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
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for showboating
Verb
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Bevel was horsing around with the Reverend James Orange and Andy Young in the courtyard under King's balcony, according to Orange.—
Gail Sheehy,
Vanity Fair,
20 Feb. 2026 -
In April 2020, Iglesias shared a video of him horsing around with Lucy and Nicholas as the pair attempted to climb on his back for a ride.—
Andrea Wurzburger,
PEOPLE,
19 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Meanwhile, as all of this is happening, Meredith is cutting up with the other ladies at the spa, without a care in the world.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
31 Dec. 2025
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Ford is planning on cutting up to 1,000 roles in electric-vehicle production in Germany.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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On March 2—one day before debuting her new pageboy bob at Paris Fashion Week—Hadid made her grand entrance in a pair of straight-leg jeans that stop well above the ankle, showing off much of her beige crew sock and the entire tongue of her black loafers.—
Emily Tannenbaum,
Glamour,
7 Mar. 2026
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Nadella wrote in an October X post showing off the abiltiy to toggle between Anthropic and OpenAI models in Microsoft 365 Copilot.—
Jordan Novet,
CNBC,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
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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
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Gisin hopes that by fooling around with measurements of these more exotic states, physicists will come to better understand the role of measurement in general.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Likewise, when the young men started acting up, Josephine Holt took a keen interest in her newspaper.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Jan. 2026
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If your trackpad is acting up, keyboard shortcuts can keep you productive without fighting the cursor.—
Ken Colburn,
AZCentral.com,
19 Jan. 2026
Verb
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And there’s plenty of room to get a roaring fire inside a pit of that size.—
Daniel Modlin,
Architectural Digest,
5 Mar. 2026
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Whether your memories of Rocky Horror trace back to a midnight screening, a college dorm room singalong, or your first daring costume, this revival aims to bring those experiences roaring back to life — this time with the energy of a live Broadway stage.—
Lauren Schuster,
Kansas City Star,
4 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Showboating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/showboating. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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