peering

verb

present participle of peer
as in staring
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise visitors seem mesmerized as they peer at the variety of marine life in the aquarium's huge tank

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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 peering After some major modifications, it's set to begin its five-year mission peering at new supernovas, distant galaxies and planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. — Berly McCoy, NPR, 28 Aug. 2026 On stage, the audience is the camera, peering into a cutaway of set designer Fly Davis’ ominous, two-story house, lit with foreboding foreshadowing by Anna Watson. — Frank Rizzo, Variety, 26 Aug. 2026 Amazing photographs including a polar bear peering down a hole in an ice sheet are among the 100 images shortlisted for the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. — Jack Guy, CNN Money, 26 Aug. 2026 This image captures two juveniles peering from their father’s mouth, revealing the specialized mouthbrooding strategy that helps this species increase the survival of its young. — Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026 Looking into the keyholes of each French tip feels like peering through a portal to another world. — Ariel Wodarcyk, InStyle, 22 Aug. 2026 On a recent Thursday afternoon, an optometrist named Marina Su was peering into the eyes of Martha Infante, a forty-one-year-old mother and kitchen designer. — E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2026 Surveying the world from the cab of a Hummer EV feels like peering out from a fortress turret. — Andrew P. Collins, The Drive, 12 Aug. 2026 All the while the fMRI churned on, peering through the dogs’ skulls into the brain below and looking for the areas that lit up as a result of the visual stimuli. — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 10 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peering
  1. staring
  2. gazing
  3. 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
Verb
  • 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
Definition of gawking

Browse Nearby Words

peeresses
peering
peering (at)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Peering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peering. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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