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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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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Among them a City boy wearing three Fit-Bit-type devices, two beautiful Middle Eastern sisters, an outrageously pompous elderly American (sorry; eavesdropping), and several Imelda Marcos lookalikes, tottering out of the treatment rooms with, somehow, their elaborate hairstyles still intact.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
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Such opportunistic eavesdropping is challenging, because Starlink is consistently optimizing for its primary satellite Internet service by turning beams on and off, or sometimes switching beams as the fast-moving satellites talk to many different users, Kassas explained.—
Andrew Cunningham,
ArsTechnica,
11 May 2026
Verb
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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
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If convicted, Reyes could face a maximum federal prison sentence of 20 years stemming from the interference charge and the possibility of up to a year behind bars for the assault charge.—
Julia Bonavita,
FOXNews.com,
3 June 2026
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The network and Weiss have not yet publicly addressed Pelley's accusations of interference.—
David Folkenflik,
NPR,
3 June 2026
Verb
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The Knicks, staring basketball death in eye-to-eye, closed the third quarter on a 25-11 run.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
4 June 2026
-
Arredondo refused, staring at the man with tears welling up in his eyes.—
Maria Aguilar Prieto,
CNN Money,
4 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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Spieth was one year removed from his third major victory at age 24, and Brown was 10, gazing up at his golfing idol in awe — the wunderkind speaking to a soon-to-be sensation in his own right.—
Gabby Herzig,
New York Times,
2 June 2026
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As a scorching wind tears across the barren, rocky slopes of Komote Island off the shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Alfred Lenkutuk sits in the meager shelter of his hut, gazing out over the village where he was born and remembering better times.—
Tommy Trenchard,
NPR,
31 May 2026
Noun
-
Bailey, despite frequent questioning by reporters, has not identified what his own plan would be to keep the Bears.—
Jeremy Gorner,
Chicago Tribune,
6 June 2026
-
Arriving officers found a woman outside a home who matched the description of a possible suspect and took her into custody for questioning, Gonzalez said.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
4 June 2026
Noun
-
Following Guthrie's prying, Lopez eventually caved in with a concrete answer.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
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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 9 Jun. 2026.
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