tube

«tube» in Mova's school dictionary: A long, hollow pipe, often round, that liquid or air can… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a tube, tubes); "the Tube" — the London Underground

meaning for a pupil

1) A long, hollow pipe, often round, that liquid or air can go through, like a tube in an experiment or a breathing tube. tree →

2) A soft container you squeeze, like a tube of toothpaste or glue. tree →

3) The Tube is the underground railway in London. tree →

4) Informal, mostly American and Australian: the TV ("on the tube"). tree →

5) A swim ring or rubber ring you float on is sometimes called a tube. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, test tubes hold small amounts of liquids in experiments, and the body has tubes like the windpipe (trachea) and food pipe; plants have tiny tubes that carry water. In everyday life we squeeze toothpaste from a tube and travel on the Tube in London. In art, paint comes in tubes. Phrases: "test tube", "a tube of toothpaste", "inner tube" (inside a bike tyre), "take the Tube", "cardboard tube".

examples

• Squeeze a small blob from the tube of toothpaste. tree →
• The scientist poured the liquid into a test tube. tree →
• We took the Tube to the museum in London. tree →
• The bike tyre has an inner tube full of air. tree →
• Make a telescope from a cardboard tube. tree →
• Water travels up tiny tubes inside the plant stem. tree →
• The paint tube was almost empty. tree →
• Air goes down a tube called the windpipe to your lungs. tree →
• He accordingly contrived to steal some sparks from the chariot of the sun, which he conveyed to earth hidden in a hollow tube. tree →

note

Countable: one tube, two tubes. "The Tube" with a capital T means the London Underground; New Yorkers say "the subway". A cylinder in maths is the solid shape; a tube is usually hollow. Squeeze tubes from the bottom so nothing is wasted.

In the corpora

• Since 1958 LEGO bricks have used the same stud-and-tube fit, so very old bricks still click onto new ones.
• Butterflies have taste sensors on their feet and drink through a long tube called a proboscis that stays rolled up like a party blower.
• Stems have thin tubes that carry water up from the roots, and other tubes that carry sugar round the plant.
• Many deep fish have big eyes to catch faint light from glowing animals, and some have tube-shaped eyes that look upward.
• In hospitals, sealed plastic syringes, gloves and tubes keep medicine and tools free of germs and are used only once.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «tube» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.