rubbernecking 1 of 2

noun

as in eavesdropping

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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
  • Pearsall, a 59-year-old Long Beach resident, is also facing a criminal case with five felony counts of eavesdropping and more than two dozen misdemeanor counts of secretly filming or unlawful dissemination of private recordings.
    — Sean Emery, Oc Register, 6 Aug. 2026
  • Kevin Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, faces five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings.
    — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of eavesdropping
Verb
  • 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
  • The walk to the stadium is a mile or so along the Alaskan Way, where restaurants like the Crab Pot are opening up, but everyone is gawking at the street spectacle.
    — Simon Hughes, New York Times, 24 June 2026
Definition of gawking
Noun
  • Vildor allowed two catches, and Minor got flagged for a deep defensive pass interference penalty.
    — Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 11 Aug. 2026
  • CAPTCHAs were developed to deter and detect spam, worms, and bots, and, later, to defend against disinformation campaigns, election interference, and acts of cyberterrorism.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of interference
Verb
  • Very few things in movies and television shows delight me as much as a mysterious character revealing his or her fascinating backstory through an extended monologue that is delivered while staring off into the unspecified middle distance.
    — Brian Grubb, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Remember, staring directly at the sun during the partial phases of an eclipse can cause permanent vision loss.
    — Anthony Wood, Space.com, 5 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
  • Bored staffers spent endless hours gazing at their phones, leading supervisors to restrict phone use.
    — Jesse Coburn, ProPublica, 12 Aug. 2026
  • The first image shows the mother-of-two enjoying a moment of calm outside, wearing a pair of pale jeans and a blue striped shirt, gazing thoughtfully into the distance.
    — Jennifer Hassan, USA Today, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of gazing
Noun
  • Thorndike took issue with the positive description of McLean during Sprague's questioning of Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband Patrick.
    — Matt Schooley, CBS News, 11 Aug. 2026
  • In the American West, where playing dress-up in reenactments and photo booths and even city streets is already so commonplace, this line of questioning is insidiously limited.
    — Téa Obreht, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 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 14 Aug. 2026.

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