tubthumping

tubthumping is the present participle and gerund of tubthump.

Meaning of tubthump

tubthump (third-person singular simple present tubthumps, present participle tubthumping, simple past and past participle tubthumped)

To express a view or opinion in a needlessly dramatic or aggressive manner.
- […]tubthump to promote or draw attention to, from the ancient show business custom of actors wandering the streets banging on tubs to drum up business.2003, Janet Wasko, How Hollywood Works, page 233

tubthumping (uncountable)

Aggressive political or commercial promotion.
- […] the general public, who imagine — poor fools — that all the fury and tubthumping at Westminster is honest emotion, […].1914, Charles G. Harper, The Kentish Coast, page 344
- But there is usually more to Automobile Week than good-natured tubthumping for the new passenger car models.1939, Railway Age, vol. 107, Oct.-Dec.

tubthumping (comparative more tubthumping, superlative most tubthumping)

Brash, self-promoting.
- "Our pictures avoid deliberate, tubthumping propaganda but they exude the spirit of democracy."1994, Stephen Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics, page 199

comparative	more tubthumping
superlative	most tubthumping

From tub + thumping.

What does tubthumping mean?: Tubthumping means aggressive political or commercial promotion.
What is tubthumping the present participle and gerund of?: Tubthumping is the present participle and gerund of tubthump.
What part of speech is tubthumping?: Tubthumping can be a noun or an adjective.

Adapted from Wiktionary: tubthumping (page history and authors); tubthump (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “tubthumping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tubthumping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.