Bathtub: The Word Americans Use for What Britons Call a Bath
A bathtub is the container you fill with water and sit in to wash. British English usually shortens it to bath, which is one of the neatest dialect splits in the house.
A bathtub is a large open container for bathing. American English uses the full compound; British English uses *bath* for the tub, the water and the act of washing all at once. So a Briton runs a bath, takes a bath and climbs out of the bath, using one word three ways.
- A container for bathing. *He fell asleep in the bathtub.*
- A curve shaped like one. *The bathtub curve of failure rates.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bathtub | A cast-iron bathtub. |
| British | bath | Run me a bath. |
| Related | bathroom | The bathroom is upstairs. |
| Verb | bathe | She bathed the baby. |
| Compound | bathtub gin | Prohibition-era bathtub gin. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The bathtub drains slowly.Everyday American usage.
- Never leave a small child alone in the bathtub.Standard safety wording.
- Failure rates follow a bathtub curve.High at the start and end, flat in the middle — the shape of a tub in profile.
Bath words across the Atlantic
- Bathtub (US) / bath (UK) — the container itself
- Take a bath (US) / have a bath (UK) — the act of washing
- Bathroom (US) — often means any room with a toilet, tub or not
- Bathe — in Britain this can also mean swimming in the sea
The compound is straightforward: Old English *baeth* plus *tub*, a wooden vessel. *Bathtub gin* comes from the American Prohibition years, when spirits were mixed at home in containers large enough to hold the batch.
Do British speakers ever say bathtub?
They understand it and occasionally use it when the container needs distinguishing from the water. Day to day they say bath.
What is take a bath figuratively?
In American finance it means to lose a large amount of money on an investment.