oobleckn.
/ˈuːblɛk/, U.S. /ˈuˌblɛk/ Originally U.S.
A mixture of cornflour (cornstarch) and water, typically with added food colouring, which forms a non-Newtonian colloidal fluid whose viscosity increases under shear forces to the point that it behaves temporarily like a solid when pressure is applied.Used chiefly in teaching scientific enquiry to children.
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1973 Sci. & Children Mar. 6/2 Children immediately get their hands into ‘oobleck’ and are fascinated to find out that this amazing stuff is hard to penetrate if you poke your finger into it quickly, but ‘feels like quicksand’ when your finger is introduced slowly.
1993 Learning Disability Q. 16 263/1 I remember sparkling dark eyes peering out of a face covered with the green ‘oobleck’ of our science experiment.
2018 Chester Chron. (Nexis) 2 July Oobleck is an example of a ‘shear thickening’ liquid, meaning it gets thicker and more viscous when it's stirred, because tiny grains get locked together when they're squeezed up against one another.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1973