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
-
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
-
The camera caught Maher staring at the stage with a slight smile, seemingly unsure how to react.—
Ethan Shanfeld,
Variety,
13 June 2026
-
Most of us spend hours staring at phones, laptops and tablets every day, and our eyes feel it.—
Samantha Agate,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
13 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
-
Yoon’s wife is gazing at a small, framed photo on the cabinet.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
-
The star was photographed cozying up to Consuelos on the red carpet, laughing at their private conversation, and gazing at him.—
Lara Walsh,
InStyle,
8 June 2026
Noun
-
Since Socrates, dialectical thinking had been a method of eliciting truth through questioning and refutation.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
15 June 2026
-
Three people were taken into custody for questioning and police recovered a gun.—
Kerry Burke,
New York Daily News,
14 June 2026
Noun
-
Following Guthrie's prying, Lopez eventually caved in with a concrete answer.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
-
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
Cite this Entry
“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 21 Jun. 2026.
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