies tucked into the Marliss Corporation to take a chance of it going down the tube. 1982 Listener 16 Dec. 35/3 The smile on Sir Freddie's face the week before it was revealed that he was down the tubes to the extent of something over {pstlg}270 million was the smile of a consummate actor.

m. A bottle or can of beer. Austral. colloq.

1969 Listener 24 Apr. 588/2 This..extrovert chunders..his way through the kangaroo valley of Earl's Court..buoyed up by innumerable tubes (bottles) of Foster's Beer. 1980 R. Hill Killing Kindness xx. 187 ‘What do you want to do?’.. Mow my lawn and then cool off with a tube of lager, thought Pascoe.

3. An optical instrument of tubular form, esp. a telescope: more fully optic tube. Now arch.

1651 [see optic A. 4]. 1668 Pepys Diary 4 Dec., Wrote a letter at the Board, by the help of a tube, to Lord Brouncker. 1668–9 Ibid. 14 Mar., My eyes being very bad, and..I forced to find a way to use by turns with my tube, one after another. a 1718 Prior Solomon iii. 470 Of his fair Deeds a distant View I took; But turn'd the Tube upon his Faults to look. 1781 Cowper Charity 387 Some grave optician..finds that though his tubes assist the sight, They cannot give it. 1807 J. Barlow Columb. vii. 386 On the tall decks, their curious chiefs explore, With optic tube, our camp⁓encumber'd shore. 1867 G. Gilfillan Night iv. 116 To the silent tube in Herschel's hand A hundred suns spring up.

4. † a. Applied to a tobacco-pipe. poet. Obs. rare.

1736 I. H. Browne Pipe of Tobacco Poems (1768) 117 Little tube of mighty pow'r, Charmer of an idle hour. 1784 Cowper Task v. 55 With pressure of his thumb To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube, That fumes beneath his nose.

b. A cigarette. slang.

1946 P. Larkin Jill 16 Christopher, extending his silver cigarette[-case], said with an uneasy smile: ‘Tube for anyone?’ 1975 High Times Dec. 11/2 (Advt.), Filter tipped tubes give a smoother smoke to the very end.

5. † a. A cannon; also a rifle or hand-gun. poet.

1762 Falconer Ode Dk. of York 138 The ships their horrid tubes display, Tier over tier. 1801 Sporting Mag. XVII. 148 With curious skill the deathful tube is made. 1816 Byron Siege Cor. iii, To point the tube, the lance to wield. 1897 Kipling in Times 17 July 13/6 Heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard.

b. A small pipe introduced through the vent, formerly used in firing cannon; a friction-tube, quill-tube, or priming-tube.

1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VIII. 230/2 Firing it [gunpowder] with tubes, introduced at a vent bored through the button and breech of the gun, of different lengths, so as to reach the different parts of the powder. 1828 Webster, Tube, in artillery, an instrument of tin, used in quick firing. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Tubes, for guns, a kind of portable priming, for insertion into the vent,—of various patterns.

c. The inner cylinder of a built-up gun, upon which the outer case is shrunk. Cf. tubage 1 b.

1895 in Funk's Stand. Dict.

6. a. A musical wind-instrument, a pipe. poet. rare. b. The main cylinder of a wind-instrument (Cent. Dict. 1891).

1820 Keats Hyperion i. 206 Solemn tubes, Blown by the serious Zephyrs, gave of sweet And wandering sounds, slow⁓breathed melodies.

7. a. A pneumatic dispatch-tube.

1860 Once a Week 28 July 130/2 Written messages are sucked through tubes... We hear a whistle; this is to give notice that a despatch is about to be put into the tube at Mincing Lane, two-thirds of a mile distant. 1861, 1874 [see dispatch n. 12]. 1866, 1894 [implied in tube-journey, tube-room: see 12]. 1905 Daily Chron. 27 May. 4/3 From Whiteley's 6,194 parcels were dispatched in five hours, of which 78 per cent. could have been sent by tube.

b. The cylindrical tunnel in which an underground electric railway runs; also short for tube-railway. colloq. Also, any tunnel or tubular bridge for a railway.
twopenny tube, the Central London Railway, opened in 1900: see twopenny.

