sub

• enPR: sŭb, IPA^(key): /sʌb/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /sʊb/
• Rhymes: -ʌb
• Hyphenation: sub

• Shortened form of any of various words beginning with sub-.

sub (plural subs)

2. Abbreviation of submarine.
   • 1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture), spoken by Alan "Hippy" Carnes (Todd Graff):

     You know, we got Russian subs creepin' around; anythin' goes wrong they can say whatever they want happened! Give their folks medals!

4. Clipping of submarine sandwich: a sandwich made on a long bun.

   Synonyms: submarine, grinder, hero, hero sandwich, hoagie, po' boy, spuckie, torpedo, wedge

   Hypernyms: sandwich < food, meal

   We can get subs at that deli.

6. (nautical) Clipping of submersible.
8. (informal) Clipping of substitute, often in sports or teaching.

   With the score 4 to 1, they brought in subs.

   She worked as a sub until she got her teaching certificate.

   • 1930, Boy's Live, Philip Scruggs, There Can Be Victory, page 20:

     At any other school you would be playing varsity, and Wallace has you pigeon-holed on the subs." "Maybe he has his reasons," Jim replied. "And he hasn't pigeon-holed me on the subs yet — not this season.

9. (British, informal, often in plural) Clipping of subscription (“a payment made for membership of a club, etc.”).
   • 1951, H. L. Gold, “Annual Report”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 2, number 6, page 2:

     According to the best available information, GALAXY has several times as many subs as any other science fiction magazine!

   • 1985 February 2, 18, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 18:

     My friend Keith got me a sub to your paper for my Christmas present.

11. (Internet, informal) Clipping of subtitle

    Synonyms: CC, S

    I've just noticed a mistake in the subs for this film.

13. (computing, programming) Clipping of subroutine (sometimes one that does not return a value, as distinguished from a function, which does)
    • 2002, Nathan Patwardhan, Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour, Perl in a nutshell:

      The default accessor can be overridden by declaring a sub of the same name in the package.

    • 2004, P. K. McBride, Introductory Visual Basic.NET, page 49:

      So far, all the subs and functions that we have used have been those built into the system, or those written to handle events from controls […]

15. (colloquial) Clipping of subeditor
17. (colloquial) Clipping of subcontractor
    • 2025 June 3, Cullen Murphy, “Feudalism Is Our Future: What the next Dark Ages could look like”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

      Evoking the train of power that enables effective government, [historian Ramsay MacMullen] wrote: “At every point of connection the original intent must be transmitted as it was received. Otherwise it will come to nothing.” Control and accountability are the bedrock. Control: Who makes the decisions and who decides whether they will be executed—and for whose benefit? Accountability: Who determines whether something has gone wrong, and who determines whether the problem is fixed? In a privatized world, government becomes “diffuse, unstable, unpredictable,” and the skein of responsibility more and more attenuated. Contractors hire subcontractors, who hire subcontractors of their own. “I can’t tell you about the sub to the sub to the sub,” a NATO official told The New York Times in 2010 when asked about convoy guards in Afghanistan who turned out to be in league with the Taliban. Throughout much of our spun-off government today, “the sub to the sub to the sub” is almost a job description.

19. (slang) Clipping of subwoofer
21. (publishing, colloquial) Clipping of submission (of a work for publication).
23. (BDSM, informal) Clipping of submissive
    • 2004, Paul Baker, Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang:

      […] roleplay where a sub or bottom takes care of a top's bodily and hygiene needs […]

    • 2007, Laurell K Hamilton, The Harlequin:

      "It means that I'm both a sub and a dom." "Submissive and dominant," I said. He nodded.

    • 2008, Lannie Rose, How to Change Your Sex:

      Typically a dom and a sub have a more or less standard routine that they like to go through all the time.

    • 2012, “Karai's Vendetta”, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‎^[2]:

      We're not that kind of sub!

      (implied in dual meaning of submissive and submarine)

25. (colloquial, dated) Clipping of subordinate
27. (colloquial, dated) Clipping of subaltern
    • 1911, J. Milton Hayes, The Green Eye of the Yellow God:

      He was known as 'Mad Carew' by the subs at Khatmandu,
      He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
      But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
      And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.

29. (colloquial, Internet) Clipping of subscription (or (by extension) a subscriber) to an online channel or feed.

    I'm totally stoked; just got 10 new subs after my last video.

31. (colloquial) Clipping of subsistence money, part of a worker's wages paid before the work is finished.
33. (Internet slang) Clipping of subreddit.
35. (Philippines, colloquial) Clipping of subject (“particular area of study”)

sub (third-person singular simple present subs, present participle subbing, simple past and past participle subbed)

1. (US, informal) To substitute for.
2. (US, informal) To work as a substitute teacher, especially in primary and secondary education.
3. (British, informal, soccer) To replace (a player) with a substitute.

   He never really made a contribution to the match, so it was no surprise when he was subbed at half time.

4. (British, informal, soccer, less common, often as "sub on") To bring on (a player) as a substitute.

   He was subbed on half way through the second half, and scored within minutes.

5. (British) To perform the work of a subeditor or copy editor; to subedit.
6. (slang, Internet, transitive) To subtitle (usually a film or television program).
7. (UK, slang, transitive) To lend (a person) money.
   • 2011, Rowland Rivron, What the F*** Did I Do Last Night?:

     I kept up the pleasantries as we were drying our hands and, realizing I didn't have any change for the lodger, I asked him, one drummer to another like, if he could sub me a quid for the dish.

