Box vs. Tub — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on March 22, 2024
A box is typically a rigid container with straight sides, while a tub is more often rounded and open-topped.
Difference Between Box and Tub
Table of Contents
ADVERTISEMENT
Key Differences
Boxes are commonly used for storage, packaging, and shipping, characterized by their rectangular or square shape and made from materials like cardboard, wood, or plastic. Their rigid structure makes them ideal for protecting and organizing items. Tubs, on the other hand, are usually associated with holding liquids or large quantities of items like laundry or ice cream, and they tend to have a more rounded, often open shape, made from materials like plastic, metal, or ceramic.
The function of a box often involves containment, organization, and protection, especially for transport. Tubs, however, are more frequently used for tasks related to bathing, washing, or the bulk storage of materials, highlighting their capacity and durability for holding heavier or bulkier items, including liquids.
In terms of design, boxes typically have a lid or flaps that can be closed and sealed, providing security and discretion for the contents. Tubs might have lids, but they are often designed to be accessed more frequently and easily, with some being permanently open. This design difference reflects the contrasting uses and accessibility needs of boxes and tubs.
The choice between using a box or a tub depends on the specific requirements of the task, including the nature of the items to be contained, the need for portability, and the environment in which the container will be used. For example, boxes are more suited to stacking and shipping due to their uniform shape, while tubs might be preferable for bulk storage or tasks involving liquids.
While both boxes and tubs serve the fundamental purpose of holding items, their designs, materials, and typical uses reflect the diversity of containers and the various needs they fulfill in everyday life and in industrial settings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Comparison Chart
Shape
Rectangular or square, with straight sides
Rounded, often open-topped
Common Materials
Cardboard, wood, plastic
Plastic, metal, ceramic
Typical Uses
Storage, packaging, shipping
Bathing, washing, bulk storage
Design Features
Lids or flaps for closure
May have lids, often more accessible
Suitability
Ideal for stacking and transport
Better for heavier/bulkier items and liquids
Compare with Definitions
Box
A rigid container with a closed or closable top, used for storage or shipping.
She packed her books into a cardboard box for the move.
Tub
A wide, open, rounded container, often used for holding liquids or large quantities.
The ice cream was sold in large plastic tubs.
Box
Made from a variety of materials, tailored to specific needs.
The fragile glassware was packed in a sturdy wooden box for extra protection.
Tub
Commonly used for bathing or washing.
The hotel room featured a luxurious marble tub.
Box
Designed for organization and protection of contents.
The museum artifacts were stored in specially designed boxes to protect them from damage.
Tub
Suited for bulk storage or tasks involving liquids.
The farmer used a large metal tub to mix the animal feed.
Box
Often rectangular or square in shape.
The storage room was filled with neatly stacked square boxes.
Tub
May have a lid but is designed for easy access.
The laundry tub in the utility room was filled with soapy water.
Box
Can be sealed for security or privacy.
The confidential documents were sealed within a box before being sent.
Tub
Durable and capable of holding heavier items.
The construction site had several tubs filled with cement and sand.
Box
A box (plural: boxes) is a type of container or rectangular prism used for the storage or transportation of its contents. The size of a box may vary, from the very smallest (such as a matchbox) to the size of a large appliance, and can be used for a variety of purposes ranging from the functional to the decorative.
Tub
A wide, open, deep, typically round container with a flat bottom used for holding liquids, growing plants, etc.
A rainwater tub
Box
A container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid
A hat box
A cigarette box
Tub
A short, broad boat that handles awkwardly
The old tub's in need of a refit
Box
An area on a page that is to be filled in or that contains separate printed matter
Tick the box on the coupon
Tub
Plant in a tub
Tubbed fruit trees
Box
A separate section or enclosed area reserved for a group of people in a theatre or sports ground, or for witnesses or the jury in a law court
The royal box
Tub
Wash or bathe in or as in a tub or bath
Even your formal evening gown can be tubbed
Box
A protective casing for a piece of a mechanism
In the second variation, a switch loop, only one cable enters the box
Tub
An open, flat-bottomed vessel, usually round and typically wider than it is deep, used for washing, packing, or storing.
Box
A facility at a newspaper office for receiving replies to an advertisement
Write to me care of Box 112
Tub
The amount that such a vessel can hold.
Box
A woman's vagina.
Tub
The contents of such a vessel.
Box
A slap with the hand on the side of a person's head
She gave him a box on the ear
Tub
A bathtub.
Box
A slow-growing European evergreen shrub or small tree with small glossy dark green leaves. It is widely used in hedging and for topiary, and yields hard, heavy timber.
Tub
(Informal) A bath taken in a bathtub.
Box
Any of a number of trees that have wood or foliage similar to the box tree.
Tub
(Informal) A wide, clumsy, slow-moving boat.
Box
Put in or provide with a box
The books are sold as a boxed set
Muriel boxed up all Christopher's clothes
Tub
A bucket used for conveying ore or coal up a mine shaft.
Box
Mix up different flocks.
Tub
A coal car used in a mine.
Box
Fight an opponent using one's fists; compete in the sport of boxing
He had to box Benn for the title
He boxed for England
Tub
To pack or store in a tub.
Box
Recite the compass points in correct order.
Tub
To wash or bathe in a tub.
Box
Make a complete change of direction
By now the breeze had boxed the compass
Tub
To take a bath.
Box
A container typically constructed with four sides perpendicular to the base and often having a lid or cover.
Tub
A flat-bottomed vessel, of width similar to or greater than its height, used for storing or packing things, or for washing things in.
He bought a tub of lard to roast the potatoes in.
Box
The amount or quantity that such a container can hold.
Tub
The contents or capacity of such a vessel.
She added a tub of margarine to the stew.
Box
A square or rectangle
Draw a box around your answer.
Tub
A bathtub.
Box
A separated compartment in a public place of entertainment, such as a theater or stadium, for the accommodation of a small group.
Tub
A slow-moving craft.
Box
An area of a public place, such as a courtroom or stadium, marked off and restricted for use by persons performing a specific function
A jury box.
Tub
Any structure shaped like a tub, such as a certain old form of pulpit, a short broad boat, etc.
Box
A small structure serving as a shelter
A sentry box.
Tub
A small cask.
A tub of gin
Box
Chiefly British A small country house used as a sporting lodge
A shooting box.
Tub
Any of various historically designated quantities of goods to be sold by the tub (butter, oysters, etc).
Box
A box stall.
Tub
(mining) A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.
Box
The raised seat for the driver of a coach or carriage.
Tub
(obsolete) A sweating in a tub; a tub fast.
Box
An area on a diamond marked by lines designating where the batter may stand.
Tub
(slang) A corpulent or obese person.
Box
Any of various designated areas for other team members, such as the pitcher, catcher, and coaches.
Tub
(transitive) To plant, set, or store in a tub.
To tub a plant
Box
A penalty box.
Tub
(ambitransitive) To bathe in a tub.
Box
The penalty area on a soccer field.
Tub
An open wooden vessel formed with staves, bottom, and hoops; a kind of short cask, half barrel, or firkin, usually with but one head, - used for various purposes.
Box
(Printing) Featured printed matter enclosed by hairlines, a border, or white space and placed within or between text columns.
Tub
The amount which a tub contains, as a measure of quantity; as, a tub of butter; a tub of camphor, which is about 1 cwt., etc.
Box
A hollow made in the side of a tree for the collection of sap.
Tub
Any structure shaped like a tub: as, a certain old form of pulpit; a short, broad boat, etc., - often used jocosely or opprobriously.
All being took up and busied, some in pulpits and some in tubs, in the grand work of preaching and holding forth.
Box
A post office box.
Tub
A sweating in a tub; a tub fast.
Box
An inbox.
Tub
A small cask; as, a tub of gin.
Box
An outbox.
Tub
A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft; - so called by miners.
Box
An insulating, enclosing, or protective casing or part in a machine.
Tub
To plant or set in a tub; as, to tub a plant.
Box
A signaling device enclosed in a casing
An alarm box.
Tub
To make use of a bathing tub; to lie or be in a bath; to bathe.
Don't we all tub in England ?
Box
A cable box.
Tub
A relatively large open container that you fill with water and use to wash the body
Box
(Informal) A television.
Tub
A large open vessel for holding or storing liquids
Box
A very large portable radio.
Tub
The amount that a tub will hold;
A tub of water
Box
Chiefly British A gift or gratuity, especially one given at Christmas.
Box
An awkward or perplexing situation; a predicament.
Box
Vulgar Slang The vulva and the vagina.
Box
A slap or blow with the hand or fist
A box on the ear.
Box
Any of several evergreen shrubs or trees of the genus Buxus, especially the Eurasian species B. sempervirens, widely cultivated as a hedge plant and having opposite, leathery, dark green leaves and small whitish flowers.
