rubbernecker
/ˈrʌbɚˌnɛkɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who rubbernecks; someone who cranes their neck as though it were made of rubber to see something (such as a tourist attraction) or to watch an event (such as an accident); a rubberneck.
Example Sentences
- "The minor accident caused a traffic jam as rubberneckers slowed down to get a good view of the battered cars."
- "Gentlemen will leave their pocket flasks with the captain, and will limit themselves to two bunches of cigarettes each. Rubber neckers will be executed without trial. Glasses will be needed to protect the eyes from the dust, and you MUST "Keep off the grass.""
- "I suppose that fellow was a rubber-necker, and got killed peeping over the trenches."
- "He is a great "rubber-necker." What he don't see aint worth looking at."
- "We are taught the importance of hygiene of the mouth, of the body, and of the hair, but little concerning the nose, which is the "rubber-necker" which is expected to discover any laxity of cleanliness of other parts of the body or the air around us."
- ""The train's whistle was blowin' the whole time and, Lord, it sounded like a bomb had went^([sic]) off when they hit," said Patty Fay McNair, a waitress at the Torch, to a rubbernecker who'd asked if she'd seen what happened."
Etymology
From rubberneck (verb) + -er (suffix indicating person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb).
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈrʌbɚˌnɛkɚ/
- British English: /ˈrʌbəˌnɛkə/