CUB (cubbed, cubbing)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: cubbed    , cubbing   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cub mean? 

• CUB (noun)
  The noun CUB has 3 senses:

1. an awkward and inexperienced youth

2. a male child (a familiar term of address to a boy)

3. the young of certain carnivorous mammals such as the bear or wolf or lion

  Familiarity information: CUB used as a noun is uncommon.

• CUB (verb)
  The verb CUB has 1 sense:

1. give birth to cubs

  Familiarity information: CUB used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUB (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An awkward and inexperienced youth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

cub; greenhorn; rookie

Hypernyms ("cub" is a kind of...):

beginner; initiate; novice; tiro; tyro (someone new to a field or activity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A male child (a familiar term of address to a boy)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

cub; lad; laddie; sonny; sonny boy

Hypernyms ("cub" is a kind of...):

boy; male child (a youthful male person)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The young of certain carnivorous mammals such as the bear or wolf or lion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

cub; young carnivore

Hypernyms ("cub" is a kind of...):

young mammal (any immature mammal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cub"):

lion cub (a young lion)

bear cub (a young bear)

tiger cub (a young tiger)

Derivation:

cub (give birth to cubs)

• CUB (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give birth to cubs

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

bears cub every year

Hypernyms (to "cub" is one way to...):

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

cub (the young of certain carnivorous mammals such as the bear or wolf or lion)

 Context examples 

"There is much meat on the ice—a she- bear and two half-grown cubs."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

You are a young panther, a lion cub. Well, well, it is you who must pay for that strength.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It manifested itself as a fear strong within her, that made her prevent One Eye from more closely inspecting the cubs he had fathered.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A trafficked cub can fetch $10,000, according to the BBC.

(Around 7,100 cheetahs remain, say experts, Wikinews)

“You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then,” said he.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Some young cub Charlie Tregellis has caught in the country,” he murmured.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He went about the deck like a tiger cub, glaring his hatred openly at Wolf Larsen and Johansen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Persian saying, ‘There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.’ There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nature has taught them to dig deep holes with their nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein they lie by themselves; only the kennels of the females are larger, sufficient to hold two or three cubs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mates, says he, there's two of them alone there; one's the old cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this; the other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)