dub

present singular third person dubs · participle present dubbing · participle past dubbed · past dubbed

1. transitivenow historical or ceremonialTo confer knighthood; the conclusion of the ceremony was marked by a tap on the shoulder with a sword, the accolade.

   You promiſt Knighthood to our forward ſonne, / Vnſheath your ſword, and dub him preſently.

   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

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   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; […].

   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

2. informaltransitiveTo name, to entitle, to call.First known use the later 16th c.

   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.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC

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   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.”

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   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.

   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

   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.

   2023 December 27, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: the way to Weymouth”, in RAIL, number 999, page 52

   Synonyms: designate, name, bename, call, clepe, denominate, designate, entitle

3. transitiveTo deem.

   A man of wealth is dubbed a man of worth.

   1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]

   Synonyms: consider, think of, account, appraise, count, esteem, see, censure

4. To clothe or invest; to ornament; to adorn.

   His diadem was dropped down / Dubbed with stones.

   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: deck out, embellish, adore, adorn, apparel, array, invest, detail

5. To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
   1. headingTo dress with an adze.

      to dub a stick of timber smooth

   2. headingTo strike cloth with teasels to raise a nap.

      For dressing or dubbing cloths, either wet or dry, otherwise than by green cards and pickards

      1808, Annual Register

   3. headingTo rub or dress with grease, as leather in the process of currying it.

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      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

   4. headingTo dress a fishing fly.

      if you can dub a Fly of the exact colour of the Natural Fly, Fish at that instant take, it's sufficient

      1689, James Chetham, The Anglers Vade Mecum

6. To prepare (a gamecock) for fighting, by trimming the hackles and cutting off the comb and wattles.

present singular third person dubs · participle present dubbing · participle past dubbed · past dubbed

1. To make a noise by brisk drumbeats.

   Now the drum dubb's.

   1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Mad Lover”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene i

2. To do something badly.
3. golfTo execute a shot poorly.

plural dubs

1. rareA blow, thrust, or poke.

   And kettle-drums, whose sullen dub Sounds like the hooping of a tub

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC

2. golfA poorly executed shot.

plural dubs

1. historicalslangAn unskillful, awkward person.First known use the later part of the 19th c

   As I came over the hill, I saw Ernest Plinlimmon and his partner, in whom I recognized a prominent local dub, emerging from the rough on the right. Apparently, the latter had sliced from the tee, and Ernest had been helping him find his ball.

   1936, P. G. Wodehouse, There's Always Golf, London: The Strand Magazine

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   The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!

   1969, Robert L. Vann, The Competitor, volumes 2-3, page 135

present singular third person dubs · participle present dubbing · participle past dubbed · past dubbed

1. To add sound to film or change audio on film.First known use the first half of the 20th c
2. To make a copy from an original or master audio tape.
3. To replace the original soundtrack of a film with a synchronized translation
4. To mix audio tracks to produce a new sound; to remix.

plural dubs

1. countableentertainmentA mostly instrumental remix with all or part of the vocals removed.
2. uncountableentertainmentA style of reggae music involving mixing of different audio tracks.

   It’s also burnished by intriguing sense of vaguely dub-influenced space. At one point, it breaks down to little more than a stabbing, echoing organ with a vintage reggae flavour.

   2020 April 23, Alexis Petridis, “The Rolling Stones: Living in a Ghost Town review – their best new song in years”, in The Guardian

3. uncountableentertainmentA trend in music starting in 2009, in which bass distortion is synced off timing to electronic dance music.

   But I think my bass playing is definitely dub-influenced.

   2019 January 18, Jamie Dickson, “Khruangbin: “We’re not intending to create war with our music… It’s the absence of that aggression that a lot of rock bands have””, in Music Radar

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   Dyl’s polyrhythmic grooves on The Subsurface Project fuse dub techno and drum & bass, mixing modular sounds with hints of warm, jittery jungle.

   2020 July 20, Arun Chakal, “The Worked-Up Sound of Drum & Bass in Russia and Eastern Europe”, in Bandcamp Daily

   It reminded me of that classic Full Cycle vibe of jazzy soulful sounds blending with dub bass and fx.

   2020 August 3, Kane, “The Extended Cut: Zero T - Former Self EP [The North Quarter]”, in Magnetic Magazine

4. countableslangA piece of graffiti in metallic colour with a thick black outline.

   The year 1998 was alive with graffiti and trains pulling up with dubs on their sides.

   2011, Justin Rollins, The Lost Boyz: A Dark Side of Graffiti, page 34

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   […] we climbed up the scaffolding and did these gold little dubs and you couldn't see them.

   2001, Nancy Macdonald, The Graffiti Subculture, page 84

5. countableThe replacement of a voice part in a movie or cartoon, particularly with a translation; an instance of dubbing.

   Synonyms: voice acting

plural dubs

1. UKdialectalA pool or puddle.

   “Has he nae friends?” said she, in a tearful voice. “That has he so!” cried Alan, “if we could but win to them!—friends and rich friends, beds to lie in, food to eat, doctors to see to him—and here he must tramp in the dubs and sleep in the heather like a beggarman.”

   1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC

plural dubs

1. slangA twenty-dollar sack of marijuana.
2. slangA wheel rim measuring 20 inches or more.

   When I pull up out front, you see the Benz on dubs.

   2003 January 7, “In da Club” (track 5), in Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent

present singular third person dubs · participle present dubbing · participle past dubbed · past dubbed

1. UKobsoletetransitivethieves' cantTo open or close.

   "Crash the cull—down with him—down with him before he dubs the jigger. Tip him the degan, Fib, fake him through and through; if he pikes we shall all be scragged."

   1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter LXXXIII, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 402

plural dubs

1. UKobsoletethieves' cantA lock.
2. UKobsoletethieves' cantA key, especially a master key; a lock pick.

   […]going upon the dobbin, is a woman dressed like a servant maid, no hat nor cloak on, a bunch of young dubs by her side, which are a bunch of small keys[…]

   1789, George Parker, Life's Painter of Variegated Characters in Public and Private Life, page 162

plural dubs

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of double-u.

   World Wide Web or WWW Pronouncing this "dub dub dub" (with no rub-a) will definitely establish you as an insider.

   1997, Nelson Howell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft Visual InterDev, Que Pub, →ISBN

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   I once met a gaggle of Aussies who'd paid thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for airfare and registration to attend an annual Apple convention called the Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC—or, in this crowd, “Dub Dub.”

   2018, Corey Pein, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, Metropolitan Books, →ISBN, page 119

   1. Internetvideo gamesA win.

      I haven't had a dub in a few games.

plural dubs

1. IndiahistoricalA small copper coin once used in India.

1. abbreviationinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

plural Dubs

1. IrelandcolloquialA Dubliner.

   Eric released her, grinning. You're a Dub anyway, he said.

   2018, Sally Rooney, “Three Months Later (March 2014)”, in Normal People

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   There is a distinction between Dubliners on the one hand and "rednecks" on the other. […] The Dubs historically went to Liverpool and Birmingham, so they don't have the connections.

   1993, Mary P. Corcoran, Irish Illegals: Transients Between Two Societies, page 138

   I did the Pat Kenny show one night and talked about coming from the bottom up, and I got numerous letters, saying to hear somebody with a Dub accent running the brewery was unbelievable.

   1994, Patrick O'Dea, A Class of Our Own: Conversations About Class in Ireland, page 51

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of University of Dublin, used especially following post-nominal letters indicating status as a graduate.