as in focused
to fix (as one's attention) steadily toward a central objective
everyone riveted their eyes on the trick that the magician was performing on stage
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Recent Examples of riveted
Many car parts are glued together rather than riveted, screwed, or bolted, and the robots and spray guns that apply those bonding agents need to be cleaned.
—
Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 16 Sep. 2025
Instead, their Boeing Starliner spacecraft had issues, causing NASA to bring the vehicle back to Earth without the two astronauts, who would stay behind in space — and as time went by, delay after delay extended their visit, leaving the nation riveted.
—Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 13 Sep. 2025
Democrats now have the option of using the vote to table Schumer’s amendment as political ammo in the midterm election to attack Republicans over Epstein, a subject that has riveted some members of the GOP base for months.
—Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 10 Sep. 2025
She is riveted as the actor playing Prince Hamlet (Noah Jupe) is onstage with her husband, Will, playing the ghost of his father, King Hamlet.
—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 9 Sep. 2025
This figure sits comfortably within the simple 36-centimetre (14 inches) upper bound once allowances are made for the lattice geometry, riveted joints, and uneven heating.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Aug. 2025
Ted Koppel’s Nightline, which was launched on ABC News during the period, also kept Americans riveted to the crisis.
—Jonathan Alter, TIME, 29 Dec. 2024
Which isn’t to say they weren’t riveted.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 19 Dec. 2024
The current drone mania also echoes the Chinese spy balloon incident that riveted the country in 2023.
—Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2024
Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 16 Sep. 2025
Instead, their Boeing Starliner spacecraft had issues, causing NASA to bring the vehicle back to Earth without the two astronauts, who would stay behind in space — and as time went by, delay after delay extended their visit, leaving the nation riveted.
—Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 13 Sep. 2025
Democrats now have the option of using the vote to table Schumer’s amendment as political ammo in the midterm election to attack Republicans over Epstein, a subject that has riveted some members of the GOP base for months.
—Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 10 Sep. 2025
She is riveted as the actor playing Prince Hamlet (Noah Jupe) is onstage with her husband, Will, playing the ghost of his father, King Hamlet.
—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 9 Sep. 2025
This figure sits comfortably within the simple 36-centimetre (14 inches) upper bound once allowances are made for the lattice geometry, riveted joints, and uneven heating.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Aug. 2025
Ted Koppel’s Nightline, which was launched on ABC News during the period, also kept Americans riveted to the crisis.
—Jonathan Alter, TIME, 29 Dec. 2024
Which isn’t to say they weren’t riveted.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 19 Dec. 2024
The current drone mania also echoes the Chinese spy balloon incident that riveted the country in 2023.
—Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for riveted
Verb
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But one scholar, Anthony Grafton, who about thirty years ago published Forgers and Critics, focused on how in the early modern period, there was this enormous flourishing not only of culture but also of liars.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
16 Oct. 2025
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Labrador's case is just one of two focused on the issue of trans athletes in women's sports that will be heard by the Supreme Court.—
Jackson Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
15 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Most Americans supported increasing income tax rates for upper-income Americans (63 percent) and increasing tax revenues by making major changes to the federal tax code (54 percent), but the support was largely concentrated among Democrats and independents, not Republicans.—
Suzanne Blake,
MSNBC Newsweek,
14 Oct. 2025
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These Americans live nearly everywhere in the country, but their numbers are especially concentrated in a handful of red states whose governments have declined to expand Medicaid programs to cover poor, childless adults.—
Elena Shao,
New York Times,
11 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Riveted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/riveted. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
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