Meanings
plural rubber ducks
- A toy, made from rubber or rubber-like plastic, shaped like a duck; usually a floating bathtub toy.
Synonyms: rubber ducky, rubber duckie
- slangnauticalAn inflatable boat.
Around midday on Saturday, Warrnambool's main beach was evacuated when a volunteer from Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club was thrown into the ocean from an inflatable rescue boat (IRB), often referred to as a rubber duck.
2023 October 2, Emily Bissland, “Warrnambool beach evacuated as surf lifesaver is 'catapulted' from rogue inflatable rescue boat”, in Australian Broadcasting Corporation
present singular third person rubber ducks · participle present rubber ducking · participle past rubber ducked · past rubber ducked
- transitivecomputingTo act as a sounding board for a programmer that is debugging their code, facilitating rubber duck debugging.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA toy, made from rubber or rubber-like plastic, shaped like a duck; usually a floating bathtub toy.
Origin
From rubber + duck. The verb sense is derived from the noun one; see rubber duck debugging for more information on its etymology.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan ànec de goma
- ànec de gomatoy shaped like a duck
Chinese Mandarin 橡皮小鴨 /橡皮小鸭
- 橡皮小鴨 /橡皮小鸭 (xiàngpí xiǎoyā)toy shaped like a duck
Czech gumová kachnička
- gumová kachničkatoy shaped like a duck
Finnish kylpyankka, kumiankka
- kylpyankkatoy shaped like a duck
- kumiankkatoy shaped like a duck
- kumiveneinflatable boat
French canard en caoutchouc, canard en plastique
- canard en caoutchouctoy shaped like a duck
- canard en plastiquetoy shaped like a duck
German Gummiente, Quietscheente
- Gummientetoy shaped like a duck
- Quietscheentetoy shaped like a duck
- Quietscheentchentoy shaped like a duck
- Badeentetoy shaped like a duck
Hungarian gumikacsa
- gumikacsatoy shaped like a duck
Italian paperella di gomma, papera di gomma
- paperella di gommatoy shaped like a duck
- papera di gommatoy shaped like a duck
Korean 고무오리, 고무보트
- 고무오리 (gomuori)toy shaped like a duck
- 고무보트 (gomuboteu)inflatable boat
Norwegian badeand
- badeandtoy shaped like a duck
Polish (gumowa) kaczuszka
- (gumowa) kaczuszkatoy shaped like a duck
Portuguese patinho de borracha
- patinho de borrachatoy shaped like a duck
Russian рези́новая у́тка
- рези́новая у́тка (rezínovaja útka)toy shaped like a duck
Spanish patito de goma, patito de hule
- patito de gomatoy shaped like a duck
- patito de huletoy shaped like a duck
Swedish badanka
- badankatoy shaped like a duck
Turkish plastik ördek, banyo ördeği
- plastik ördektoy shaped like a duck
- banyo ördeğitoy shaped like a duck
Cite this entry
rubber duck. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubber%20duck
“rubber duck.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubber%20duck. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rubber duck,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubber%20duck.
Source: rubber duck on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.