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
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
Nunn has a divided audience, as the Baddies show is fueled with drama, with Jerry Springer style fights to keep viewers gawking.
—Nadja Sayej, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
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
Nunn has a divided audience, as the Baddies show is fueled with drama, with Jerry Springer style fights to keep viewers gawking.
—Nadja Sayej, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gawking
Verb
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But Jen remains utterly unmoved, staring impassively as Whitney, who seems truly blindsided, starts to lose her mind a little bit.—
Kathleen Walsh,
Vulture,
14 Mar. 2026
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Beyond the relatable thought of two of the best golfers in the world staring at their closets, wondering what to put on before a tee time, there’s a lot of earnings potential coming out of Fleetwood’s and Thomas’s situations.—
Gabby Herzig,
New York Times,
13 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The springs are the perfect location for a picnic and an afternoon spent lounging and swimming in the pool of clear, clean spring water and gazing at the small waterfall.—
Evie Carrick,
Travel + Leisure,
12 Mar. 2026
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But the real luxury is the intimacy and hands-on attention guests receive, from sitting by the fire and gazing out at the glaciers to shredding powder in the alpine.—
Jen Murphy,
Robb Report,
8 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Gawking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gawking. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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