Rubbering

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    rubbernecking uncountable
  2. 2
    eavesdropping on a telephone conversation uncountable

    "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..."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of rubber form-of, gerund, participle, present

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

Synonyms

All synonyms
condomcondomnatural rubbersynthetic rubberacearctic

Example

More examples

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

Etymology

From rubber + -ing.

More for "rubbering"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.