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
-
The staff of Sermitsiaq had taken to leaving their phones outside editorial meetings, for fear of eavesdropping by the United States.—
Ben Taub,
New Yorker,
15 June 2026
-
Greylord was a watershed moment 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,
6 June 2026
Verb
-
Shoppers are gawking at their climbing receipts as food costs continue to climb.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
8 June 2026
-
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
Noun
-
When early goals by both teams were denied by offside calls, the aggrieved fans jeered and whistled — the equivalent of Chiefs fans booing pass interference against their guy.—
Blair Kerkhoff,
Kansas City Star,
17 June 2026
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But in a counterclaim, Carbonatik submitted an answer denying all claims made by Heavy Metal Capital and countersued for various causes of action, including breach of contract, defamation, and tortious interference.—
Kathleen Perricone,
Entertainment Weekly,
17 June 2026
Verb
-
Beijing — When US and Israeli bombs first began falling on Iran at the end of February, China’s leaders were staring at the very real possibility of another friendly regime being decapitated, much like had happened with Venezuela only weeks before.—
Simone McCarthy,
CNN Money,
20 June 2026
-
Yesterday, Barack Obama stood in the nearly same spot, now as a former president, staring up at a monument in his name.—
Josh Feldman,
NBC news,
19 June 2026
Noun
-
That seemed to work for a while, but now his intrusiveness is ramping up again.—
Jeanne Phillips,
Mercury News,
15 May 2026
Verb
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Years after his dad’s reformation, Jonah sits on a bench at the Broncos’ practice facility in Dove Valley, gazing out at the green expanse of his future.—
Luca Evans,
Denver Post,
21 June 2026
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The self-reflexive qualities of the work go further, and the film can surely be read as a statement about the limits and possibilities of a totally analogue and backwards-gazing practice.—
Sam Bodrojan,
IndieWire,
17 June 2026
Noun
-
Capoy said the suspects, who were close friends, said in initial questioning that they were bullied in school.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
22 June 2026
-
The Kansas City Police Department detained one man for further questioning.—
Eleanor Nash,
Kansas City Star,
21 June 2026
Noun
-
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.—
Gerard S. Williams,
Sun Sentinel,
21 June 2026
-
Following Guthrie's prying, Lopez eventually caved in with a concrete answer.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
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