as in staring
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise
visitors seem mesmerized as they peer at the variety of marine life in the aquarium's huge tank
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Recent Examples of peering
Kenny Chesney walks around office on the 72nd floor of One World Trade Center in New York City, peering out the floor-to-ceiling windows in search of his skyline barometers—the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and one of his favorite places to perform, MetLife Stadium.
—
Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
This way of peering at screen culture from an inexact distance, which also comes up in a scolding scene where Ethan scrolls aimlessly through something like TikTok, rankles in a play that is otherwise so precise about physical time and space.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
As even the tiniest speck of dust, or nearby city lights can break equipment or make noise in readings, remote areas like Kitt Peak offer sanctuary to astronomers peering deep into space.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 31 Oct. 2025
The place is the Savin Bar + Kitchen, in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, where immediately inside the front door, patrons are greeted by a larger-than-life framed mugshot of Bulger — the mob-boss, murderer, bank robber, drug dealer and extortionist — peering cooly out from under his fedora.
—Tovia Smith, NPR, 24 Oct. 2025
This is the first in a series of mysterious and increasingly frightening events that follow him through his childhood, all of it narrated in 'Penpal' by his adult self peering through a distorted lens of shaky, imperfect recall.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
Altman stealing someone’s art and running for the door or peering through blinds in fear that Elon Musk was coming to take over OpenAI.
—Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2025
Gunshots slicing through the air from above sent visitors running for cover or peering out of their cars to investigate – some worried for family members inside the facility.
—Amanda Musa, CNN Money, 25 Sep. 2025
Success was both exhilarating and terrifying; his sister Pam recalls paparazzi peering into their parents’ kitchen.
—Eric Cortellessa, Time, 25 Sep. 2025
Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
This way of peering at screen culture from an inexact distance, which also comes up in a scolding scene where Ethan scrolls aimlessly through something like TikTok, rankles in a play that is otherwise so precise about physical time and space.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
As even the tiniest speck of dust, or nearby city lights can break equipment or make noise in readings, remote areas like Kitt Peak offer sanctuary to astronomers peering deep into space.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 31 Oct. 2025
The place is the Savin Bar + Kitchen, in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, where immediately inside the front door, patrons are greeted by a larger-than-life framed mugshot of Bulger — the mob-boss, murderer, bank robber, drug dealer and extortionist — peering cooly out from under his fedora.
—Tovia Smith, NPR, 24 Oct. 2025
This is the first in a series of mysterious and increasingly frightening events that follow him through his childhood, all of it narrated in 'Penpal' by his adult self peering through a distorted lens of shaky, imperfect recall.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
Altman stealing someone’s art and running for the door or peering through blinds in fear that Elon Musk was coming to take over OpenAI.
—Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2025
Gunshots slicing through the air from above sent visitors running for cover or peering out of their cars to investigate – some worried for family members inside the facility.
—Amanda Musa, CNN Money, 25 Sep. 2025
Success was both exhilarating and terrifying; his sister Pam recalls paparazzi peering into their parents’ kitchen.
—Eric Cortellessa, Time, 25 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peering
Verb
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A lot of these schools are staring at declining enrollments, so money is tight on college campuses.—
Dana Taylor,
USA Today,
11 Nov. 2025
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And then on Thursday, after most of the show had been written, a man collapsed in the Oval Office, generating an instantly meme-able photograph of the president staring into the camera, looking oblivious to efforts to revive the prone victim at stage left.—
Erik Adams,
The Atlantic,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The camera then zooms out to show that the athlete is actually inside of a snow globe, which the pop star has been gazing into and shaking.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
6 Nov. 2025
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But gazing at the field of red clay just feet away from his front door gives him the feeling that Charlotte’s growth is climbing on top of him.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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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
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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
Cite this Entry
“Peering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peering. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.
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