The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rubato \Ru*ba"to\, a. [It.] Robbed; borrowed. [1913 Webster] Temple rubato. [It.] (Mus.) Borrowed time; -- a term applied to a style of performance in which some tones are held longer than their legitimate time, while others are proportionally curtailed. [1913 Webster]WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
rubato n 1: a flexible tempo; not strictly on the beat