rubbernecking 1 of 2

noun

as in eavesdropping

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Dissimilar Words

rubbernecking

2 of 2

verb

present participle of rubberneck
as in gawking
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise thoughtless drivers pausing on the highway to rubberneck at the accident

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rubbernecking
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
  1. eavesdropping
  2. gawking
  3. interference
  4. staring
  5. intrusiveness
  6. gazing
  7. questioning
  8. prying
Noun
  • More than a year after the tapes were shared, District Attorney Nathan Hochman charged Flores for violating a decades-old California eavesdropping statute that prohibits secret recordings without informed consent of all parties present.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Now, for the second straight summer, 49ers training camp goes on without him on the sideline — strolling, watching, eavesdropping, muttering.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of eavesdropping
Verb
  • On most days the Jewel House in the Tower of London is packed with tourists gawking at the fabled British Crown Jewels.
    — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Instead, the skin-frying Friday saw common flow of people going through, gawking at the large screens and a group of sailors allowing some passing by to do pull-ups from a bar.
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 3 July 2026
Definition of gawking
Noun
  • For many in Canada, the dispute raises concerns about American interference with Canada’s national identity.
    — Lex Harvey, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Jayden Allen Harwood, according to Uthmeier's office, was arrested on charges of interference in a child custody case and resisting officers without violence.
    — Natasha Holt, FOXNews.com, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of interference
Verb
  • For you, that could mean fewer moments spent staring at your Messages app waiting for a bank code to arrive.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 23 Aug. 2026
  • Auf der Maur, in white, is twisted away from the audience, staring intently at the lens.
    — Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of staring
Noun
  • That seemed to work for a while, but now his intrusiveness is ramping up again.
    — Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 15 May 2026
Definition of intrusiveness
Verb
  • Deployed in 2004, the Swift Observatory spent over two decades gazing into some of the universe’s most powerful explosions.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Yes, seen from down in the crater, the sky was a piece of living archaeology, and the longer Gunn could spend gazing out at it, the better her grasp of the root of time.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of gazing
Noun
  • That line of questioning doesn’t address whether kids are doing other harmful things, such as engaging with nude deepfakes.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 18 Aug. 2026
  • At the oral argument on appeal, Judges Eric Clay, Rachel Bloomekatz, and Julia Gibbons spent almost an hour pressing the lawyers, and the questioning suggested skepticism of Kalshi’s position.
    — The Insider, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of questioning
Noun
  • Meanwhile, celebrities opting for real-life mountain living include Tom Cruise with his staggering 298-acre mountain estate, as well as Oprah Winfrey, who both chose Telluride, Colorado to build in, live in and escape prying paparazzi.
    — Catherine Dunwoody, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2026
  • Part of the Democratic disagreement comes from just how much attention to pay to media outlets’ prying, versus the power of the message.
    — Nicholas Wu, semafor.com, 15 July 2026
Definition of prying

Browse Nearby Words

rubberneckers
rubbernecking
rubbernecks
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Cite this Entry

“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.

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