Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mixture of cornstarch and water with unusual physical properties.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named for a sticky substance in Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), children's story.

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Examples

  • Just search for "oobleck"-- after the Dr. Seuss book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck".

    August night e 2009

  • If the kids met the goal Diodate would have a shower of "oobleck," a green starch substance of Dr. Seuss origin.

    Journal Online Homepage 2010

  • • Association for Women in Science: Make some of Dr. Seuss '"oobleck" and learn a little about non-Newtonian fluids.

    Fore, right! < 2010

  • The video shows what is termed "creeping oobleck", apparently a material made by mixing corn starch with water to create a non-Newtonian fluid.

    ianrandalstrock's Journal ianrandalstrock 2009

  • I JUST taught oobleck in science class yesterday at camp!

    August night e 2009

  • The Kid used to make oobleck in preschool and kindergarten but I never knew it was a "non-Newtonian fluid."

    August night e 2009

  • Another interesting substance is called 'oobleck.'

    Archive 2004-09-01 2004

  • Everything turned a hideous, bright, oobleck green.

    Fear Itself Jonathan Nasaw 2003

  • NPR science correspondent Richard Harris plays with oobleck.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • "I realized after a while that cornstarch suspension - oobleck, the kids call it - has this wonderful property that if it's not flowing rapidly, it's a liquid that flows pretty well," Katz says.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

Comments

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  • 2 cups of corn starch

    3 drops of green food coloring

    enough water to make a thick mixture (about the texture of pancake batter) I usually measure equal amounts of water and corn starch, but mix water in slowly.

    Mix all ingredients together. This makes a fun mixture to play with textures. Use different utensils, such as a spatula, bowl, and funnels, to see what form the mixture will take.

    January 4, 2007

  • Oobleck dancing: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9jcA4decA

    July 12, 2008

  • Oh! I remember playing with this stuff when I was in Montessori school--we'd scoop up a little handful of it as a liquid and then sort of tap it to get a sense of it as a solid.

    Thank you, Random word feature!

    January 6, 2012

  • Don't forget oobleck's cousins: glurch and goop

    January 6, 2012

  • What's glurch?

    January 6, 2012

  • It's like flubber

    January 6, 2012

  • glurch is the bit on a G that stops it being a C. So called because it lurches to the left to achieve this.

    January 6, 2012

  • @gangerh: Hmm...I never heard that definition before. Interesting

    January 6, 2012

  • Really, 'layer? It's akin to the strizontal which is the bit at the bottom of a Z that stops it being a 7. So called because it strikes out to the right horizontally to achieve this.

    January 6, 2012

  • I've also never been called "'layer" before, but that is super interesting. You should start a list of letter parts.

    January 7, 2012

  • A strizontal can also be observed on an L, distinguishing it from an I.

    January 7, 2012

  • I would dearly love to know the name given to the serifs absent from capital I (India) in the type face that you Wordniki are now reading that ARE REMARKABLY INEFFECTIVE in distinguishing cap. I (India) from l.c. l (el). As for the origins of ooblek, perhaps the learned Dr Seuss was playing on French oublier/oblique in view of the strange properties of non-Newtonian fluids, or maybe he was trying to transform Augenblick into a pseudo-Hungarian word, őblik,but changed it further just in case he was misunderstood by his compositors.

    March 2, 2012