gawk

Near the end of the Balboa Peninsula, visitors and locals gathered at the Public Pier to gawk at the surreal sight of water lapping closer to the sidewalk than they had ever seen before.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

So-called rogues galleries allowed the public to gawk at images.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

But whether spectators were there to pay their respects to someone they admired or to gawk at the cortège for another one of Hollywood’s dead blondes is its own question.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2025

The explosion happens in slow motion, allowing viewers to gawk at all of DeYoung’s shrewdly constructed, cinematic shrapnel.

From Salon ● May 12, 2025

I remind myself that I’m not here to gawk at the guy I like.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

Anyone who sits through the end credits of a franchise movie and gawks at screens filled with hundreds of names of special effects and visual effects crew knows most of the is digitally animated.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2024

You can’t get strangers to help you lay that foundation — the world gawks, it can’t help itself — but you can ask the grandmas and certainly the teachers to.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2022

Carolyn Hax advises a woman whose husband gawks at pretty women online and describes himself as an arrogant liar.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 22, 2017

Awaiting glitterati arrivals for a red-carpet event down the block, the crowd gawks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2016

All conversation stops as the entire lunchroom gawks, my face burning into their retinas.

From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Another gawked in horror as a squealing toddler tore through the store while their mom examined the chocolate moon rocks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026

In addition to a steady stream of sellers, the machine also drew the attention of bystanders who gawked at the large sums of money changing hands at the unassuming corner of the mall.

From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026

We gawked at the sea creatures — lobsters, soft-shell turtles, wriggling live eels — while she filled the cart.

From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2025

In Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Sunday, onlookers gawked at a charred hilltop, where newly fallen leaves had already obscured the scorched earth of Friday’s 2-acre brushfire.

From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2024

The next room we visited was the US Astronaut Hall of Fame, where I gawked at the portraits of space heroes and legends.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

Barnum gradually expanded these gardens to include museums and theaters, where families could do everything from gawking at unusual people or animals to watching performances of fairy-tale characters like Aladdin or Goldilocks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

People watching from inside the building could be seen gawking and tapping at the glass, as Honnold moved past the enclosed observation deck on the 89th floor.

From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026

The 66-year-old Sydneysider remembers gawking at enormous great white sharks hauled in by fishermen as a kid, back in the days the now-protected species could still be legally hunted.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025

The man stood in the middle of the road in decadent Beverly Hills, gawking at one of those only-in-L.A. streetscapes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2025

Her eyes snapped open, and she tried not to focus on everyone gawking.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton