showboating

verb

present participle of showboat
as in hotdogging
to engage in attention-getting playful or boisterous behavior the gymnast was showboating for the cameras when she lost her balance and fell

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for showboating
  1. reveling
  2. horsing around
  3. cutting up
  4. showing off
  5. fooling around
  6. acting up
  7. roaring
Verb
  • The video sweeps around a reveling fiefdom, showing everyone from peasants to dukes partying and getting it on.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Right in the middle of cheering, reveling masses was MARTA — a connective system of veins that efficiently moved the happy throngs.
    — Doug Turnbull, AJC.com, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of reveling
Verb
  • And lo, that’s how The Godfather wound up horsing around on a bouncy sorta-rap cut with London’s club muse and scene gadfly Normski.
    — Gabriel Szatan, Pitchfork, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Also, don’t get too out of control horsing around with friends in the water.
    — John Natale, Hartford Courant, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of horsing around
Verb
  • The board's original proposal called for cutting up to 18 English learner teachers across the district.
    — Beret Leone, CBS News, 30 Oct. 2026
  • It’s aimed at tasks like neatly cutting up deli meats and cheeses at your picnic or campsite.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of cutting up
Verb
  • The Fiftysix Self-Winding reserves the colors of its sibling, showing off a lighter gray gradient in its opaline center dial with a darker gray sunburst design living in the chapter ring.
    — Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 10 Nov. 2026
  • In 2025, amid a slew of efforts to monitor trains, educate teens, and go after social media posts showing off subway surfers, six people were injured and five died while riding on top of subway trains.
    — Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of showing off
Verb
  • Zeus did not approve of his daughter fooling around with this mortal roughneck hunter and put out a hit on Orion.
    — Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 8 Mar. 2026
  • The transition was rough for Ansari, who wasn’t fluent in English and often got in trouble for fooling around in school.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2026
Definition of fooling around
Verb
  • But sleep was hard to come by, with her daughter’s asthma acting up and the anxiety of the hearing the following day.
    — Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Baye continued acting up until 2023.
    — Kimberlee Speakman, PEOPLE, 18 Apr. 2026
Definition of acting up
Verb
  • Thousands of Californians yearn to race over dunes in roaring off-highway vehicles.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2026
  • The musical’s title — and certainly its marketing — give the impression of a rip-roaring adventure about two outlaw sisters riding headlong into danger.
    — Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 9 Nov. 2026
Definition of roaring
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.

Browse Nearby Words

showboated
showboating
showboats
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Showboating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/showboating. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gauntlet

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All