8. (slang, intransitive) To subscribe.
9. (BDSM) To take a submissive role.
   • 2012, Alicia White, Jessica's Breakdown, page 53:

     You've never subbed before. Jessica will be expecting a man on stage that follows orders and enjoys what she's going to be doing. Do you want to be spanked? Possibly whipped?

   • 2012, Tiffany Reisz, Little Red Riding Crop:

     Wasn't like she'd never subbed before. She'd been a sub longer than she'd been a Dominatrix–ten years she'd spent in a collar.

• fansub

• switch (one who is willing to take either a sadistic or a masochistic role)

From Latin sub.

sub

1. Under.

sub (third-person singular simple present subs, present participle subbing, simple past and past participle subbed)

1. To coat with a layer of adhering material; to planarize by means of such a coating.
2. (microscopy) To prepare (a slide) with a layer of transparent substance to support and/or fix the sample.
   • 1997, Marina A. Lynch, S. M. O'Mara (editors), Ali D. Hames, D. Rickwood (series editors), Neuroscience Labfax, page 166,

     Ensure that gloves are worn when handling subbed slides. Although the following protocol describes subbing with gelatin, slides may also be coated with either 3-(triethoxysilyl-)propylamine (TESPA) or poly-L-lysine for in situ hybridization.

• Bus., SBU, UBS, USB, bus, bus.

Borrowed from English sub.

• Audio:

  (file)

sub c (plural subs)

1. submarine, sub

From Latin sub.

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /sub/
• Rhymes: -ub
• Hyphenation: sub

sub

1. under, below

• super

sub

1. under, below

• IPA^(key): /ˈsub/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ub
• Hyphenation: sùb

Clipping of subacqueo.

sub m or f by sense (invariable)

1. skin-diver, scuba diver

   Synonym: subacqueo

Clipping of English submissive.

sub m or f by sense (invariable)

1. bottom, submissive (BDSM partner)

• dom

From Proto-Italic *supo, from Proto-Indo-European *upó. Compare Ancient Greek ὑπό (hupó). The usage with the accusative is from the pre-PIE directional, while with the ablative it is from both the locative, “under”, and the ablative, “from underneath”.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsʊb]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsub]

sub (+ accusative, ablative)

1. (with ablative)
   1. under, beneath
   2. behind
   3. at the feet of
   4. within, during
   5. about, around (time); just before, just after, shortly before, shortly after
2. (with accusative)
   1. under, up to, up under, close to (of a motion)
   2. until, before, up to, about

• sub rosā
• subter
• subtus
• supīnus

• Old Leonese: sob
  • Asturian: so
• Old Galician-Portuguese: sob
  • Galician: so
  • Portuguese: sob
• Old Spanish: so
  • Spanish: so (in certain fossilized expressions)
• → English: sub

• “sub”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sub”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "sub", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sub in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • at the foot of the mountain: sub radicibus montis, in infimo monte, sub monte
    
  • in the open air: sub divo
    
  • to come within the sphere of the senses: sub sensum or sub oculos, sub aspectum cadere
    
  • to come within the sphere of the senses: sensibus or sub sensus subiectum esse
    
  • to have to submit to the uncertainties of fortune; to be subject to Fortune's caprice: sub varios incertosque casus subiectum esse
    
  • to be comprised under the term 'fear.: sub metum subiectum esse
    
  • to represent a thing vividly: oculis or sub oculos, sub aspectum subicere aliquid
    
  • graphic depiction: rerum sub aspectum paene subiectio (De Or. 3. 53. 202)
    
  • to give a general idea of a thing: sub unum aspectum subicere aliquid
    
  • to sell a prisoner of war as a slave: aliquem sub corona vendere (B. G. 3. 16)
    
  • the case is still undecided: adhuc sub iudice lis est (Hor. A. P. 77)
    
  • to occupy the foot of a hill: considere sub monte (sub montis radicibus)
    
  • the free men are sold as slaves: libera corpora sub corona (hasta) veneunt (B. G. 3. 16. 4)
    
  • to be subject to some one, under some one's dominion: sub imperio et dicione alicuius esse
    

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *t͡suβ, from Proto-Tupian *t͡sup.

sub (first-person singular active indicative aîosub, first-person singular negative active indicative n'aîosubi, noun suba) (transitive)

1. to visit (to go and meet someone)

   Synonym: posub

2. to examine (to observe or inspect carefully)

• Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “sub”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 446, columns 1–2

Clipping of subcelebridade.

• Homophones: sub-, sube

sub f (plural subs)

1. (slang) alternative form of subcelebridade
   • 2018 December 26, Letícia (@leticiaramosccp), Twitter‎^[4]:

     a miley casou em casa e as subs fazendo aquele auê todo p revelação de sexo de bebê kkkkkkkkkkk aiai

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2018 December 28, daniella (@dnifurtado), Twitter‎^[5]:

     As subs que eu sigo no Instagram não estão me dando stories o suficiente

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• subt, supt — popular

Inherited from Latin subtus, from sub. Compare Aromanian sum.

• IPA^(key): /sub/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ub

sub (+accusative)

1. under, below, beneath, underneath

• dedesubt

• IPA^(key): /ˈsub/ [ˈsuβ̞]
• Rhymes: -ub
• Syllabification: sub

sub

1. under

Contraction of subwoofer.

sub c

1. (slang) a subwoofer, a bass loudspeaker

• subba
• subbe

• bus