GAWKING Synonyms: 34 Similar and Opposite Words

gawking

verb

present participle of gawk

as in staring

to look long and hard in wonder or surprise couldn't help gawking at the exotically dressed guests in the hotel lobby

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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 gawking On most days the Jewel House in the Tower of London is packed with tourists gawking at the fabled British Crown Jewels. — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 17 Aug. 2026 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 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 Those are important characteristics for advertisers seeking to make dynamic campaigns for an audience that's grown accustomed to viewing short-form videos on Reels or gawking at cat photos on Facebook and Instagram. — Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2026 On a typical day, the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale reverberates with animal cries and the footfalls of gawking visitors. — Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 20 Feb. 2026 Armed soldiers patrolled in droves, spreading hate and fear everywhere, blindfolding children, pointing guns, gawking, spitting, laughing at us like animals in the zoo. — Literary Hub, 20 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for gawking

Verb

Finkelstein is also part of another program that will attempt to re-create Hubble and JWST’s famous deep-field images, which revealed millions of previously unseen galaxies by staring at seemingly empty patches of sky.

— Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 27 Aug. 2026
When producer Robert Stigwood initially approached him about staring in the Sgt.

— Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of staring

Verb

Their mornings begin with coffee and toast on the deck, gazing over the village rooftops to the ocean.

— Barbara Bry, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
Deployed in 2004, the Swift Observatory spent over two decades gazing into some of the universe’s most powerful explosions.

— Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of gazing

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gawkiness

gawking

gawkish

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“Gawking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gawking. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of gawking

verb

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