as in eavesdropping
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Dissimilar Words
as in gawking
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise
thoughtless drivers pausing on the highway to rubberneck at the accident
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rubbernecking
Kris Habermehl, CBS News, 4 May 2026
Instead, Malinin popped his quad axel, the beginning of four minutes that started to feel like rubbernecking a car accident.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Feb. 2026
The whole of football is rubbernecking in their direction.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2026
Verb
As a result, traffic between Morton Grove and Skokie has slowed to a crawl, and on the inbound side there has also been a slowdown due to rubbernecking.
—Kris Habermehl, CBS News, 4 May 2026
Instead, Malinin popped his quad axel, the beginning of four minutes that started to feel like rubbernecking a car accident.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Feb. 2026
The whole of football is rubbernecking in their direction.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rubbernecking
Noun
-
Greylord was a watershed in its use of eavesdropping devices and a mole to obtain evidence instead of relying on wrongdoers to become government informants.—
Kori Rumore,
Chicago Tribune,
4 May 2026
-
Canvasser was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance, according to police records.—
Sasha Pezenik,
ABC News,
10 Apr. 2026
Verb
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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
Noun
-
After one mistake too many and a little Machiavellian interference courtesy of his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor is stripped of his divine powers and banished to Earth, sentenced to live among the rest of us unworthy mortals.—
Sergio Pereira,
Space.com,
6 May 2026
-
What truly mattered was protecting Britain’s trade with the European continent against French interference.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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
Noun
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His argument also cited a host of other possible factors, including the circumstances of his arrest and questioning, his trial’s change of venue to San Jose and the jury selection.—
Bay Area News Group,
Mercury News,
4 May 2026
-
At the end of group questioning, jurors were called up individually to be questioned by the judge and attorneys.—
Matt Schooley,
CBS News,
4 May 2026
Noun
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With that said, the game has managed to rack up an impressive five million sales in under a month, developing a dedicated fanbase that's been probing and prying at the game's engine, with delightful and sometimes unexpected results.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
16 Apr. 2026
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Palm Springs Has Still Got It This desert enclave has long been many things at once—a spa town, a sanctuary away from Hollywood's prying eyes, a design capital, a shoo-in for winter sun.—
Jason Sheeler,
Condé Nast Traveler,
20 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 10 May. 2026.
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