rubbering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of rubber.

   The whole street was out rubbering at the celebrity's car.

   Commuters slowed, rubbering at the overturned truck on the shoulder.

   Note

   A verb with two lives stands behind this form: to eavesdrop on a telephone call, and, in slang, to rubberneck. J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) uses the second, with Old Sally "busy rubbering and being charming." Like any -ing form, it sits naturally after busy, out or keep. The same spelling also works as a noun for staring at a spectacle and listening in on a line.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of turning to stare at something, especially slowing down to look at an accident or unusual sight.

   The highway backed up for miles because of all the rubbering at the overturned tanker.

   A little rubbering is natural when a film crew sets up on your block.

   Similarrubbernecking, staring, gawping

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The practice of secretly listening in on a telephone conversation between other people.

   On the old shared lines, rubbering was the village's main source of gossip.

   She suspected rubbering whenever a faint click interrupted her phone calls.

   Similareavesdropping

   Note

   A word from the age of the party line, when neighbors sharing a circuit could lift the receiver and listen. R. Kline's Resisting Consumer Technology in Rural America (2003) gives it as the name used "at the time," citing a 1907 North Dakota newspaper on neighbors who "butt in" on calls. Today it reads as period vocabulary. For modern snooping, eavesdropping or listening in is clearer, and context separates it from the gawking sense.

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