Box
The hard, light yellow wood of any of these plants, formerly widely used to make musical instruments, inlays, engraving blocks, and measuring instruments. Also called boxwood.
Box
Any of various other shrubs or trees with similar foliage or timber, especially several types of eucalyptus.
Box
To pack in a box.
Box
To confine in or as if in a box.
Box
To border or enclose with or as if with a box
Key sections of the report are boxed off.
Box
To provide a housing or case for (a machine part, for example).
Box
To limit the activity or influence of by or as if by creating a restrictive structure or outlining a territory
The legislature was boxed in by its earlier decisions.
Box
(Sports) To block (a competitor or opponent) from advancing, especially to hinder an opponent from getting a rebound in basketball by placing oneself between the opponent and the basket
Was boxed out by the tallest player on the team.
Was boxed in on the homestretch.
Box
(Nautical) To boxhaul.
Box
To cut a hole in (a tree) for the collection of sap.
Box
To blend (paint) by pouring alternately between two containers.
Box
To change the shape of (a structure, such as a wall) by applying lath and plaster or boarding.
Box
To hit with the hand or fist.
Box
(Sports) To take part in a boxing match with.
Box
To fight with the fists or in a boxing match.
Box
Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.
Box
A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.
Box
A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
A box of books
Box
A compartment (as a drawer) of an item of furniture used for storage, such as a cupboard, a shelf, etc.
Box
A compartment or receptacle for receiving items.
Post box
Post office box
Box
A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
Box
The driver's seat on a horse-drawn coach.
Box
A small rectangular shelter.
Box
(automotive) gearbox
Box
(rail) signal box
Box
(figuratively) A predicament or trap.
I’m really in a box now.
Box
(slang) A prison cell.
Box
(euphemistic) A coffin.
Box
(slang) Preceded by the: television.
Box
The vagina.
Box
A computer, or the case in which it is housed.
A UNIX box
Box
(slang) A gym dedicated to the CrossFit exercise program.
Box
(cricket) A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.
Box
(cricket) gully
Box
(engineering) A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.
Box
(fencing) A device used in electric fencing to detect whether a weapon has struck an opponent, which connects to a fencer's weapon by a spool and body wire. It uses lights and sound to notify a hit, with different coloured lights for on target and off target hits.
Box
(dated) A small country house.
Box
A stringed instrument with a soundbox, especially a guitar.
Box
Senses relating to a two-dimensional object or space
Box
A rectangle: an oblong or a square.
Place a tick in the box.
This text would stand out better if we put it in a coloured box.
Box
(baseball) The rectangle in which the batter stands.
Box
(genetics) One of two specific regions in a promoter.
Box
(juggling) A pattern usually performed with three balls where the movements of the balls make a boxlike shape.
Box
(soccer) The penalty area.
Box
(aviation) A diamond-shaped flying formation consisting of four aircraft.
Box
Any of various evergreen shrubs or trees of genus Buxus, especially common box, European box, or boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) which is often used for making hedges and topiary.
Box
The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
Box
A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
Box
(Australia) An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
Box
(Australia) Various species of Eucalyptus trees are popularly called various kinds of boxes, on the basis of the nature of their wood, bark, or appearance for example, the drooping (Eucalyptus bicolor), shiny-leaved (Eucalyptus tereticornis), black, or ironbark box trees.
Box
A blow with the fist.
Box
(dated) A Mediterranean food fish of the genus Boops, which is a variety of sea bream; a bogue or oxeye.
Box
(transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
Box
(transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
Box
(transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical.
Box
To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap.
Box
To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
Box
To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box.
Box
To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box.
Box
To place a value of a primitive type into a corresponding object.
Box
(transitive) To strike with the fists; to punch.
Box someone’s ears
Leave this place before I box you!
Box
To fight against (a person) in a boxing match.
Box
To participate in boxing; to be a boxer.
Box
A tree or shrub, flourishing in different parts of the world. The common box (Buxus sempervirens) has two varieties, one of which, the dwarf box (Buxus suffruticosa), is much used for borders in gardens. The wood of the tree varieties, being very hard and smooth, is extensively used in the arts, as by turners, engravers, mathematical instrument makers, etc.
Box
A receptacle or case of any firm material and of various shapes.
Box
The quantity that a box contain.
Box
A space with a few seats partitioned off in a theater, or other place of public amusement.
Laughed at by the pit, box, galleries, nay, stage.
The boxes and the pit are sovereign judges.
