• IPA: /tjuːb/
• (yod dropping) IPA: /tuːb/

tube (plural tubes)

1. Anything that is hollow and cylindrical in shape.
   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:

     But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

2. An approximately cylindrical container, usually with a crimped end and a screw top, used to contain and dispense semiliquid substances.

   A tube of toothpaste.

3. (British, colloquial, often capitalized as Tube) The London Underground railway system, originally referred to the lower level lines that ran in tubular tunnels as opposed to the higher ones which ran in rectangular section tunnels. (Often the tube.)

   I took the tube to Waterloo and walked the rest of the way.

4. (Australia, slang) A tin can containing beer.
   • 2002, Andrew Swaffer, Katrina O'Brien, Darroch Donald, Footprint Australia Handbook: The Travel Guide [text repeated in Footprint West Coast Australia Handbook (2003)]

     Beer is also available from bottleshops (or bottle-o's) in cases (or 'slabs') of 24-36 cans (‘tinnies' or ‘tubes') or bottles (‘stubbies') of 375ml each.

5. (surfing) A wave which pitches forward when breaking, creating a hollow space inside.
6. (North America, colloquial) A television.

   Synonyms: boob tube, telly

   Are you just going to sit around all day and watch the tube?

7. (Scotland, slang) An idiot.

• French: tuyau
• German: Rohr, Röhre
• Italian: tubo
• Portuguese: tubo
• Russian: труба́
• Spanish: tubo, canuto

• French: tube
• German: Tube
• Italian: tubo, tubetto (e.g. toothpaste)
• Portuguese: tubo, bisnaga
• Russian: тю́бик
• Spanish: tubo

• French: canette (de bière)
• Italian: lattina
• Portuguese: lata, latinha
• Russian: ба́нка

tube (tubes, present participle tubing; past and past participle tubed)

1. (transitive) To supply with, or enclose in, a tube.

   She tubes lipstick in the cosmetics factory.

2. To ride an inner tube.

   They tubed down the Colorado River.

3. (medicine, transitive, colloquial) To intubate.

   The patient was tubed.

1. (informal) The London Underground

• French: le métro londonien
• German: U-Bahn, Untergrundbahn, Metro
• Italian: la metropolitana di Londra
• Russian: лондонский
• Spanish: metro