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
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He was charged with five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another person and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings.
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The staff of Sermitsiaq had taken to leaving their phones outside editorial meetings, for fear of eavesdropping by the United States.
Verb
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Shoppers are gawking at their climbing receipts as food costs continue to climb.
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This seemingly reflexive action of whipping out their phones while gawking and filming isn’t a novel occurrence.
Noun
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It was destroyed in the name of urban renewal and has borne the brunt of government interference and disinvestment.
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The ruling retained the Fed’s special status in the government that shields it from interference by the White House—now or in the future.
Verb
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In Taiwan, a student sitting for an entrance exam for a top medical school was discovered wearing smart glasses after proctors noticed the student staring oddly at the test, leading to an inspection that revealed the frame was emitting heat.
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Three stories, three separate sets of receipts, with one through line worth staring at until a clearer view emerges.
Noun
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That seemed to work for a while, but now his intrusiveness is ramping up again.
Verb
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Isn’t that what any of us wants when gazing into the mirror held up to nature, as Hamlet describes the theater?
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Soul gazing The following morning, the participants wake up with maybe the clearest heads in Nashville.
Noun
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Border officers have broad discretion, and retirees who spend lengthy periods in the country can face additional questioning.
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Justices posed various hypothetical questions throughout and, at times, got into tense lines of questioning while trying to understand the attorneys’ arguments and what previous cases reflect about this one.
Noun
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The bathroom is encased with polycarbonate walls to let in light but keep out prying eyes.
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It’s often viewed as a dumping ground for human refuse — out of sight, out of mind — and it is structured to prevent prying eyes.
Cite this Entry
“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 3 Jul. 2026.
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