tube
tube
(tb, tyb) noun
1.
a. A hollow cylinder, especially one that conveys a fluid or functions as a passage. b. An organic structure having the shape or function of a tube; a duct: a bronchial tube.
2. A small, flexible cylindrical container sealed at one end and having a screw cap at the other, for pigments, toothpaste, or other pastelike substances.
3. Music. The cylindrical part of a wind instrument.
4. Electronics. a. An electron tube. b. A vacuum tube.
5. Botany. The lower, cylindrical part of a gamopetalous corolla or a gamosepalous calyx.
6. Chiefly British. A subway; an underground.
7. A tunnel.
8. An inner tube.
9. Slang. a. Television: What's on the tube? b. A television set.
verb
tubed, tubing, tubes
verb
, transitive
1.
To provide with a tube; insert a tube in.
2.
To place in or enclose in a tube.
verb
, intransitive
Informal.
To float down a stream or river for recreation in an inner tube: went tubing on Sunday afternoon.
idiom.
down the tubes or down the tube Slang
Into a state of failure or ruin: saw all her plans go down the tubes.
[French, from Old French, from Latin tubus.]