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Added 4 October 2026

cub

/kʌb/ symbol

In Latin: catulus Wiktionary

symbol Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about cub at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

ISO 639-3 language code for Cubeo.

noun

The young of certain animals, chiefly large carnivorous mammals, including the bear, wolf, fox, lion and tiger.
A child, especially an awkward, rude, ill-mannered boy.
A young man who seeks relationships with older women, or "cougars".

verb

To give birth to cubs.
To hunt fox cubs.
To shut up or confine.

noun

Acronym of cashed-up bogan.

Origin

From earlier cubbe. Origin unknown. According to Pokorny, from Proto-Germanic *kubb-, from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object, knoll”), from *gew- (“to bend, curve, convex, arch, vault”). Related terms include cup (cf. cupboard), coffin, cove, etc, essentially “chamber”, thus cub maybe initially derived from the sense “den”, or maybe “womb”. A probable cognate is also found in North Germanic: dialectal Swedish kubbe, kybbe, köbbe, kibb, Danish kippe (“calf”). Also compare Icelandic and Old Norse kobbi (“seal”), Old Irish cuib (“whelp”). Compare also English cob. Originally, the meaning was specifically "young fox", in which sense it has largely replaced English whelp.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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