Rubber Made I Substance Sense Noun ˈrʌbə(R ˈrʌbər

• a ball made of rubber
• a rubber tree
• a rubber plantation
• my legs were like rubber - i could hardly walk.

rubber

1. a strong substance that can be stretched and does not allow liquids to pass through it, used for making tyres, boots, etc. It is made from the liquid (= sap) inside a tropical plant or is produced using chemicals.
• SEE ALSO foam rubberfoam
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/foam_1#foam_sng_1
• a ball made of rubber
• a rubber tree
• a rubber plantation
• My legs were like rubber - I could hardly walk.
• I don't like the smell of burning rubber.
2. a small piece of rubber or a similar substance, used for removing pencil marks from paper; a piece of soft material used for removing chalk marks from a blackboard or pen from a whiteboard
3. a condom (= a thin rubber tube that a man wears over his penis during sex to stop a woman from becoming pregnant or to protect against disease)
4. (in some card games or sports) a competition consisting of a series of games or matches between the same teams or players
5. to drive very fast
6. the point at which something is tested and you really find out whether it is successful or true
• Here's where the rubber meets the road: will consumers actually buy the product?

Word Origin

• noun senses 1 to 3 and adjective mid 16th cent.: from the verb rub + -er. The original sense was ‘an implement (such as a hard brush) used for rubbing and cleaning’. Because an early use of the elastic substance (previously known as caoutchouc) was to rub out pencil marks, rubber gained the sense ‘eraser’ in the late 18th cent. The sense was subsequently (mid 19th cent.) generalized to refer to the substance in any form or use, at first often differentiated as India rubber.