caoutchouc

American  

[kou-chook, kou-chook] / ˈkaʊ tʃʊk, kaʊˈtʃuk /

noun

1. rubber.

2. pure rubber.

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caoutchouc British  

/ -ˈtʃʊk, kaʊˈtʃuːk, ˈkaʊtʃuːk, -tʃʊk /

noun

1. another name for rubber 1

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Etymology

Origin of caoutchouc

1765–75; < French < Spanish cauchuc (now obsolete), probably ultimately < an Indian language of lowland tropical South America

Example Sentences

In the 1700s, a French explorer brought the name "caoutchouc" from a local language: it meant "weeping wood".

From BBC • Jul. 23, 2019

Since then caoutchouc has become one of our great materials of manufacture, applied, not only to clothing, but to useful articles of every description.

From Knowledge is Power: A View of the Productive Forces of Modern Society and the Results of Labor, Capital and Skill. by Knight, Charles

The caoutchouc is collected in the simplest way, which affords a regular business to many Amazonians, chiefly native Indians, who dispose of it to the Portuguese or Brazilian traders.

From Afloat in the Forest A Voyage among the Tree-Tops by Reid, Mayne

In this respect gutta percha differs from india-rubber or caoutchouc, which does not become plastic and unlike gutta percha is elastic.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various

There are numerous other trees, both in the Old and New World, most of them belonging to the famed family of the figs, which in some degree afford the caoutchouc of commerce.

From Afloat in the Forest A Voyage among the Tree-Tops by Reid, Mayne