1894 Marion (Ohio) Daily Star 28 July ‘Rubberneck’ is one of the latest words that has sprung into the language of slang. It..is defined as one who is continually peeping around or attending to some one else's business.

1895 M. J. O'Neill How he does It xi. 142 Seeing the house lit up and the orchestra playing, worked up the curiosity of the people of the little town and ere long the ‘Rubber-necks’ of the place understood what was going on.

1909 G. B. McCutcheon Truxton King iii. 41 They are the nobility—the swells. They don't hang around the streets like tourists and rubbernecks.

1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 46 Rubber neck, tourist.

1974 P. McCutchan Call for Simon Shard xiii. 119 Can you clear the place up, Inspector? Move the rubbernecks on, back to bed?

2010 S. Quintero Efrain's Secret 209 ‘What's going on over there?’ Coach Moretti heads toward us intent on knocking heads. A few rubbernecks..follow him.

1905 Naugatuck (Connecticut) Daily News 23 Aug. Every Englishman that has been over here has spent a couple of days on a rubber neck auto or hiring some tough young fellow to show sights.

1923 Freeport (Illinois) Jrnl.-Standard 4 Aug. 8/5 Stalls almost filling the street from curb to curb. Rubberneck auto of tourists squeezing its way through.

1913 G. Gibbs Silent Battle ix. 95 The edifice had reached the distinction of notice by the conductors of the ‘rubber-neck’ busses on the Avenue.

1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris (U.K. ed.) x. 175 Large rubberneck buses from travel agencies drive through, packed with sightseers from various States of the Union.

2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 4 Feb. An enterprising rubberneck bus outfit has started to run tours of the ruins from the safety of the French Quarter.

1905 Washington Post 16 Apr. It would be a great treat for the patrons of the rubberneck cars.

1994 D. M. Bauer E. Wharton's Brave New Politics iv. 129 When Bunty Hayes reappears in the novel.., he is a barker for a sightseeing tour in a rubberneck car.

1904 Sail & Sweep Dec. 534/1 As the long gaff ran up the spar and the reef points commenced to snap spitefully against the canvas, all thoughts of traveling around Detroit on a ‘rubberneck’ motor-car disappeared completely.

1907 Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) 22 Apr. 8/4 To return was impossible. She could never find the ‘rubberneck’ party.

1950 S. J. Perelman Swiss Family Perelman ix. 157 In the resultant snowstorm, rubberneck parties had to be conveyed to St. Peter's and the Roman Forum in pungs.

1909 E. Carroll 1st Convent. Printers' League Amer. 181 There is an automobile ride—rubber-neck ride—to take place at 1 o'clock to-day.

1952 Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News 4 Mar. 8 b/2 One of the ‘attractions’ on a tourist rubberneck ride of Casablanca is the Bousbir—the bordello.

1910 Nevada State Jrnl. 22 June 6/2 It was decided to go out on another rubberneck tour and look over all the fields again.

1949 National Geographic Mag. Dec. 783/2 Twice daily a horse-drawn stage leaves the Plaza on a ‘rubberneck’ tour.

1995 Buffalo (N.Y.) News (Nexis) 18 May (Lifestyles section) 1 On the second Saturday of each month, Mark Goldman offers a ‘Rubberneck Tour’ that introduces participants to the events that have shaped Buffalo's history and the issues that continue to do so.

1906 Catal. Copyright Entries: Pt. 4 (Libr. of Congr. Copyright Office) 1 146/1 They are exhibited to the rubber-neck tourists.

1926 Glasgow Herald 27 July 10 As somebody has to get it in the neck, it may as well be..the rubberneck tourist.

2005 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 11 May (Drive section) 7 Rubberneck tourist drivers, tour buses, crowds and parking hassles in the high season can tend to make you wonder whether you're actually getting away from it all.

1905 Washington Post 4 Mar. Great time for the rubberneck wagons.

1943 M. Flavin Journey in Dark 174 On the rubberneck wagons the fellow with the megaphone would point it out and say: ‘Residence of Stanley Adams, financier and banker.’

1991 L. Sante Low Life ii. ii. 129 Ordinary pikers could take the ‘haywagons’ or ‘rubberneck wagons’ that plied down from Times Square.

1892 Tacoma (Washington) Daily News 9 Aug. 8 Well, lookee yere, young felly, w'y don' ye rubber neck over dere an' yere w'ot dem guys is talkin' abeout?

1895 Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio) 1 Aug. 1/6 Lizzie rubber necked in Charles' business in some manner, and Charles came back at her.

1903 C. D. Hagerty Jim Rickey's Monologues 69 One night a fire broke out downtown and Ikey was on deck To congratulate the loser, also to rubberneck.

1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase iv. 59 She..could not waste time rubber-necking round Wilvercombe with Lord Peter.

1977 Time 16 May 54/1 Wisconsin motorists may never see a purple cow, but they are rubbernecking at an enormous piebald blue one emblazoned on Farmer Hilbert Schneider's 75-year-old barn at Johnson Creek.

2001 L. Voss To be Someone 182 An octogenarian couple in an RV, who were rubbernecking at the trees above them.

1897 Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader 2 Oct. You will find him in the rear, rubber-necking the stage.

1920 F. G. Corning Student Reverie 85 The officers, between the acts, were privileged to stand up and face about to ‘rubber-neck’ the ladies with monocles and field glasses.

1939 Daily Mail 12 Apr. 8/4 Thousands of people..have ‘rubber-necked’ this monstrosity [sc. Ming, the giant panda] until their eyes ached.

1993 Fort Collins (Colorado) Triangle Rev. 18 Feb. 7/1 Small talk..is difficult when one keeps rubbernecking the skyscrapers like some hick from the sticks.