rubber band

American  

noun

• rubber bands
  plural

1. a narrow, circular or oblong band of rubber, used for holding things together, as papers or a box and its lid.

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rubber band British  

noun

1. Also called: elastic band. a continuous loop of thin rubber, used to hold papers, etc, together

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Usage

What else does rubber band mean? The handy, dandy rubber band, useful for flinging at people and holding together important things, like stacks of cash money, as rubber bands refer to in hip-hop slang. Rubber bands also come up in fashion contexts, from bracelets and hairstyles, and a common complaint for those who have to use special ones for orthodontic braces.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• rubber bands
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of rubber band

First recorded in 1890–95

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rubber band

Like a rubber band stretched tight, it catches up a lot more quickly—and painfully—than it took to pull it into that shape.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

The AI market has become a rubber band, with a growing divergence between so-called hyperscalers and the companies selling semiconductor chips as software becomes cheaper to develop outside the West, according to Goldman Sachs.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

You slice it the wrong way and, instead of a tender, juicy bite, you’re left gnawing on something that tastes like a rubber band.

From Salon ● May 22, 2026

Unlike gravity or electromagnetism, the strong force becomes stronger as particles move farther apart, similar to a rubber band stretching tighter the more it is pulled.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

I dig into the tool drawer again and find a rubber band.

From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi

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