n. Rubbish. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, rubs. Specifically: (a) An instrument or thing used in rubbing, polishing, or cleaning. (b) A coarse file, or the rough part of a file. (c) A whetstone; a rubstone. (d) An eraser, usually made of caoutchouc or a synthetic rubber[ 4 ]. (e) The cushion of an electrical machine. (f) One who performs massage, especially in a Turkish bath. (g) Something that chafes or annoys; hence, something that grates on the feelings; a sarcasm; a rub. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In some games, as bridge or whist, the odd game, as the third or the fifth, which decides the winner when there is a tie between the players; as, to play the rubber; also, a contest determined by the winning of two out of three games; as, to play a rubber of whist. Beaconsfield. “A rubber of cribbage.” Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. India rubber; caoutchouc; gum elastic; -- also called natural rubber. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

4. Any substance, whether natural or synthetic, resembling India rubber with respect to its elasticity[ 1 ]. [ PJC ]

5. A low-cut overshoe made of natural or synthetic rubber[ 4 ], serving to keep the feet and shoes dry when walking in the rain or on a wet surface; -- usually used in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A condom. [ Slang ] [ PJC ]

Antimony rubber, an elastic durable variety of vulcanized caoutchouc of a red color. It contains antimony sulphide as an important constituent. --
Hard rubber, a kind of vulcanized caoutchouc which nearly resembles horn in texture, rigidity, etc. --
India rubber, caoutchouc. See Caoutchouc. --
Rubber cloth, cloth covered with caoutchouc for excluding water or moisture. --
Rubber dam (Dentistry), a shield of thin sheet rubber clasped around a tooth to exclude saliva from the tooth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A closed loop of rubber usually having a thin rectangular cross-section; also called elastic band; -- it varies in length from the circumference of a finger to several inches, and is usually used to hold several objects together temporarily, by the tension exerted when the band is stretched and fitted around the objects to be held; as, to hold a pack of cards together with a rubber band. [ PJC ]

v. t. To coat or impregnate with rubber or a rubber solution or preparation, as silk. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. Rubbish. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. from Rub, v. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. robows, robeux, rubble, originally an Old French plural from an assumed dim. of robe, probably in the sense of trash; cf. It. robaccia trash, roba stuff, goods, wares, robe. Thus, etymologically rubbish is the pl. of rubble. See Robe, and cf. Rubble. ] Waste or rejected matter; anything worthless; valueless stuff; trash; especially, fragments of building materials or fallen buildings; ruins; débris. [ 1913 Webster ]

What rubbish and what offal! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

he saw the town's one half in rubbish lie. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rubbish pulley. See Gin block, under Gin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to rubbish; of the quality of rubbish; trashy. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From an assumed Old French dim. of robe See Rubbish. ] 1. Water-worn or rough broken stones; broken bricks, etc., used in coarse masonry, or to fill up between the facing courses of walls. [ 1913 Webster ]

Inside [ the wall ] there was rubble or mortar. Jowett (Thucyd.). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Rough stone as it comes from the quarry; also, a quarryman's term for the upper fragmentary and decomposed portion of a mass of stone; brash. Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Geol.) A mass or stratum of fragments or rock lying under the alluvium, and derived from the neighboring rock. Lyell. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc. [ Prov. Eng. ] Simmonds. [ 1913 Webster ]

Coursed rubble, rubble masonry in which courses are formed by leveling off the work at certain heights. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Rubble, 1 and 2. [ 1913 Webster ]