verb General Slang

Burn Rubber

/bɜːrn ˈrʌbər/ · verb · slang

To accelerate hard, spinning the tires — or to leave somewhere fast.

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Definitions

1

By extension, to do anything in a great hurry.

“Burn rubber or we'll miss the show.”
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2

To leave a place quickly and dramatically.

“When the cops showed, we burned rubber.”
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3

To peel out by spinning the tires aggressively against the pavement.

“He hit the gas and burned rubber out of the parking lot.”
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Burn Rubber In A Sentence

The light turned green and both rods burned rubber off the line.
She told him to burn rubber before her father got home.
We burned rubber all the way to the diner to beat the rush.

Origin & Usage

1950s American hot-rod and drag-racing slang, literal in origin — flooring the throttle made the tires spin and smoke, leaving rubber on the road. It spread quickly through greaser car culture into general teen talk.

People Also Ask

What does burn rubber mean?

It means to accelerate hard enough to spin and smoke the tires, or more loosely, to leave somewhere very fast.

Where did burn rubber come from?

It comes from 1950s American hot-rod and drag-racing culture, describing the literal smoke and rubber left when drivers floored the gas.

Is burn rubber still used?

Yes, it remains common in car culture and casual speech, though its roots are firmly in the 1950s rod scene.

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