Talk:bath

The appendix of one of my books with discussions about US vs. UK English reads that in sense1 bath is only a British word while Americans always say bathtub in this sense. Could anybody confirm me, please? Ferike333 19:23, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

That’s true, in American English, a bathtub can only be a bathtub or a tub, but not a bath. A bath is what you do in the bathtub. The bathtub is used for taking baths. We would never call a bathtub a bath, and probably would not understand it correctly if we heard a Brit say it. —Stephen 13:35, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Is bath (verb) Commonwealth English only?

I had always assumed people using "bath" as a verb on the Internet were simply misspelling bathe. Ive never heard it out loud in the USA. The three cited examples are all Commonwealth publishers (two in England, one in S Africa). m-w.com seems not to list a verb sense at all. I dont have access to the OED. I suspect that M-W is primarily about American English and that that may be why they don't list a verb. Am I right that this term is primarily British, or at least primarily non-US?Soap (talk) 23:27, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

To me it seems like an error, but I'm an American. @Equinox, SemperBlotto would you use this verb? DTLHS (talk) 23:31, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Probably in the olden days. But it is becoming uncommon. I'll ask my nephew (who has a baby). SemperBlotto (talk) 05:29, 5 October 2017 (UTC) (the OED has it, and says it differs from 'bathe' in that it is always literal i.e. you can bathe in light but not bath in light (my example))

I think I'd only say "bathe" (or "give a bath to"), but e.g. "bath the dog" sounds somewhat acceptable to me. Chambers has "bath, vt to give a bath to; to wash (oneself) in a bath; vi to take a bath", with no further comment. Equinox ◑ 18:35, 5 October 2017 (UTC)