n.
- A hollow cylinder, especially one that conveys a fluid or functions as a passage.
- An organic structure having the shape or function of a tube; a duct: a bronchial tube.
- A small flexible cylindrical container sealed at one end and having a screw cap at the other, for pigments, toothpaste, or other pastelike substances.
- Music. The cylindrical part of a wind instrument.
- Electronics.
- An electron tube.
- A vacuum tube.
- Botany. The lower, cylindrical part of a gamopetalous corolla or a gamosepalous calyx.
- Chiefly British.
- An underground railroad tunnel.
- An underground railroad system, especially the one in London, England.
- A tunnel.
- An inner tube.
- An inflatable tube or cushion made of rubber or plastic and used for recreational riding, as behind a motor boat or down a snow-covered slope.
- Informal.
- Television: What's on the tube?
- A television set.
- tubes Informal. The fallopian tubes.
v., tubed, tub·ing, tubes. v.tr.
- To provide with a tube; insert a tube in.
- To place in or enclose in a tube.
To ride or float on an inflated tube for recreation.
idiom:
down the tubes (or tube) Slang.
- Into a state of failure or ruin: saw her plans go down the tubes.
[French, from Old French, from Latin tubus.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
