hub
/hʌb
/noun
1The central part of a wheel, rotating on or with the axle, and from which the spokes radiate.Remove your wheels, and wipe them down, since the dirt gets lodged in the little nooks and crannies of the wheel hubs and spokes....
- Instead, a few species are like hubs, with spokes radiating out to the other species.
- Now we are keeping that going, and working on some other parts that are new to us - pedals, cranks, hubs and wheels.
Synonyms
pivot, axis, fulcrum, centre, centre point
2The effective centre of an activity, region, or network: the city has always been the financial hub of the country the kitchen was the hub of family life...
- Clubs need to be innovative, family friendly and at the hub of local activity.
- He said that he expected that the region would become an international hub of tourism.
- For centuries this quaint location has been a hub of activity; that of natural forces and that of man.
Synonyms
centre, centre of activity, core, heart, focus, focal point, middle, nucleus, kernel, nerve centre
2.1A central airport or other transport facility from which many services operate: the airport authority’s policy promotes Manchester as an international hub the city’s major transportation hub for bus and rail [as modifier]: major hub airports have grown up all over the world...
- Air-Scotland's plans to develop a hub in Scotland require considerable investment.
- We look forward to developing another hub that would service our island.
- Until their CEO climbed into the cockpit in 1997, Air France had done little to develop its Paris hub.
Phrases
hub-and-spoke
Origin
Early 16th century (denoting a shelf at the side of a fireplace used for heating pans): of unknown origin (compare with hob1).
Although hub is recorded from the early 16th century, it did not appear in any dictionary until the 19th. It seems to have been an English dialect term that first meant ‘hob’ (a variant spelling recorded from the late 16th century), which before the days of modern cookers was a surface behind or beside a fireplace used for heating pans, originally made of piled up clay. The sense ‘the central part of a wheel’ dates from the mid 17th century and was probably suggested by the shape of the original ‘hub’.