1847 Queen Victoria Jrnl. 15 Aug. (1868) 72 We passed the famous Swilly Rocks, and saw the works they are making for the tube for the railroad. 1900 H. D. Browne in Londoner 30 June (heading), The Twopenny Tube. 1900 Punch 4 July 7/1. 1901 Lancet 2 Nov. 1209/2 A good portion of the air must be driven backwards and forwards unchanged in the tube. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 24 Oct. 2/3 When the phrase ‘the twopenny tube’ came into existence..a similar electric ‘tube’ had been in regular running for close upon ten years. 1905 Rider Haggard in Gardener's Year May 165 The first part of my journey..was by Tube.

8. Physics. A tubular figure conceived as being formed by lines of force or action passing through every point of a closed curve; as tube of flow (see flow n.¹ 1 b), tube of force, tube of induction.

1878 W. K. Clifford Dynamic 199 If we take a small closed curve, and draw lines of flow through all points on it, the tubular surface traced out by these lines is called a tube of flow. 1881 [see flow n.¹ 1 b]. 1885 Watson & Burbury Math. The. Electr. & Magn. I. 104 The portions of any surfaces in an electric field intercepted by the same tube of force are called corresponding surfaces,..the algebraic sum of the electricities included in the tube in its passage from any one surface to any other. 1902 Sloane Stand. Electr. Dict., Tubes of Force, aggregations of lines of force, either electrostatic or magnetic. They generally have a truncated, conical or pyramidal shape and are not hollow. Every cross-section contains the same number of lines.

II. Natural.
9. Anat. and Zool. a. A hollow cylindrical vessel or organ in the animal body; a canal, duct, passage, or pipe, as in the circulatory, alimentary, respiratory, reproductive, or excretory systems; often preceded by a defining word, as alimentary tube, bronchial tube, Eustachian tube, Fallopian tube, intestinal tube, etc.: see these words.

[cf. 1598 Florio, Tubo,..the pipe wherethrough the marrow of the backe bone runneth. 1611 Cotgr., Tube, a Conduit⁓pipe; also, the hollow of the back-bone, or the pipe through which the marrow thereof doth runne.] 1661 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2). 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Fallopian Tubes, two slender Passages proceeding from the Womb. 1741, 1755 Eustachian tube [see eustachian.] 1809 Med. Jrnl. XXI. 400 The œsophagus..that animated tube. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xli. 128 Connected by a slender tube with each mandible in spiders is a vessel with spiral folds, which seems properly to belong to this head. 1831 J. Davies Man. Mat. Med. 374 Its passage in the intestinal tube is attended with the same phenomena. 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Sept. 584 The main depôts of lymphocytes..are round the hollow tubes of the body.

b. One of the siphons of a mollusc.

1839 Darwin Voy. Nat. I. (1852) 8 It [cuttle-fish] could..take good aim by directing the tube or siphon on the under side of its body.

c. The penis. slang.

1922 Joyce Ulysses 750, I suppose the people gave him that nickname [sc. Mr de Kock] going about with his tube from one woman to another.

10. A hollow cylindrical channel in a plant; spec. in Bot. the lower united portion of a gamopetalous corolla or gamosepalous calyx; also, a united circle of stamens.

a 1704 Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. ix. (1754) 34 This [juice] is convey'd by the stalk up into the branches, and leaves, through little, and in some plants, imperceptible tubes. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. iii. (1765) 7 Monopetalous [corolla]..consists of two Parts, viz. the Tube, or lower Part, which is usually Tube-shaped; and the Limb, or upper Part. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) IV. 310 Tubes white, brownish with age. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 394 Syngenesia. Stamens united by their Anthers into a tube, rarely by their Filaments also. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 187 The laticiferous tubes permeate the whole body of the plant, in most cases as a continuous system.

11. a. Applied to other tubular or cylindrical objects or formations of natural origin.

1831 Literary Gaz. 15 Jan. 44/2 Lightning Tubes—In the neighbourhood of the old castle of Remstein..there have been found this summer very firm and long vitreous tubes. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxv. 362 The tube in fact resembled a vast organ-pipe. 1865, 1884 [see fulgurite]. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 190 The molten matter..thus forms a hard stony tube lining the volcanic chimney.

b. Surfing. The hollow curve of a breaking wave.

