as in staring
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise
couldn't help gawking at the exotically dressed guests in the hotel lobby
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Recent Examples of gawking
This seemingly reflexive action of whipping out their phones while gawking and filming isn’t a novel occurrence.
—
Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 4 May 2026
Those are important characteristics for advertisers seeking to make dynamic campaigns for an audience that's grown accustomed to viewing short-form videos on Reels or gawking at cat photos on Facebook and Instagram.
—Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2026
On a typical day, the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale reverberates with animal cries and the footfalls of gawking visitors.
—Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 20 Feb. 2026
Armed soldiers patrolled in droves, spreading hate and fear everywhere, blindfolding children, pointing guns, gawking, spitting, laughing at us like animals in the zoo.
—Literary Hub, 20 Feb. 2026
Setting aside the gawking nature of certain style choices (the warped, swiveling, 360-degree shots used when someone starts talking about particularly demented ideas are nauseating on multiple levels), the series too closely mirrors its subjects’ insularity.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 13 Feb. 2026
If gawking at celebrities is your thing.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2026
Here, astronomers are gawking at a radio signal that appears crudely on the screen like a crooked game of Pong but turns out to be a line of data repeated every 78 seconds from 600 light-years away.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2025
But the cringe-comedy antics of the original NBC series landed far better in Season 3 than in Season 1, once audiences began to truly love the characters instead of just gawking at them.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 4 May 2026
Those are important characteristics for advertisers seeking to make dynamic campaigns for an audience that's grown accustomed to viewing short-form videos on Reels or gawking at cat photos on Facebook and Instagram.
—Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2026
On a typical day, the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale reverberates with animal cries and the footfalls of gawking visitors.
—Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 20 Feb. 2026
Armed soldiers patrolled in droves, spreading hate and fear everywhere, blindfolding children, pointing guns, gawking, spitting, laughing at us like animals in the zoo.
—Literary Hub, 20 Feb. 2026
Setting aside the gawking nature of certain style choices (the warped, swiveling, 360-degree shots used when someone starts talking about particularly demented ideas are nauseating on multiple levels), the series too closely mirrors its subjects’ insularity.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 13 Feb. 2026
If gawking at celebrities is your thing.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2026
Here, astronomers are gawking at a radio signal that appears crudely on the screen like a crooked game of Pong but turns out to be a line of data repeated every 78 seconds from 600 light-years away.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2025
But the cringe-comedy antics of the original NBC series landed far better in Season 3 than in Season 1, once audiences began to truly love the characters instead of just gawking at them.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gawking
Verb
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Made in response to a difficult breakup, the work alludes to two lovers parting ways, but also to Pau’s memories of isolation as a severely asthmatic child in a notoriously polluted city, lying in bed staring at the wall and inventing stories to distract herself from the difficulty of breathing.—
Pauline J. Yao,
Artforum,
2 May 2026
-
Suddenly, the Royals were staring at a 5-2 deficit.—
Jaylon Thompson,
Kansas City Star,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Farran asked, gazing at their graves — cardboard signs smeared with handwritten Arabic because the war has made a proper burial in their village impossible.—
Isabel Debre,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Apr. 2026
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Here's what to know about the timing, and if the weather will allow for moon-gazing activities.—
Mariyam Muhammad,
USA Today,
30 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Gawking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gawking. Accessed 5 May. 2026.
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