Reuben

//ˈɹuː.bən// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A grilled or toasted sandwich made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and either Russian dressing or Thousand Island dressing.
  2. 2
    a hot sandwich with corned beef (or pastrami), Swiss cheese and sauerkraut on rye bread wordnet
  3. 3
    A member of one of the Israelite tribes, descended from Reuben.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    First son of Jacob, by his wife Leah. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A male given name from Hebrew. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    A surname transferred from the given name countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    Ellipsis of Reuben College, Oxford. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, informal, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
reubenite

Etymology

* From Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (r'uvén), from רְאוּ (r'ú, “see [masculine plural imperative]”) + בֵּן (ben, “son”); its literal meaning is therefore roughly, "See, all: a son!" * There are several unconfirmed etymologies for the name of the sandwich.

Related phrases

corned beefgiven namerussian dressingthousand island dressing

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.