How to Use rubberneck in a Sentence

rubberneck

verb
  • She was rubbernecking and almost got in an accident herself.
  • This is like a car crash that people rubberneck to get a look.
    — Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald, 25 Nov. 2025
  • Many in the art world have been watching — though often to rubberneck.
    — Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 23 Apr. 2026
  • The sidewalk was bustling, but no one even bothered to rubberneck.
    — Amanda Peet, New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2026
  • Don’t rubberneck or jaywalk; that’s how people die.
    — Joseph Trinidad, Longreads, 16 June 2026
  • Avoid rubbernecking at accident scenes and stay focused on the road for safety.
    — Evan Moore, Charlotte Observer, 29 Apr. 2025
  • There have been plenty of other wrecks at this spot, just in the past week or two, reminding fans why sports is such rubbernecking fun.
    — John Branch, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Not exactly—there’s only so many people there to buy art, and plenty of others are there to rubberneck.
    — Nate Freeman, Vanity Fair, 15 May 2026
  • The whole of football is rubbernecking in their direction.
    — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2026
  • Or a picture of the grimy, rubbernecking cameraman of Nightcrawler.
    — Marco Grob, Vulture, 22 Mar. 2024
  • The warning here lay not in the number of Americans who rubbernecked at this episode, but in how many were genuinely thrilled by it.
    — Nitsuh Abebe, New York Times, 20 June 2017
  • That feels like too much of a stretch, perhaps, when the whole of football is rubbernecking in United’s direction.
    — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 19 May 2025
  • Yet the majority of people rubbernecking across the caution tape were members of the media.
    — Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2017
  • For rubbernecking readers Fall is peak season for celebrity memoirs.
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Think about how cars accelerate in an accordion fashion at a green light or how people slow down during an accident on a highway and do the rubbernecking thing.
    — Phil Wahba, Fortune, 16 Mar. 2023
  • The juxtaposition of Lopez’s avant-garde clothes, against the rubbernecking tourists in tees and shorts just outside the barricades, was genius.
    — Christian Allaire, Vogue, 11 Sep. 2024
  • There’s a rubbernecking aspect to listening to Alabama fans lose their minds after a loss, which is a big reason the shows became so famous outside the state.
    — John Talty | [email protected], al, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Drivers rubbernecked past the Indian Health Care Center, which had been placed on near-total lockdown.
    — Alden Woods, azcentral, 11 Apr. 2020
  • 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
  • There is an equality of skin on display here — first Nathan strips naked, and then Issa does, swapping rubbernecking for an intimate mutual gaze.
    — Amanda Hess, New York Times, 3 July 2019
  • 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
  • So there’s no reason to rubberneck Tagovailoa’s career, praising his success, or celebrating his failures.
    — Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2026
  • And yet the commercial exploitation of family trauma left me feeling deeply uncomfortable and even ashamed, like I was caught holding a ticket stub for the rubbernecking line at a train crash.
    — Evelyn McDonnell 5, Literary Hub, 5 June 2025
  • Maryland State Police reported inner loop backups from rubbernecking drivers that stretched from the bridge to Branch Avenue.
    — Clarence Williams, Washington Post, 20 June 2018
  • In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the community was inundated with well wishes and donations—as well as rubbernecking tourists.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 18 May 2017
  • On Wednesday, the first installment of the three-part reunion premiered to the delight of viewers who’ve been rubbernecking over the reality TV scandal that broke the internet.
    — Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2023
  • Google Maps showed traffic congestion on US-75 in the area, seemingly from rubbernecking as no other traffic incidents were reported.
    — Lana Ferguson, Dallas News, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Now there are signs that the UK, not exactly famed for constructive relations with its European neighbours, has recently rubbernecked towards the continent after more than two decades of isolation.
    — Angus Finney, Variety, 16 Feb. 2023
  • When the movie was released in 1970, the Beatles had just broken up, and this moment allowed fans to rubberneck at the cracks in the band’s façade, giving fuel to those who argued that McCartney was to blame for the split.
    — Dan Reilly, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2021
  • Other tasty-looking ties include Red Bull Salzburg against Porto and, for fans of rubbernecking, Russell Martin’s latest chance to win over Rangers fans comes at home to Genk.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rubberneck.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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