Box
A chest or any receptacle for the deposit of money; as, a poor box; a contribution box.
Yet since his neighbors give, the churl unlocks,Damning the poor, his tripple-bolted box.
Box
A small country house.
Tight boxes neatly sashed.
Box
A boxlike shed for shelter; as, a sentry box.
Box
An axle box, journal box, journal bearing, or bushing.
Box
The driver's seat on a carriage or coach.
Box
A present in a box; a present; esp. a Christmas box or gift.
Box
The square in which the pitcher stands.
Box
A Mediterranean food fish; the bogue.
Box
A blow on the head or ear with the hand.
A good-humored box on the ear.
Box
To inclose in a box.
Box
To furnish with boxes, as a wheel.
Box
To inclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to bring to a required form.
Box
To fight with the fist; to combat with, or as with, the hand or fist; to spar.
Box
To strike with the hand or fist, especially to strike on the ear, or on the side of the head.
Box
To boxhaul.
Box
A (usually rectangular) container; may have a lid;
He rummaged through a box of spare parts
Box
Private area in a theater or grandstand where a small group can watch the performance;
The royal box was empty
Box
The quantity contained in a box;
He gave her a box of chocolates
Box
A predicament from which a skillful or graceful escape is impossible;
His lying got him into a tight corner
Box
A rectangular drawing;
The flowchart contained many boxes
Box
Evergreen shrubs or small trees
Box
Any one of several designated areas on a ball field where the batter or catcher or coaches are positioned;
The umpire warned the batter to stay in the batter's box
Box
The driver's seat on a coach;
An armed guard sat in the box with the driver
Box
Separate partitioned area in a public place for a few people;
The sentry stayed in his box to avoid the cold
Box
A blow with the hand (usually on the ear);
I gave him a good box on the ear
Box
Put into a box;
Box the gift, please
Box
Hit with the fist;
I'll box your ears!
Box
Engage in a boxing match
Common Curiosities
Are boxes always made of cardboard?
No, boxes can be made from a variety of materials including cardboard, wood, and plastic, depending on their intended use.
What is the primary difference between a box and a tub?
The primary difference lies in their shape and typical uses, with boxes being more rigid and suitable for shipping, and tubs being rounded and used for bulk storage or liquids.
Is a tub always used for liquids?
Not always, tubs can be used for a variety of purposes, including holding bulk items like laundry or food products, not just liquids.
Can you ship items in a tub?
While possible, tubs are not typically used for shipping due to their shape and open design, which may not protect contents as effectively as a sealed box.
How do you choose between a box or a tub for storage?
The choice depends on the items to be stored, with boxes being better for dry goods and ease of stacking, and tubs being preferable for bulk items, liquids, or items needing frequent access.
Can both boxes and tubs have lids?
Yes, both can have lids, but boxes typically have closable flaps or lids for sealing, while tubs may have lids but are often designed for frequent and easy access.
Can tubs be stacked like boxes?
While some tubs can be nested or stacked when empty, their rounded shape and design for easy access make them less ideal for stacking compared to boxes.
Do tubs require more storage space than boxes?
Due to their rounded shape and less uniform design, tubs may not stack as efficiently as boxes and could require more storage space.
Are all tubs open-topped?
Many tubs are open-topped for easy access, but some may have lids or covers, especially those used for storing food or other perishables.
Do boxes provide better protection than tubs?
Boxes, especially those made from rigid materials and designed with closures, can offer better protection for fragile items during transport than open-topped tubs.
Are tubs more durable than boxes?
Tubs are often made from durable materials like plastic or metal, making them suitable for heavier or bulkier items, including liquids, whereas boxes might be designed for lighter items and single-use purposes.
Can boxes be used for liquid storage?
Generally, boxes are not designed for liquid storage due to their materials and structure, though specialized boxes with liners can contain liquids.
How does the material of a box or tub affect its use?
The material determines the container's durability, suitability for certain items, and environmental impact, influencing its use in storage, shipping, or handling liquids and bulk items.
Are tubs better for the environment than boxes?
The environmental impact depends on the materials used and the lifecycle of the container. Reusable tubs might offer environmental benefits over single-use boxes, but the overall impact varies based on many factors.
Can a box be round?
While boxes typically have straight sides and angular shapes, some containers with round shapes might colloquially be called "boxes," though this is less common.
Share Your Discovery
Previous Comparison
Oblong vs. Oblate
Next Comparison
Function vs. TaskAuthor Spotlight
Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