1962 Austral. Women's Weekly 24 Oct. (Suppl.) 3/4 Tube, the area of a dumping wave between the breaking crest and the trough. 1968 Surfer Mag. Jan. 89/1 You get back inside the tube and the whole tunnel is glowing. 1979 Nat. Geographic Mag. Feb. 235 (caption) Shootin' the tube, a surfer threads the eye of a breaker.

III. 12. a. attrib. and Comb., as tube attendant, tube-holder, tube-room, tube system, tube trade, tube-vase, tube-wall, tube-work, tube-worker; tube-rolling n. and adj.; tube-eyed, tube-like, tube-shaped adjs.; in sense 2 a, as tube-apparatus, tube atmolyser, tube-bath, tube-chemistry, tube-furnace, tube-receiver, tube-retort; in sense 7 b, as tube bill (bill n.³ 3), tube conductor, tube mileage, tube railway, tube-route, tube station, tube-train, tube traveller, tube tunnel.

1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xiv. (1842) 315 Sulphur may be combined with platina, and phosphorus with lime, in a *tube apparatus.

1873 Watts Fownes' Chem. (ed. 11) 126 Atmolysis is best exhibited by means of an instrument called the *tube-atmolyser.

1908 Daily Chron. 15 Feb. 1/7 A *tube attendant at the G.P.O.

1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xvi. (1842) 400 *Tube-baths for the conveyance of limited temperatures either by the intermedium of water, solutions, or metals.

1902 Westm. Gaz. 5 Nov. 11/1 The County Council has found itself unable to frame a *Tube Bill.

1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. vii. (1842) 225 Processes of this kind will be described and illustrated in Section xvi. on *Tube Chemistry.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 18 Feb. 9/4 *Tube conductor's shocking death.

1792 Southey To Contemplation v, I..watch'd the *tube-eyed snail Creep o'er his long moon-glittering trail.

1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xiv. (1842) 309 Placing two bricks edgeways, across a loose square grate,..makes an excellent *tube-furnace. Ibid. xix. 505 The tube furnace..is an excellent instrument for softening considerable lengths of tubes.

1897 Westm. Gaz. 16 Dec. 3/1 A cigar *tube-holder that prevents the odoriferous tube from spoiling his pocket. 1905 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 16 Sept. 618 The tube-holder is graduated so that the tube may be easily moved a distance of 2½ inches.

1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt Introd., The *tube-journey can never lend much to picture and narrative.

1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 27/1 Animals whose *tube-like bodies are prolonged deeply into the common mass. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xviii. 291 Sometimes tube-like pieces, evidently rings of mucous membrane..are discharged.

1902 Westm. Gaz. 21 Apr. 10/1 The ‘*tube’ mileage in London.

1900 Daily News 3 Dec. 5/2 One of the most useful of the new *tube railways. 1906 C. Mansfield Girl & Gods vi, The warm stench from the Tube railway assailed her nostrils.

1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. (1842) 644 Make some closed tubes,..some *tube receivers..and other useful apparatus.

Ibid. xix. 510 *Tube retorts..are made by first closing the end of a piece of tube, and then [etc.].

1908 Westm. Gaz. 13 Aug. 8/1 *Tube-rolling..at 1s. 6d. per 1,000.

1894 Daily News 22 Feb. 2/1 About 30 feet of *tube⁓room on ground floor and contents severely damaged by fire.

1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Mar. 591/2 The lines of *tube-route being chosen with a view to supplementing and completing the means of communication from the suburbs.

1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. iii. (1765) 7 The..lower Part..is usually *Tube-shaped. 1825 Greenhouse Comp. I. 56 Erica aurea, tube-shaped yellow flowers on plants nearly 2 feet high.

1913 Daily News 28 Jan. 6 The trains that roar in and out of a *tube station.

1908 Installation News II. 92/2 The *tube system [of electric wiring].

1900 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 9/1 Severe competition in the *tube trade.

