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chub.

One of various species of freshwater fish of the Cyprinidae or carp family, especially:

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃʌb/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/t͡ʃʌb/Australia/t͡ʃʊb/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. One of various species of freshwater fish of the Cyprinidae or carp family, especially: A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus)

  2. One of various species of freshwater fish of the Cyprinidae or carp family, especially: In Europe, its close relatives, notably the fallfish.

  3. Any of various vaguely related marine or freshwater fishes.

    broadly
  4. Any of various vaguely related marine or freshwater fishes. In North America, a black bass.

    broadly
Where this word comes from

From chub (“short, thick fish species used as bait"; used metaphorically since 1558 for "lazy person”), from Middle English chubbe (“chub (the river fish)”), recorded since c.1450, probably an assibilated form of cub (“a lump, heap, mass”) and cob, from Middle English *cubbe (found only in derivative cubbel (“a block to which an animal is tethered”)), from Old Norse kubbr, kumbr (“block, stump, log”) and/or Old Norse kumben (“stumpy”), see kobbi. Cognate with Icelandic kubbur (“block, cube”), Norwegian kubb, kubbe (“block, stump, log”), Swedish kubb (“block, log”), and perhaps to Icelandic kubba (“to hew, chop, lop”) and Russian кубышка (kubyška). More at cob, kibble.

noun/t͡ʃʌb/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/t͡ʃʌb/Australia/t͡ʃʊb/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A chubby, plump, or overweight person.

    countable · slang
  2. An overweight gay man who is part of the chubby subculture.

    countable · slang · specifically
  3. An erection of the penis.

    countable · slang
  4. A plastic or other flexible package of meat, usually ground meat or luncheon meat.

    countable
  5. Excess body fat.

    informal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Back-formation from chubby.

verb/t͡ʃʌb/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/t͡ʃʌb/Australia/t͡ʃʊb/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. To stop a bill from being passed using procedural delays.

    Texas · US
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.