Rub-a-Dub-Dub The Silly Bath-Time Rhyme, With Lyrics and a Free Printable

🎵 Rub-a-Dub-Dub Lyrics

The complete classic verse — short enough for the smallest singers to learn whole.

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker,
And all of them out to sea.

🛁 About This Rhyme

Three grown men in one tub is an absurd picture, and that is the whole joke — children love naming the trio as they arrive: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. Those were three trades every old town had, so the rhyme doubles as a tiny window into how people once lived and worked: meat from the butcher, bread from the baker, and light from the candlestick maker.

A version note, honestly labelled: the earliest printed texts, from the late 1700s, had “three maids in a tub” and ended with the tradesmen “gone to the fair.” Over time the words settled into the “three men” version sung today, and bath time claimed the rhyme as its own — “rub-a-dub-dub” sounds exactly like scrubbing, which is why so many families sing it in the tub.

🖨️ How to Use This Rhyme

1. Sing it in the bath. Scrub along on “rub-a-dub-dub” — arms, tummy, toes — and splash gently on “out to sea.” The rhyme is short enough to sing three times in one bath.
2. Name the trio. Pause before the jobs line and let your child shout who is in the tub: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. Taking that line over is the toddler highlight.
3. Print the lyrics sheet. Hang it near the bath or keep it with the bath toys, so the words are handy at the moment they are needed.
4. Let your child “read” it back. Five short lines are a whole rhyme a small child can truly learn by heart — holding the sheet and performing it solo is a big moment.