1901 Daily News 15 June 4/7 Journeying to and from the scenes of their labour in *tube-trains.

1903 Westm. Gaz. 4 July 3/2 Thousands of *Tube travellers.

1910 Daily Chron. 19 Feb. 3/4 Macdonald..ran to the end of the train and jumped into the *tube tunnel.

1870 Mrs. Whitney We Girls iii, They were so pretty to put in..little *tube-vases.

1857 Gosse Creation 226 The margin of the *tube-wall.

1890 Daily News 9 Jan. 2/8 The advance applies to gas, water, and steam tubes, and all the *tube works of England and Scotland are affected.

1896 N. Brit. Daily Mail 8 July 2 The pensioner..is a Coatbridge man, having wrought as a *tube-worker in the burgh.

b. Special Combs.: Tube Alloys, the code name of a section of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research formed in 1940 and concerned with research into the production of an atomic bomb; tube-bearing a., bearing a tube; spec. in Entom. having a tubular ovipositor, tubuliferous (Cent. Dict. 1891); tube-board, a board above the reeds in a reed-organ in which are the tubes or sound-channels to which the wind passes from the reeds; tube-breather (distinguished from gill-breather), an animal which breathes through tubes, tracheæ, or spiracles; tube-brush, a wire brush for cleaning out boiler-tubes or flues; also, a slender brush for cleaning the flexible tube of a feeding-bottle; tube-budding, budding by means of a cylindrical ring of bark; tube-case, in a steam-engine, the chamber containing the tubes of a surface-condenser; tube-cast, a cast of a kidney tubule excreted in the urine in Bright's disease; tube-chime, a chime of tubular ‘bells’; tube-clamp, a grab for seizing and lifting well-tubes (Knight Dict. Mech. 1877); tube-cleaner, a tool or other device for cleaning boiler-tubes, etc. (ibid.); tube-clip, tongs for holding heated test-tubes; also a clamp or clip for gripping a pipe (ibid.); tube-cock, a valve operated by compressing an elastic tube fitted into the supply pipe (ibid.); tube-colour, paint packed in a collapsible tube; tube-compass, compasses with tubular telescopic legs (Knight); tube-condenser, (a) a bent glass tube with a stopper at each end through which a smaller tube is passed; (b) in a steam-engine, a condenser in which the cooling surface consists of tubes; tube-coral, organ-pipe coral (see coral n.¹ 1 b), or its polyp; tube counter Physics, the now usual form of Geiger counter, as contrasted with the point-counter; tube-culture, culture of a microbe in a test-tube; tube curare, curare kept or transported in bamboo tubes; tube-cutter, a tool for cutting off metal pipes, a pipe-cutter; so tube-cutting; tube-door, a door in the smoke-box of a steam-engine, giving access to the flues (Knight); tube-drawing, the making of metal tubes by drawing roughly shaped cylinders through gauged holes or over a triblet; also withdrawal of boiler-tubes for inspection or repair; so tube-drawer; tube-expander, -fastener, a tool for fixing the ends of boiler-tubes in the tube-plate by expanding their ends against the holes in the plate (Knight); tube-fed a., fed, sometimes forcibly, by passing nourishment through a tube into the stomach; so tube-feed, tube-feeding vbl. n.; tube-ferrule, a ring or thimble forced into the end of a boiler-tube to fix it in the tube-plate (ibid.); tube-filter, in a tube-well, a strainer to prevent gravel from choking the pump (ibid.); tube-firing, ? the use of a torpedo-tube; tube-flower, a tropical verbenaceous plant, Clerodendron Siphonanthus, in which the corolla is funnel-shaped with a very long tube (Treas. Bot. 1866); tube-flue, a fire-tube in a steam-boiler; tube-foot, one of the numerous ambulacral tubes of an echinoderm; tube-former, a machine for making small tubes; tube-frame, a tube roving-frame; tube-funnel, a glass funnel prolonged at the bottom into a tube, a funnel-tube; tube-germination, the production of a germ-tube in the germination of a spore; tube-head = tube-plate (Webster, 1911); tube-hearted a., having a series of pulsating sinuses instead of a heart, as the Amphioxus (Cent. Dict. 1891); tube-ignition, in the internal combustion engine, ignition of the charge by a hot tube; tube journey, a journey in a tube, spec. a journey by underground railway; tube-lift, a lift for the conveyance of passengers from street-level to an underground railway or vice versa; tube-machine, a tube-drawing machine; tube-maker, (a) one who makes tubing; (b) a tube-dwelling spider or annelid; so tube-making; † tube-marine, rendering It. tuba (tromba) marina, the trumpet marine: see trumpet n. 2 b; tube map, a map of an underground-railway system; tube-medusa, a medusa with an internal system of tubes; a siphonophore; tube-mill, (a) a tube-making establishment or machine; (b) a mill for pulverizing ore, etc., which is placed in a revolving cylinder with loose flints or pebbles; tube-nosed a., tubinarial (Cent. Dict.); tube-packing, packing to prevent water reaching the tube of an oil-well (Knight); tube-plate, the plate in which the ends of the boiler-tubes are set; tube-plug, a plug or stopper for boiler-tubes in case of leakage (Knight); tube-pouch, a pouch for priming-tubes (Webster, 1864); tube roving-frame, roving-machine, a roving-frame having revolving horizontal cylinders instead of conical cans; tube-saw, a cylindrical saw (Webster, 1911); tube-scaler, -scraper = tube-cleaner (Knight); tube-sheet = tube-plate; tube-shell, a bivalve mollusc of the family Tubicolæ or Gastrochænidæ, distinguished by having a shelly tube inclosing the siphons, in addition to the ordinary valves of the shell; tube shelter, an underground tube station used as an air-raid shelter; also attrib.; tube-shutter, a shutter closing the outer end of a submerged torpedo-tube (Webster, 1911); tube skate = sense 2 j above; tube sock, an elasticized sock with no shaping for the heel; tube-spinner = tube-weaver; tube steak slang, a hot dog, a frankfurter; tube-stopper = tube-plug; tube-surface, the heating or cooling surface comprised in the tubes of a boiler or condenser (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); tube top, a women's close-fitting elasticated top reaching from the waist to under-arm level; tube-valve, a tubular valve; tube-vice (-vise), a pipe-vice (Knight); tube-weaver, a spider which spins a tubular nest or lair; tube-well, an iron pipe with a solid steel point, and with lateral perforations towards the point, which is driven into the earth until a water-bearing stratum is reached, when a suction pump is applied to the upper end; tube-worm, a tubicolous worm; a pipe-worm; tube-wrench, a wrench for gripping pipes or tubes, a pipe-wrench; tube yarn, yarn passed through a tube in the process of manufacture.

