Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a contraceptive sheath.

1973

G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 45: My husband don’t like the rubber boots.

see rubber cheque n.

see separate entry.

(US) the after-dinner-speaking circuit, esp. as followed by political hopefuls.

1937		L.A. Times 23 July A9: Just a few more jottings from the diary of a journeyman sports scribe — in case you’re interested in what such strange persons do when they aren’t dodging (1) people who want jobs, (2) people who want free tickets or (3) offers to swap a free lunch for a free speech on the Rubber Chicken Circuit.
1946		Pic (N.Y.) Nov. 56/3: He and his associates were on the ‘mashed potato’ circuit speaking to clubs of every kind, outlining their plans and their hopes.
1949		Ladies’ Home Journal Jan. 146: Miss Dorothy Thompson quotes the term chicken-patty circuit, to describe speaking tours sponsored by women’s clubs in the smaller cities and towns of the United States.
1973		National Rev. 16 Feb. 192: The listener is tempted to conclude that this therefore is merely another highly forgettable political speech, something redolent of the rubber-chicken circuit.
1980		G. Liddy Will 106: Because I was ‘getting some ink,’ as he called newspaper publicity, he thought [...] I might draw bigger audiences and we could alert more parents. I agreed [...] Berberich and I started out on the rubber chicken circuit.
1999		K. Vonnegut Bagombo Snuff Box 6: My future two-term president was burbling out on the rubber-chicken circuit in 1950.
2005		M.H. Lytle America’s Uncivil Wars 256: For years he traveled the rubber chicken circuit, raising funds for Republican candidates.

(US) Akron, Ohio.

2004

Infodog 🌐 Rubber City Kennel Club of Akron, Ohio, is proud to be a part of the MBF web page.

see rubber gash under gash n.¹

(Irish) plimsolls, gymshoes, trainers.

1996		(con. 1950s) C. Kenneally Maura’s Boy 116: We wore knee-length scarlet socks [...] and a pair of black ‘rubber dollies.’.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Rubber Dollies (n): running shoes.

(US) a drink which causes vomiting.

1927

‘Sl. Expressions for Drunk’ in New Republic in AS XVI:1 (1941) 70: [...] has a rubber drink.

see under gash n.¹

see rubber heel n. (1)

(US) a police officer (or a squad of such officers), having had his/their service weapons confiscated for disciplinary, psychiatriic or physical reasons (e.g. neurological defects); thus rubber-gun job, some variety of adminstrative role .

1970		D. Burnham ‘Police (Cops?) have Slanguage of Own’ in N.Y. Times 15 Feb. 65/5: Rubber gun squad—Policemen, either drunks or mentally unbalanced, who have had their guns taken away from them.
1973		R. Daley Target Blue 101: [T]his was known in derision as the Rubber Gun Squad, or the Bow and Arrow Squad; and it was in many respects the ultimate disgrace that a policeman could experience.
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 67: ‘Taking away my guns meant I was being transferred to the lame and the blind squad, the bow and arrow squad’.
1976		B. Hirschfeld Secrets 108: The Desk Officer [...] had been on the force for nineteen years. A large, slow-moving man who had been assigned to rubber-gun jobs for most of his career .
1983		B. Gelb Vanished Brass 92: The board recommended modified duty without a weapon—assignment to what cops called the ‘rubber gun brigade’—pending psychiatric evaluation.
1994		M. McAlary Good Cop Bad Cop 141: She [a police officer] suffered some sort of neurological injury. For a while they put her in the rubber gun squad.
2006		P. Blauner Slipping into Darkness 110: Mauler had been consigned to a kind of bitter civil service purgatory, a Rubber Gun Cop guarding the ancient ledger books.

(Aus./N.Z.) a clumsy or pompous person.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 42: rubber guts — (1) A clumsy person. (2) A pompous person.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: rubber-gutz A clumsy person; a pompous person.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 175: rubber guts Someone lacking intestinal fortitude.

1. (Aus.) a fool; a jocular form of address.

1990

T. Winton Human Torpedo 47: G’day, rubberhead.

2. (N.Z. prison) a skinhead.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 156/2: rubberhead n. a skinhead.

see separate entry.

see rubber heel n. (2)

a contraceptive sheath.

1981		W. Boyd A Good Man in Africa 89: You want to get that popsy on to these contraceptive pills, pdq Forget your rubber johnnies.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: rubber Johnny n. A blob; contraceptive. Also rubber.
2001		I. Welsh Glue 50: Yazed a rubber johnny thair but. We hud loads ay time, a whole packet.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 16: So have you got your rubber johnnies, Jason.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 350: Nelson’s Colin wqrapped up in scaffolding like an overprotective rubber johnathan.

see separate entries.

see rubberneck n.

(drugs) a condom or the finger of a rubber glove used to store or transport narcotics.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

a padded cell; also attrib.

1938		S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 116: The padded cells, known to the wittier as the ‘quiet rooms’, ‘rubber rooms’ or [...] ‘pads.’.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 174: rubber palace [rooms] insane; asylum.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 158: Every time he saw a dead Marine he’d start laughing. Pulled a tour of duty in a rubber room.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 16: ‘e gets to spend the rest of his sentence in the hospital ward, and you get to serve as blue trusty here in the Rubber Ramada’.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 128: The husband—he‘s in a rubber room.
1996		G. Pelecanos (con. 1949) The Big Blowdown (1999) 146: One or two of them qualified as drool cases or rubber-room candidates.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 156/2: rubber room n. = strip cell.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 96: You sit in a rubber room with a bunch of other nuts.

(US tramp) a timid person.

1931		I. Franklyn Knights of the Cockpit 9: He was expected to teach these rubber socks the tricks.
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 164: These wallies are all rubber socks with the wife around.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) a police officer.

1987

in Delacoste & Alexander Sex Work (1988) 80: She’s street-wise [...] she can spot those rubber soles from a block away.

see spare tyre under spare adj.

(US) to live as a vagrant.

1967

(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 4: You and me rubber-tramp it together.

an effeminate male homosexual; thus rubber wristed, effeminate.

1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 267: Alexander Blaney was [...] a rubber wristed, lisping, mincing faggot.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 302: If being befriended by a fucking fag-hag doesnae establish the bastard as a rubberwrist, goodness knows what will.

see rubberneck v. (1)