Meanings
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of rubber
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
- uncountablerubbernecking
- uncountableeavesdropping on a telephone conversation
In 1907, a North Dakota newspaper described the party-line culture of eavesdropping, or rubbering as it was also called at the time, as follows: Usually when a country subscriber rings anyone up several of his neighbors immediately butt in—not to talk—just listen...
2003, Kline, R. Resisting Consumer Technology in Rural America: The Telephone and Electrification. In N. Oudshoorn & T. Pinch (Eds.), How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology (pp. 51–66). MIT Press., p. 54
Origin
Cite this entry
rubbering. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubbering
“rubbering.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubbering. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rubbering,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubbering.
Source: rubbering on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.