1942 J. Anderson in M. Gowing Britain & Atomic Energy 1939–45 (1964) App. iii. 437 When you asked me to take over the supervision of work on the project known as ‘*Tube Alloys’, it was contemplated that..a full scale production would be expected in this country. 1945 W. S. Churchill Victory (1946) 221 Imperial Chemicals Industries Limited agreed to release Mr. W. A. Akers to take charge of this directorate, which we called, for purposes of secrecy, the Directorate of ‘Tube Alloys’. 1978 R. V. Jones Most Secret War xxxv. 309 The British ‘Tube Alloys’ project, as our own nuclear bomb effort was called.

1880 A. J. Hipkins in Encycl. Brit. XI. 483/2 The channels, the resonators above the reeds [in the American organ] exactly correspond with the reeds, and are collectively known as the ‘*tube-board’.

1889 Cent. Dict. s.v. Gillbreather, *Tube-breather.

1877 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., Stillwell's *tube-brush,..may be operated by pulling and pushing from the respective ends of the tubes.

1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 307 Sometimes the stock is shortened, and the ring put on its upper extremity, when it is called flute⁓budding, or terminal *tube-budding.

1890 D. K. Clark Steam Engine II. 683 The water is driven through the *tube-case by two centrifugal pumps in each engine-room.

1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 69 *Tube casts..are for the most part hyaline and finely granular. 1888 Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. (1891) II. 154 Tube-casts comparable with those which occur in the urine in Bright's disease.

1887 Pall Mall G. 20 June 3/2 *Tube chimes for church towers—an English invention.

1881 Bouvier tr. Delamardelle & Goupil's Painting on China 1 Thanks to the ingenious invention of *Tube Colours.

1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Tube-condenser. 1890 D. K. Clark Steam Engine II. 641 The exhaust steam is condensed to the extent of two-thirds in a tube-condenser overhead.

