Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also rubber in) to eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation (feasible in the era of party line telephones).

1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 171: If ’ey see you readin’ ’at, ev’y one of ’em goin’ ’o rubbeh.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 10: Glancing out in the dining room to see if mother was rubbering.
1906		Sun (NY) 9 Sept. 3/3: A shabby looking duck, who’d been rubbering right behind us.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 189: Say, did you hear me putting one over on these goats that are rubbering in on party-wires?
1948		Southern Folklore Sept. 191: She’s always rubberin’ on a party line [DA].
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 66: Not wanting to be caught rubbernecking, Norton took a quick left.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 90: [P]rint and TV journalists and locals keen to rubberneck.

2. to act as an obvious tourist; thus rubbernecker, rubbernecking n. and adj.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 19: I could n’t see any folks I knew, so I stood around there on one foot kind o’ rubber-neckin’ to find an openin’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Dec. 3/4: His speech would quite amuse them with its funny rural twang; / They’d smile to see him ‘rubber,’ as they say in Vankee slang.
1908		Deseret Eve. News (UT) 3 July 3/3: [headline] Yankees Rubbernecking in London.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Gullible’s Travels’ in Gullible’s Travels 127: I was so busy rubberin’ that I passed the entrance door three times without noticin’ it.
1919		Conservative (Nebraska City, NE) 16 Nov. 12/1: We have permanently enriched the English language by adding to it the verb ‘to rubberneck’.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 19: No New Yorker is supposed to rubber at the upper part [of a building]. Only the hicks do that.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 51: Now I don’t mind a little rubber-necking with our friend the camel driver.
c.1930		(ref. to 1901) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 291: I’d [...] rubberneck the White House and the Capitol.
1936		‘Josphine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 132: I thought they ran rubbernecking tours for the middle-west fans.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 174: I rubbernecked around some as we streaked along the avenue: there were all the skyscrapers.
1950		Sat. Eve. Post 4 Feb. 57/2: The Rim Road provides rewarding rubbernecking all through the year [DA].
1960		Mad mag. Sept. 47: The uptown tourists have moved in to rubberneck us cats.
1967		S. Harris Hellhole 38: It soon became a place for rubbernecking tourists to visit.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 11: Everybody rubbernecking, the tour buses going through.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 155: He made a show of rubbernecking at the outside of the villas there, as many idle tourists do.
1996		S. Bell If... 27 June in If Files (1997) 89: Those rubbernecking foreign fools.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 4: Rubbernecking the city, seeing what it’s about, not much impressed.
2007		IOL News 3 July. 🌐 You can rubberneck along Nigramoep road which [...] offers desert mountain scenery.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 188: Rush-hour traffic stacked up on I-95 [...] Rubberneckers.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] Wyatt wasn’t the only rubbernecker taking an interest in the police activity.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 280: [S]he longed to cross the bridge to tell the rubberneckers that there was no one inside [the burning house].
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 231: She looked out to the street with her own ferocity as she did so, to discourage rubberneckers.

3. to stare at, to peer, to gaze around.

1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 12: ‘De Dutchman rubbers at him like he was figgerin’ how much he was losin’’.
1899		J.W. Davis Gawktown Revival Club 24: They rubbernecked in open-mouthed astonishment at the man.
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 123: The positively dreadful and inexcusable class who, at the mere sound of the popping of a wine cork on the Welcome lawn, would stand on their chairs and rubberneck.
1909		J. Washburn Und. Sewer 122: When the door bell rings all of us girls rush to the stairs and ‘rubber’.
1913		Slave Stories 11: If you go rubbering the gals like that in New York City, Captain, you’ll bite off more than you can chew.
1913		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 14 Sept. 36/1: My wife [is] so cussed good-looking that they are always rubbering at her.
1919		Eve. World (NY) 21 Oct. 28/1: It took ten cops to hold in check / The people there to rubberneck. / They burned with curiosity.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 217: The female residents of the block rubber-necked.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 228: ‘Hello, May,’ he said, ‘I came to take you to Ellis Island.’ He whispered so loud that everybody started to rubber.
1939		J. Latimer Red Gardenias 21: ‘I saw you giving Peter March the glad-eye.’ She said, ‘You were rubbering at Carmel, too.’.
c.1950		K. Howard Small Time Crooks 23: Just rubber around steady [...] an’ I’ll tell ya some of the guys here.
1961		M. Terry Old Liberty (1962) 172: Bo was rubbernecking between the two of them.
1972		D. Pendleton Boston Blitz (1974) 112: Some other cars had pulled in behind me, but most of them were going on around, rubbernecking.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 132: Rudy Regot and Harky Gifford [...] rubbernecked over his shoulder.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 80: I don’t want some bunch of hillbillies rubber-necking me while I’m eating.
1999		Guardian G2 20 Oct. 12: Most viewers will rubber-neck this work for a moment or two and then move on, none the wiser.
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 15: Les didn’t stop to rubberneck. But he did have a look as he went past.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 9: Dozens came out to rubberneck.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 24: Looking briefly at me before rubbernecking back tae Coke.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 51: The idea of every biddy in the estate rubbernecking dismayed him.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 6: Cops look at me. I look at cops. I do not rubberneck.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 109: [I] spent a few minutes rubbernecking up and down the block for a check-cashing joint .

4. to search for.

1910

Wodehouse Gentleman of Leisure Ch. xxii: When dey rubbers for de jools, an’ finds dem gone, dey’ll t’ink dis Galer guy swiped dem.

5. to investigate, e.g. as a reporter.

1913		H. Green ‘Troubles of two Working Girls’ in S.F. Chron. 8 June 31/3: Take my place till I get back [...] Explain to the boss if he comes ’round rubberin’.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 34: Go rubbering around those places. Well. Take a chance.