caoutchouc

plural caoutchoucs · alternative cahootchie

1. countableobsoleteuncountableLatex; natural rubber.

   Many a passer-by thought Miss Arundel was listening to some subject of most touching interest: his Lordship was only detailing the benefit he derived one wet day from his caoutchouc cloak.

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 299

   2 more examples

   The Automaton can plainly, at the will of the casual spectator, speak any sentence or words, in any language, sing, whisper, laugh, &c.; the organs of articulation are formed of caoutchouc—exactly resembling those appertaing(sic) to humanity....

   1846, editorial staff, “The Speaking Automation”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 98

   Resin, pitch, sealing-wax, caoutchouc, sulphur, gutta-percha, and generally all bodies commonly termed resinous, besides a great variety of others, will be found to acquire, after friction, the power of attracting light bodies, and hence will be said, according to a limitation of terms already accepted, to be in an electrized or electrified state .

   1855, William Somerville Orr, Orr's Circle of the Sciences, page 205

   Synonyms: india rubber