1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xiv. 245 Among the zoophytes we have cup-corals, star-corals, *tube-corals.

1930 *Tube-counter [see coincidence 7 a]. 1938 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) i. 17 We shall only discuss the two [counters] that are most important.., viz. the point-counter and the tube-counter, both of which were introduced by Geiger.

1886 H. M. Biggs tr. Hueppe's Methods Bacteriol. Invest. 143 The changes in such a *tube-culture after the inoculation with the bacteria vary considerably.

1898 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LXXIV. i. 284 Paracurara, or *tube curara, is imported in bamboo tubes, and is the variety now usually met with in commerce. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia III. 300/3 Preparations have been classified according to the containers used for them: pot curare in earthenware jars; tube curare in bamboo; and calabash curare in gourds.

1901 Waterhouse Conduit Wiring 43 In all conduit work a certain amount of *tube cutting is necessary.

1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Tube-drawer, a maker of metal piping. 1897 Daily News 7 May 7/4 Consumers of iron—engineers' ironfounders, bridge-builders, rolling-stock manufacturers, and tube-drawers.

1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 61 The foundations of kindred works, such as..*tube-drawing apparatus.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 3/2 *Tube-fed Suffragettes. 1964 Lancet 26 Dec. 1349/2 Most babies were getting their first *tube-feed within 2 hours of birth. Ibid. 1351/1 *Tube-feeding is a very much simpler procedure. 1974 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 19 Jan. 108/1 The ethical problems of prolonged tube-feeding. 1980 Ibid. 21 June 1493/1 More work is needed to assess the relative merits of these proprietary diets compared with the tube feeds, prepared in hospitals.

1901 Scotsman 13 Mar. 9/8 The crews however practised *tube-firing.

1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 551 The *tube feet are either partially or completely retractile.

1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 96/1 The *tube frame..Instead of cans,..is provided with revolving horizontal cylinders... The rove which it produces has no twist.

1903 Motor. Ann. 220 *Tube-ignition is satisfactory for a fixed engine.

1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt I. 2 Posterity may be shot, like a bullet through a tube, by atmospheric pressure from Winchester to Newcastle... The *tube-journey can never lend much to picture and narrative. 1972 C. Fremlin Appointment with Yesterday i. 5 No one could guess..that there is one..that has left its identity behind not just for the duration of the tube journey, but for ever.

1915 E. Wallace Man who bought London ii. 19 The ‘*tube’ lift was crowded. 1935 E. Farjeon Nursery in Nineties 428 Once she had ventured into a tube-lift—‘But never again, my dear Eleanor!’

1891 Cent. Dict., *Tube-machine. 1901 Waterhouse Conduit Wiring 8 This strip..is passed through a tube machine from which it emerges as a perfectly smooth and regular tube.

1888 Cassell's Encycl. Dict., *Tube-makers, the Tubicolæ. 1890 Daily News 6 Oct. 2/5 Tube makers have this week advanced their discounts 5 per cent.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 9 Mar. 8/2 The amalgamation of all the big *tube-making concerns in Scotland.

1962 J. Braine Life at Top xxiii. 256, I used to have a *Tube map on my bedroom wall when I was at College? 1977 Times 15 Nov. 17/8 The Bakerloo line on the tube map.

1694 W. Holder Harmony (1731) 152 The *Tube-Marine, or Sea-Trumpet..fully expresseth the Trumpet.

1860 Wraxall Life in Sea x. 243 Among the *Tube Medusæ is also classed the pleasing Velella.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 June 9/3 The addition of eighty stamps and three *tube mills at the Nourse Mines.

1864 Webster, *Tube-plate. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. v. (ed. 2) 211 Leaks about tubes and tube-plates are most frequently caused by forced steaming.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 355 The Bobbin and Fly frame is now the great roving machine of the cotton manufacture; to which may be added, for coarse spinning, the *tube roving frame.

Ibid. 354 The cotton sliver receives a twist..in the bobbin and fly frame, or..in the *tube-roving machine.

1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Tube⁓sheet. 1903 Daily Chron. 20 Jan. 6/3 The boiler tubes getting choked up..through the tubes leaking in the back tube sheet.

1861 P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 249 Family Gastrochænidæ. (*Tube-Shells).

1942 N. Balchin Darkness falls from Air xi. 196 We went..by tube... I wanted to see how the *tube shelter business was working out. 1943 C. Milburn Diary 4 Mar. (1979) 170 There was a terrible accident at a tube shelter last night after the sirens had sounded in London. 1962 Times 23 Jan. 13/4 Henry Moore's Tube-Shelter drawings.

1923 E. Jessup Snow & Ice Sports 230 ‘*Tube’ skates. 1975 Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard 19 Dec. 12/3 As a reporter who has covered various classifications of professional hockey since the invention of tube skates, it is my considered opinion that Robert Earle Clarke is one of the most adept ankle-tappers in the history of the game.

1976 N.Y. Times Mag. 18 Jan. 4/2 Monday morning I bought a striped blue pair of training shoes,..*tube socks, a sweatband and a book called ‘On the Road to Self Improvement: The Joy of Jogging’.

1963 Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 272 Frankfurters are *tube steaks. 1978 Boston Globe 15 Aug. 1/1 The food isn't bad which is mainly tube steaks (hot dogs).

1974 News & Reporter (Chester, S. Carolina) 24 Apr. 4-c (Advt.), Calico-print elasticized *tube tops! 1984 New Yorker 23 Apr. 42/1 She was wearing khaki shorts and a lime-green tube top.

1884 Knight Dict. Mech., Supp., *Tube-valve. 1899 Daily News 16 Jan. 7/3 The tube-valve that set those massive hydraulic triggers free.

1885 H. C. McCook Tenants Old Farm 233 The arbor vitæ hedge, where numbers of the speckled *Tubeweaver (Agalena nævia) yearly spin their broad snares.

1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Tube-well. 1885 Daily News 7 Feb. 3/2 Pack saddles for mules, and tube-wells.

1819 Pantologia, Sipunculus, *tube-worm. 1928 Russell & Yonge Seas viii. 194 The case of the concealed animals, such as the Piddock or the Tube-worm,..presents almost equal difficulties. 1981 Sci. Amer. May 90/3 Occasionally a crab would climb the stalk of a tube worm, presumably to attack its plume.

1891 Daily News 2 Oct. 2/6 Single yarns, *tube yarns, and mohair yarns.

Hence ˈtubeful, as much as a tube will hold; ˈtubeless a., having no tube or tubes.

1897 G. C. Bateman Vivarium vii. 292 One or more *tubefuls [printed tubesful] of meat can be inserted into the gullet of each Reptile.

1855 Chamb. Jrnl. III. 206 Huyghens made his observations with a *tubeless telescope. 1898 Cycling 71 The Fleuss or ‘Tubeless Tyre’.

Add: [I.] [2.] n. A woman's close-fitting, sheath-like garment, freq. of simple design without darts or other tailoring; a tube dress, skirt, etc. Cf. boob tube s.v. *boob n. 5 b.

[1948 Vogue Oct. 43 Skirts range from Dior's full stiff uneven hemlines..to Fath's test tubes.] 1975 Country Life 13 Feb. 406/1 We are taking to the tube. Tightening our skirts, that is. 1983 Times 18 Oct. 10/3 A fluid silk dress..stuffed into a jersey tube at the hips looked rather clumsy. 1986 Slimming Nov./Dec. 15/3 The sweater dress is the hardest-to-wear-well garment around. Any plain-knit tube is extremely enlarging and unkindly guaranteed to grab just where you wish it wouldn't.

[5.] d. The cylindrical metal housing on a battleship or submarine from which a torpedo is discharged; = torpedo tube s.v. torpedo n. 6.

1881 Naval Encycl. 814/1 The torpedo can be projected from tubes under water either right ahead or on the broadside. 1928 Observer 11 Mar. 17/4 The King of Afghanistan will be given a lesson in torpedo firing and himself discharge a ‘mouldy’ from one of L22's tubes. 1942 G. Hackforth-Jones One-One-One i. 7 Those [torpedoes] ready for firing lying concealed in the tubes..were the pride of the ‘Fore-ends’ crew. 1976 Oxf. Compan. Ships & Sea 879/2 The world's first real torpedoboat was H.M.S. Lightning, launched in 1876 to carry spar torpedoes, but modified in 1879 by the addition of two above-water tubes for the discharge of Whitehead torpedoes. 1989 Ships Mar. 11/2 When completed she will be armed with four 21-inch tubes, mounted amidships, for Gould Mk48 heavyweight ASW torpedoes or sub Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

[II.] [9.] d. pl. The Fallopian tubes. Freq. in phr. to have one's tubes tied, etc.: to undergo sterilization by tubal ligation. slang.

1970 J. Didion Play it as it Lays xlv. 120 ‘Pelvic abscess.’ The girl loosened her wrapper and absently stroked her collarbone. ‘All through my tubes.’ 1974 K. Millett Flying iv. 404 Too old to have more children, afraid of pregnancy and now tying her tubes. 1984 D. Lodge Small World iv. iii. 277 We had no children, not by choice, something to do with Gertrude's tubes. 1987 K. Vonnegut Bluebeard (1988) vi. 54 Her mother was thinking of having her tubes tied.

[III.] [12.] b. tube dress, a close-fitting dress hanging straight from the shoulders; a chemise dress.

1948 Vogue Oct. 47 (caption), Back-dipping cape—in stiffened black wool lined brown mouton, over *tube dress. 1977 Ibid. Dec. 116 (caption) Black chiffon tube dress patterned with gold spots.

tube skirt, a tight, close-fitting skirt, often made from a single piece of knitted or elasticized material.

1948 Vogue Oct. 45 (caption) The *tube skirt—razor-sharp silhouette on Marcelle Chaumont's prune suit. 1986 Hair Flair Sept. 57/1 Go for..short tube skirts and cropped tops.

▸ tube pan n. chiefly N. Amer. a round cake tin with a hollow tube or cone in the centre that produces a ring-shaped cake.

1897 Marion (Ohio) Daily Star 23 June 3/2 Bake in moderate oven, in *tube pan, about 50 minutes. 1937 Amer. Home Apr. 50/2 Rinse a tube pan with cold water and pour batter in. 1994 Food & Wine Oct. 48/3 Gently pour the batter into a 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom.

▪ II. tube, v.
[f. prec. n.; cf. F. tuber (1489 in Littré).]
1. trans. To furnish or fit with a tube or tubes; to insert a tube in.

1828 Webster, Tube v., to furnish with a tube; as, to tube a well. 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 27/1 This..shaft..should be properly tubed with cast or sheet iron. 1867 N. Syd. Soc. Bienn. Retrosp. Med. & Surg. 1865–6, 247 The ease with which ‘tubing’ the larynx can be accomplished. 1886 H. S. Brown Autobiog. x. (1887) 57, I was engaged..in tubing boilers.

2. To pass through or enclose in a tube; cf. tube yarn (tube n. 12 b).

1863–98 S. B. Luce Seamanship App. A. 461 A recent improvement in the spinner tubes the yarn, rendering it smoother and..leaving little to be desired in the manufacture of rope.

3. intr. To travel by tube railway; also to tube it. colloq.

1902 Daily Chron. 31 Oct. 5/1 Yet my cherished hope was this—That under our Metropolis From end to end I'd tube it. 1907 Ibid. 1 June 5/5 Shoppers can ‘tube’ to the West-end.

4. trans. and intr. To fail, to perform poorly (in). U.S. slang.

1966 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) Summer 5 Tube, to fail; to do a poor job. College students, both sexes. Midwest. ‘He tubed every test last week.’ 1979 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Sept. 10/3 In time, surfers used the verb ‘to tube’ to mean ‘to do poorly’.

Add: [1.] b. colloq. To fit (a race-horse) with a tube to assist breathing, usu. after a laryngotomy. Cf. tubed ppl. a. 2 and hobday v.

[1867: see sense 1 a above.] 1969 E. H. Edwards Horseman's Guide 19 A horse that has been ‘tubed’, or Hobdayed (an operation performed on the larynx for roaring, which is an affection of that organ), is probably a good one. 1986 Times 7 May 29/8 City Boy has been dogged by wind problems..and..was tubed eight days ago.