Definition of "rubber"

rubber¹

/ˈɹʌbə(ɹ)/

noun
usually uncountable, plural rubbers
1. (uncountable) Pliable material derived from the sap of the rubber tree; a hydrocarbon polymer of isoprene.
2. (uncountable, countable) Synthetic materials with the same properties as natural rubber.
3. (countable, Australia, India, Brunei, New Zealand, UK) An eraser.
  Quotations
  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
  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
4. (countable, Canada, US, slang) A condom.
  Quotations
  And the rubbers you hide / In your top left pocket
  1979, “At Home He's A Tourist”, in Entertainment!, performed by Gang of Four
5. (countable) Someone or something which rubs.
  Quotations
  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. One who rubs down horses.
  2. One who practises massage.
    Quotations
    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, (please specify the page)
  3. A coarse towel for rubbing the body.
  4. An abrasive for rubbing with: a whetstone, file, or emery cloth, etc.
6. (historical) The cushion of an electric machine.
7. (countable, baseball) The rectangular pad on the pitcher's mound from which the pitcher must pitch.
8. (Canada, US, in the plural) Water-resistant shoe covers, galoshes, overshoes.
  Quotations
  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, page 154
9. (uncountable, slang) Tires, particularly racing tires.
10. (slang, dated) A hardship or misfortune.
  Quotations
  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
  '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
adjective
1. (slang, of a draft/check) Not covered by funds on account.

rubber²

/ˈɹʌbə(ɹ)/

noun
plural rubbers
1. (sports) 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. The 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).
    Quotations
    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
    […] an old lady's innocent rubber.
    1907 May 25, in The Publishers' Weekly, number 1843, page 1608
  2. An individual match within the series (especially in racquet sports).
    Quotations
    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
    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. (sports, Canada, US) A rubber match; a game or match played to break a tie.
3. The game of rubber bridge.
  Quotations
  "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

rubber³

/ˈɹʌbə(ɹ)/

verb
third-person singular simple present rubbers, present participle rubbering, simple past and past participle rubbered
1. (telephony) To eavesdrop on a telephone call
  Quotations
  "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. (slang) To rubberneck; to observe with unseemly curiosity.
  Quotations
  Old Sally didn't talk much, except to rave about the Lunts, because she was busy rubbering and being charming.
  1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 17, in The Catcher in the Rye, Little, Brown and Company

Definition of "rubber"

rubber1

noun

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adjective

rubber2

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rubber3

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rubber¹

rubber²

rubber³