Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Tub \Tub\, n. [OE. tubbe; of Dutch or Low German origin; cf. LG.
   tubbe, D. tobbe.]
   1. An open wooden vessel formed with staves, bottom, and
      hoops; a kind of short cask, half barrel, or firkin,
      usually with but one head, -- used for various purposes.

   2. The amount which a tub contains, as a measure of quantity;
      as, a tub of butter; a tub of camphor, which is about 1
      cwt., etc.

   3. Any structure shaped like a tub: as, a certain old form of
      pulpit; a short, broad boat, etc., -- often used jocosely
      or opprobriously.

            All being took up and busied, some in pulpits and
            some in tubs, in the grand work of preaching and
            holding forth.                        --South.

   4. A sweating in a tub; a tub fast. [Obs.] --Shak.

   5. A small cask; as, a tub of gin.

   6. A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft;
      -- so called by miners.

   {Tub fast}, an old mode of treatment for the venereal
      disease, by sweating in a close place, or tub, and
      fasting. [Obs.] --Shak.

   {Tub wheel}, a horizontal water wheel, usually in the form of
      a short cylinder, to the circumference of which spiral
      vanes or floats, placed radially, are attached, turned by
      the impact of one or more streams of water, conducted so
      as to strike against the floats in the direction of a
      tangent to the cylinder.