chub

• enPR: chŭb, IPA^(key): /tʃʌb/
• Rhymes: -ʌb

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”), equivalent to chub +‎ -y. 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". More at cob, kibble.

chub (plural chubs or chub)

1. One of various species of freshwater fish of the Cyprinidae or carp family, especially:
   1. A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus)
   2. in Europe, its close relatives, notably the fallfish.
2. (by extension) Any of various vaguely related marine or freshwater fishes.
   1. in North America, the black bass.

• chubby
• hornyhead chub
• silver chub

Back-formation from chubby.

chub (countable and uncountable, plural chubs)

1. (slang, countable) A chubby, plump person.
   1. (LGBT slang, countable) An overweight or obese gay man.
2. (uncountable) Excess body fat.
3. A plastic or other flexible package of meat, usually ground meat or luncheon meat.
   • 1998, Center for Public Integrity, Safety last: the politics of e. coli and other food-borne killers:

     One thing that makes recovering product harder is grocery stores' and restaurants' practice of regrinding one company's lot, or "chub," of meat with those from other companies, thus making trace-back harder.

   • 1999, Walter Soroka, Fundamentals of packaging technology:

     Chub packaging is versatile. Package sizes can range from miniature tubes up to 150-mm diameter and 1220 mm in length (6-in. diameter and 48 in. long). Virtually any pumpable paste can be filled into a chub pack

   • 2001, John R. Romans, The meat we eat:

     A typical gelbwurst chub is 24 inches long and about 2V2 inches thick.

   • 2004, Alberta Beef Producers, I Love Alberta Beef, page 15:

     Once opened, use or freeze the meat within one day. Tube or chub packaging is used for fresh or frozen ground beef. Use or freeze fresh meat chubs within a day

   • 2007, Greg M. Burnham, Predicting pathogen growth and death in raw meat and poultry, page 86:

     A time/temperature history for either the product (4.5 kg chubs of coarse-ground beef) or the storage environment ... After inoculation, the surface of each 4.5-kg coarse-ground beef chub contained six samples inoculated with E. coli

• chub at OneLook Dictionary Search

• HBCU