1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., 1. v. 17. The consecrated Tub, in which The Gospel Emp'rick was to teach.
1725. Hearne, Reliquiæ, 4 Sep. The doctor . . . bred a presbyterian (as his brothers were also, his elder brother Samuel Mead having been a tub-preacher).
1726. Pope, Dunciad, ii. 2. High on a gorgeous seat, that far out-shone Henley's gilt tub, or Flecknoe's Irish throne.
1849. Bronté, Shirley, viii. 'The Rev. Moses Barraclough, t' tub orator.' . . . 'Ah!' said the Rector . . . 'He's a tailor by trade.'
1885. Observer, 27 Sep. Our thoroughfares are needed, of course, to serve a much more useful class of people than the oleagineous tub-thumpers.
1889. Contemp. Review, liv. 253. Very modest gifts, belonging to what may be called the tub-thumping school of oratory, have been known to fill a large church with eager congregations.
3. (colloquial).—A bath: spec. a sponge-bath, but also (loosely) a dip (q.v.). Also as verb.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 1. In your bathada, You shall be soaked, and stroked, and tubbed, and rubbed, And scrubbed, and fubbed, dear don.
1637. Massinger, Guardian, ii. 5. The silver bathing-tub, the cambric rubbers.
1839. Hood, Black Job. In spite of all the tubbing, rubbing, scrubbing, The routing and the grubbing, The blacks, confound them! were as black as ever.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. 2. She had it out of him in the cold tub before putting him to bed.
1886. Field, 20 Feb. A good tub and a hearty breakfast prepared us for the work of the day.
1899. Whiteing, John St., iii. Morning devotions and, . . . morning tub. Ibid., xix. I join the hero in a peg after his cold tub.
1900. Desart, Herne Lodge, xxvi. A man should [not] make love before others [or] take his tub in Hyde Park. Tubbing and love-making are innocent, of course, but you don't want to soap or spoon before your friends.
4. (common).—A broad-bottomed, slow-sailing boat; also (loosely) a vessel of any kind. At the Universities = a boat for rowing practice. Hence tubbing = boating, rowing practice; to get tubbed = to be taught to row.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green. So to the river he next day went, and made his first essay in a tub.
1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, 144. Awful muff! . . . he'd upset the veriest tub on the river.
1878. Scribner's Mag., Nov., 81. I laughed, for I knew the Osceola—an old tub, built in East Boston—never made more than ten knots an hour.
1883. Clark Russell, Sea Queen, xvi. The name of this deep and wallowing tub was the Richard and Ann.
1887. D. Teleg. 8 Feb. No other work in the eight was done during day, but some tubbing was indulged in later in afternoon. Ibid. . . . Practice in gigs, or more technically styled tubs (small boats to hold a pair of oarsmen, and in the stern of which the coach steers and advises the rowers).
1887. Field, 5 Mar. Alexander of Jesus, who has been tubbed a good deal. Ibid. . . . A good deal of tubbing has been got through in the mornings.
1889. Morning Advertiser. Passing our time between grinding hard and tubbing on the river.
1898. Stonyhurst Mag., Dec., 149. Every College is on the look-out for new oarsmen. . . . One is tubbed . . . taught to row by members of the College eight in boats that are too tub-like to be easily capsized.
1900. Nisbet, Sheep's Clothing, 1. ii. Dash me if ever I sail a tub of his again.
1901. Troddles, 106. What sort of a tub is it? It sounds good. . . . We can have no end of a lark with a boat of our own.
1903. Dickens, Diet. Oxford, 17. The freshmen are put into harness in tub-pairs or four-oars.
5. (common).—A low-wheeled and deep-welled gig (cf. sense 4) or village cart; a governess-car.
