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

Etymology

Origin of rubber band

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

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

When an ordinary rubber band is stretched, it becomes thinner while largely maintaining the same overall volume.

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

But sometimes a disturbance can cause the polar vortex to stretch like a rubber band.

From Slate • Feb. 25, 2026

So they found a friendly civilian technician and he twisted a rubber band around their arms, and they watched while he filled some tubes with their blood.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston