Definition of "dub"

As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

A man of wealth is dubbed a man of worth.

1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]

His diadem was dropped down / Dubbed with stones.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889,

Now the drum dubb's.

1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Mad Lover”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, Act I, scene i

And kettle-drums, whose sullen dub Sounds like the hooping of a tub

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905

As I came over the hill, I saw Ernest Plinlimmon and his partner, in whom I recognized a prominent local dub, emerging from the rough on the right. Apparently, the latter had sliced from the tee, and Ernest had been helping him find his ball.

1936, P. G. Wodehouse, There's Always Golf‎, London: The Strand Magazine

The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!

1969, Robert L. Vann, The Competitor, volumes 2-3, page 135

It’s also burnished by intriguing sense of vaguely dub-influenced space. At one point, it breaks down to little more than a stabbing, echoing organ with a vintage reggae flavour.

2020 April 23, Alexis Petridis, “The Rolling Stones: Living in a Ghost Town review – their best new song in years”, in The Guardian

But I think my bass playing is definitely dub-influenced.

2019 January 18, Jamie Dickson, “Khruangbin: “We’re not intending to create war with our music… It’s the absence of that aggression that a lot of rock bands have””, in Music Radar

Dyl’s polyrhythmic grooves on The Subsurface Project fuse dub techno and drum & bass, mixing modular sounds with hints of warm, jittery jungle.

2020 July 20, Arun Chakal, “The Worked-Up Sound of Drum & Bass in Russia and Eastern Europe”, in Bandcamp Daily

It reminded me of that classic Full Cycle vibe of jazzy soulful sounds blending with dub bass and fx.

2020 August 3, Kane, “The Extended Cut: Zero T - Former Self EP [The North Quarter]”, in Magnetic Magazine

[…] we climbed up the scaffolding and did these gold little dubs and you couldn't see them.

2001, Nancy Macdonald, The Graffiti Subculture, page 84

The year 1998 was alive with graffiti and trains pulling up with dubs on their sides.

2011, Justin Rollins, The Lost Boyz: A Dark Side of Graffiti, page 34

“Has he nae friends?” said she, in a tearful voice.“That has he so!” cried Alan, “if we could but win to them!—friends and rich friends, beds to lie in, food to eat, doctors to see to him—and here he must tramp in the dubs and sleep in the heather like a beggarman.”

1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886

"Crash the cull—down with him—down with him before he dubs the jigger. Tip him the degan, Fib, fake him through and through; if he pikes we shall all be scragged."

1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter LXXXIII, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman‎, page 402

[…] going upon the dobbin, is a woman dressed like a servant maid, no hat nor cloak on, a bunch of young dubs by her side, which are a bunch of small keys […]

1789, George Parker, Life's Painter of Variegated Characters in Public and Private Life, page 162

World Wide Web or WWWPronouncing this "dub dub dub" (with no rub-a) will definitely establish you as an insider.

1997, Nelson Howell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft Visual InterDev, Que Pub

I once met a gaggle of Aussies who'd paid thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for airfare and registration to attend an annual Apple convention called the Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC—or, in this crowd, “Dub Dub

2018, Corey Pein, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, Metropolitan Books, page 119