dub
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dʌb/
ipa: /dɐb/
ipa: /dʊb/
rhymes: -ʌb
Forms: form: dubs
form: dubbing
form: dubbed
form: dubbed
Etymology: From Middle English dubben, from Old English dubbian (“to knight by striking with a sword, dub”) from Old French adober (“to equip with arms; adorn”) (also 11th century, Modern French adouber), both from Proto-West Germanic *dubbōn, from Proto-Germanic *dub- (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“plug, peg, wedge”).
Cognate with Icelandic dubba (in dubba til riddara). Compare also drub for an English reflex of the Germanic word.
Senses: examples: text: You promiſt Knighthood to our forward ſonne, / Vnſheath your ſword, and dub him preſently.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 154, column 2:
text: It occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight, and that according to the law of chivalry he neither could nor ought to bear arms against any knight; […].
ref: 1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter II, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 114:
synonyms: knight
qualifier: now historical or ceremonial
glosses: To confer knighthood; the conclusion of the ceremony was marked by a tap on the shoulder with a sword, the accolade.
examples: text: They tripped along the murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the familiar wonders of the cave—wonders dubbed with rather over-descriptive names, such as “The Drawing-Room,” “The Cathedral,” Aladdin’s Palace,” and so on.
ref: 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC:
text: As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
text: Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 31 Oct 2020, page 70:
text: Stephen reigned from 1135-1154, that nasty period of our history dubbed 'The Anarchy', when forces loyal to Stephen contested the throne with those of Henry I's daughter Matilda, who by rights should have been queen. Stephen, her cousin, plonked his own posterior on the throne.
ref: 2023 December 27, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: the way to Weymouth”, in RAIL, number 999, page 52:
synonyms: word: designate
word: name
word: bename
word: call
word: clepe
word: denominate
word: designate
word: dub
word: entitle
word: name
word: nominate
word: style
word: term
glosses: To name, to entitle, to call.
examples: text: A man of wealth is dubbed a man of worth.
ref: 1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:
synonyms: word: consider
word: think of
word: account
word: count
word: esteem
word: see
word: consider
word: deem
word: hold
word: dub
word: find
word: interpret
word: judge
word: look upon
word: regard as
word: think of
word: view as
glosses: To deem.
examples: text: His diadem was dropped down / Dubbed with stones.
ref: 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: deck out
word: embellish
word: adorn
word: apparel
word: array
word: detail
word: beautify
word: bedeck
word: betrim
word: decorate
word: decore
word: deck
word: deck out
word: do up
word: dress up
word: dub
word: embellish
word: garnish
word: grace
word: ornament
word: prettify
word: pretty up
glosses: To clothe or invest; to ornament; to adorn.
examples: text: to dub a stick of timber smooth
topics: heading
glosses: To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
To dress with an adze.
examples: text: For dressing or dubbing cloths, either wet or dry, otherwise than by green cards and pickards
ref: 1808, Annual Register:
topics: heading
glosses: To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
To strike cloth with teasels to raise a nap.
examples: 1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
When the skin is thoroughly cleansed, and while yet in its wet and distended state, the process of stuffing, or dubbing (probably a corruption of daubing), is performed. Both sides of the skin, but chiefly the flesh side, are smeared or daubed with a mixture of cod-oil and tallow
topics: heading
glosses: To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
To rub or dress with grease, as leather in the process of currying it.
examples: text: if you can dub a Fly of the exact colour of the Natural Fly, Fish at that instant take, it's sufficient
ref: 1689, James Chetham, The Anglers Vade Mecum:
topics: heading
glosses: To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
To dress a fishing fly.
glosses: To prepare (a gamecock) for fighting, by trimming the hackles and cutting off the comb and wattles.
Derived terms: dubbable
dubber
dub out
undub