What is "rubber duck"

n. 1 A toy, made out of rubber or rubber like plastic, shaped like a duck; usually a floating bathtub toy. 2 (context nautical slang English) An inflatable boat.

A rubber duck is a toy shaped like a stylized duck, generally yellow with a flat base. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic. The yellow rubber duck has achieved an iconic status in Western pop culture and is often symbolically linked to bathing. Various novelty variations of the toy are produced.

A rubber duck is a rubber or plastic duck-shaped bathtub toy.

Rubber duck may also refer to:

• Rubber duck (military), a fake rifle used in basic military training
• Rubber duck (engineering vehicle) British slang for a wheeled excavator.
• Rubber Duck (album), a 1976 album by C.W. McCall
• A character in the 1976 novelty single Convoy by C.W. McCall, and in the film based on the song, and in a later song
• AN/SLQ-49 Chaff Buoy Decoy System, commonly referred to as "Rubber Duck", used for anti-ship-missile defense
• " Rubber Duckie", a song by the Sesame Street character Ernie
• "Rubber Ducky", a song by Quincy Jones; one of the soundtracks of the movie " Dollar$"
• Rubber Ducky antenna, a short, flexible radio antenna sealed in protective rubber or plastic
• An inflatable boat
• Rubberduck, a DC Comics character
• Rubber duck debugging, an informal term used in software engineering to refer to a method of debugging code.
• Rubber Duck (sculpture), a floating sculpture by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman

Rubber Duck is an album by country musician C. W. McCall, released on Polydor Records in 1976 (see 1976 in music). It is his fourth album, released the same year as Wilderness, but concentrating on the themes the McCall character was popular for – trucking, as opposed to the various depictions of nature that could be found in Wilderness. Among others, the album contains the song " 'Round the World with the Rubber Duck", a sequel to McCall's earlier wildly popular hit " Convoy", with many humorous and absurd elements added. "Audubon" is a quasi- autobiographical song, while "Ratchetjaw" is a take on trucker slang, with a multitude of CB-related terminology included in the lyrics.

In the United States military, a rubber duck or "rubber ducky" or "Blue Gun" refers to a fake training weapon, usually an M16 rifle, used in basic training. Trainees are issued rubber ducks before they have been properly trained to use actual rifles, in order to become familiar with the care, responsible handling, and added weight of an M16 during various activities, such as bayonet drills, water survival and marches. They are also used to train soldiers in various ceremonial practices that differ when soldiers are armed. For example, standing at attention requires a different stance and set of movements when the soldier has a rifle in-hand.

Some rubber ducks are made by filling and coating an actual decommissioned M16 rifle with rubber or plastic. Some are also made using decommissioned rifle parts, with rubber or plastic used for the other parts. Still others are made entirely of rubber or plastic that has been molded to resemble both the exact shape and weight of a rifle.

Rubber duck use is being phased out in some areas of the Armed Forces, namely in Air Force Basic Training. They were replaced with M16 replicas: metal models that resemble M16 rifles, including most internal parts, but that lack the ability to fire. The replicas allow soldiers to learn disassembly and reassembly of their rifles much earlier in their training.

Rubber Duck refers to any of several giant floating sculptures designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. These were built in various sizes, ranging from the prototype, which measured 1 inch, to the one created in 2007 that is the largest rubber duck in the world.