rubber

plural rubbers

1. countableuncountableusuallyPliable material derived from the sap of the rubber tree; a hydrocarbon biopolymer of isoprene.

   Synonyms: natural rubber

2. countableuncountableusuallyNatural rubber or any of various synthetic materials with similar properties as natural rubber.

   1 more example

   In the middle of the dense woodland near Sullia, a small town in southern India, there is one form of lighting for the poor and another for the rich: for the former, lamps burning kerosene, which has to be fetched from a source several hours away on foot, and is bad for the lungs; for the latter, electricity distributed to comfortable houses, generally occupied by rubber plantation managers.

   2012 July 3, Julien Bouissou, “Solar power brings electricity to the homes of India's poor”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2021

3. AustraliaBruneiIndiaNew ZealandUKcountableusuallyAn eraser.

   Stan stole a diary and some pens, pencils, ink and rubbers during his early days as a POW working on the Singapore docks.

   2011, Patrick Lindsay, The Spirit of the Digger, Revised edition, unnumbered page

   2 more examples

   For example, they may use paddle pop sticks, hand span, pencils, rubbers, mathematics equipment (i.e. base 10 material) or anything else the teacher can find to measure the lengths of nominated objects.

   2006, Lisa Kervin, Research for Educators, page 148

   Drawing materials, he thought, I used to love drawing as a lad. I can afford some plain paper and pencils, surely? And a rubber, too. He smiled at the memory of an elderly uncle, also fond of drawing, who′d always called rubbers ‘lead eaters’.

   2010, Anna Jacobs, Beyond the Sunset, unnumbered page

4. CanadaUScountableslangusuallyA condom, especially an external condom.

   And the rubbers you hide / In your top left pocket

   1979, “At Home He's A Tourist”, in Entertainment!, performed by Gang of Four

   2 more examples

   Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK, promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers.

   2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls (motion picture), spoken by Coach Carr (Dwayne Hill)

   My daddy said "Treat young girls like your mother" / My momma said "Trust no hoe, use a rubber"

   2019, “Ricky”, performed by Denzel Curry

   Synonyms: condom, cum catcher

5. countableusuallySomeone or something which rubs.

   What perplexity plagues the chin-rubber in the foreground and what so discourages the man leaning on the lamp post? And to what doom is the large man at right moving? Photographer Cowherd has no answers.

   1949 July 11, LIFE, page 21

   1. countableuncountableusuallyOne who rubs down horses.
   2. countableuncountableusuallyOne who practises massage.

      I curl his perriwig, paint his cheeks, perfume his breath; I am his froterer or rubber in a hot-house

      1601 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], What You Will, London: […] G[eorge] Eld, for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   3. countableuncountableusuallyA coarse towel for rubbing the body.
   4. countableuncountableusuallyAn abrasive for rubbing with: a whetstone, file, or emery cloth, etc.
6. historicaluncountableusuallyThe cushion of an electric machine.
7. countableusuallyball gamesThe rectangular pad on the pitcher's mound from which the pitcher must pitch.

   Jones toes the rubber and then fires to the plate.

   Synonyms: pitcher's plate, pitcher's rubber

8. CanadaUSin pluraluncountableusuallyWater-resistant shoe covers, galoshes, overshoes.

   Johnny, don't forget your rubbers today.

   1 more example

   He set aside his aunt’s counsel in regard to a better regimen, as well as her more specific hints, made in view of the near approach of rough weather, that he provide himself with rubbers and an umbrella, even if he would not hear of a rain-coat.

   1919, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “Cope Goes A-Sailing”, in Bertram Cope’s Year: A Novel, Chicago, Ill.: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, →OCLC, page 154

9. slanguncountableusuallyTires, particularly racing tires.

   Jones enters the pits to get new rubber.

10. datedslanguncountableusuallyA hardship or misfortune.

    'Twas a bit gone December, / As I well remember, / I met with a rubber, and got some advice; […]

    1843, John Castillo, Awd Isaac: The Steeple Chase, and Other Poems, page 101

    1 more example

    The British barges, off New-London, sometimes meet with the rubbers. In an attack upon an armed smack, some days ago, they were beaten off, with the reported loss of 8 men killed.

    1814, The Weekly Register, volume 5, page 302

1. slangNot covered by funds on account.

   Synonyms: I wouldn't take a check from him. They're pure rubber., hot, bad

plural rubbers

1. In relation to a series of games or matches between two competitors where the overall winner of the series is the competitor which wins a majority of the individual games or matches:
   1. hobbiesThe entire series, of an odd number of games or matches in which ties are impossible (especially a series of three games in bridge or whist).

      […] an old lady's innocent rubber.

      1907 May 25, in The Publishers' Weekly, number 1843, page 1608 http://books.google.com/books?id=ZCADAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22her%20grand-aunt%22&pg=PA1608#v=onepage&q=%22her%20grand-aunt%22&f=false

      1 more example

      They played, and Creed and his young partner won the first rubber, winning the two first games running.

      1828, Robert Huish, The Red Barn: A Tale, Founded on Fact, page 83

   2. hobbiesAn individual match within the series (especially in racquet sports).

      Ladies matches shall consist of 6 rubbers. Each rubber shall consist of best of 3 games to 21 points.

      2013 Cradley Heath Badminton League Rules as at 2013/2014

      1 more example

      Montreal’s Francoise Abanda lost the first rubber of the tie 6-2, 6-4 to Karolina Pliskova on Saturday

      2015 February 7, “Canada trails Czech Republic 2-0 in Fed Cup tie after singles losses”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto

2. CanadaUShobbiesA rubber match; a game or match played to break a tie.
3. The game of rubber bridge.

   "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I have not had my rubber." "I think you will find that you will play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and that the play will be more exciting."

   1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League

present singular third person rubbers · participle present rubbering · participle past rubbered · past rubbered

1. communicationsTo eavesdrop on a telephone call

   "There's a lot of nostalgia about the phone and how it was the way to get the local news," said Jane Beck of the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury. One way was "rubbering," or listening in on a neighbor's conversations ...

   1999, Los Angeles Times, "Party's Over for Rural Phone Customers in Green Mountain State," (Jan. 31, 1999)

2. slangTo rubberneck; to observe with unseemly curiosity.

   Old Sally didn't talk much, except to rave about the Lunts, because she was busy rubbering and being charming.

   1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 17, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC