tube

plural tubes

1. Anything that is hollow and cylindrical in shape.

   1 more example

   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.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

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. UKcapitalizedcolloquialoftena trademarkThe 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.)

   He took the tube to Westminster and disappeared.

   2 more examples

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

   The economist also observed that some of the Victoria Line's cost should be debited to existing lines, as they would benefit from the rebuilding of their interchange stations with the new tube.

   1962 October, “The Victoria Line”, in Modern Railways, page 217

   1. UKcapitalizedcolloquialobsoleteoftena trademarkOne of the tubular tunnels of the London Underground.

      And thus it came about that on that October morning I found myself in the deep level tube with the Professor speeding to the North of London in what proved to be one of the most singular experiences of my remarkable life.

      1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine

4. AustraliaslangA tin can containing beer.

   Tinnie: a tin of beer — also called a tube.

   1995, Sue Butler, Lonely Planet Australian Phrasebook: Language Survival Kit

   3 more examples

   It's alright to cop a warm tube of Fosters and a cold pie 'n' peas when you're dated by one of the locals[.]

   1967, The Kings Cross Whisper, number xlii., Sydney, page 7, column 4

   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.

   2002, Andrew Swaffer, Katrina O'Brien, Darroch Donald, Footprint Australia Handbook: The Travel Guide [text repeated in Footprint West Coast Australia Handbook (2003)]

   That Humphries should imply that, in the Foster's ads, Hogan's ocker appropriated McKenzie's discourse (specifically the idiom "crack an ice-cold tube") reinforces my contention.

   2004, Paul Matthew St. Pierre, Portrait of the Artist as Australian: L'Oeuvre Bizarre de Barry Humphries

5. hobbiesA wave which pitches forward when breaking, creating a hollow space inside.

   It seemed like Butch was invincible, like he could do nothing wrong, coming through one unbelievable tube after another.

   1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer

6. CanadaUScolloquialA television. Compare cathode ray tube and picture tube.

   I sit around and watch the tube, but nothing's on. I change the channels for an hour or two.

   1994, Billie Joe Armstrong, “Longview”, in Dookie, performed by Green Day

   1 more example

   Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, […]

   1976, Paddy Chayefsky, Network, spoken by Howard Beale (Peter Finch)

   Synonyms: boob tube, telly

7. ScotlandslangAn idiot.

   I'm a tube? Who got done for speeding? Who got lifted for bloody assault?

   2010, Karen Campbell, The Twilight Time, →ISBN

   1 more example

   'Don't be a bloody tube, Jack,' she told me. (I always loved it when she used Scottish terms of abuse in that English accent of hers.)

   2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 231

8. abbreviationShort for speaking tube.

   1 more example

   A hundred yards before they reached the house he had given an order to his chauffeur to drop into the lowest speed and they were leisurely drawing past when a discovery by Mr Carlyle modified their plans. […] Carrados picked up the tube again. A couple of sentences passed and the car stopped by the roadside, a score of paces past the limit of the garden.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

present singular third person tubes · participle present tubing · participle past tubed · past tubed

1. transitiveTo supply with, or enclose in, a tube.

   She tubes lipstick in the cosmetics factory.

2. transitiveTo ride an inner tube.

   They tubed down the Colorado River.

3. colloquialtransitivemedicineTo intubate.

   The patient was tubed.

1. informalThe London Underground.

   Still, it’s not just the decline of civilisation that worries me, nor the (related) effect on Tube manners (Candy Crushers are rarely very chivalrous).

   2014 March 26, Richard Goodwin, “Candy Crush is the crystal meth of the commute”, in Evening Standard, page 17

   1 more example

   But 'Tube' is used as shorthand for the whole network, not least by London Underground itself, [...] It tends to be older people who hold on to the distinction. A friend of mine was visiting his mother who lives about 500 yards from Parsons Green station on the District, which is a cut-and-cover line [not a tube line]. At the end of the evening she said, "How are you getting back?" He said, "Oh, on the Tube", and she looked at him absolutely blankly. "What Tube?" she said, "There is no Tube here."

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page unnumbered: A note on the title