Synonyms
Examples of navel-gazing in a Sentence
a singer-songwriter whose compositions are too often exercises in self-important navel-gazing
Recent Examples on the Web
As for the airport tray aesthetic, while people might be getting het up at the idea of Gen Z holding up the line for some navel-gazing, the US Transport Security Administration is sanguine about the risk.
—
Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 8 Sep. 2024
Plenty of people saw these films, and their teeth were set on edge by the cultural homogeneity, the navel-gazing conversations, the unremarkable visual palate, or the nonchalant performances contained therein.
—Vikram Murthi, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2024
This persistent reliance on navel-gazing is annoying, and with everything being so on the surface, there’s no urgency whatsoever to the story.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 23 July 2024
The calamitous results of this year’s European Parliamentary elections for Macron and Scholz could result in a prolonged period of French and German navel-gazing—and hence a lack of progress on many EU priorities.
—Matthias Matthijs, Foreign Affairs, 11 June 2024
Critics sometimes derisively describe it as navel-gazing.
—Andrea Kane, CNN, 9 June 2024
In that sense, turning the camera back on one’s self shouldn’t qualify as navel-gazing.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2024
But the voiceovers also feel like lumps of prose in a film too busy navel-gazing to build narrative shape or momentum.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024
This is a coach who can’t see far enough past his own nose to understand that in moments of defeat, a coach’s sole job isn’t navel-gazing.
—Los Angeles Times, 24 Nov. 2023
Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 8 Sep. 2024
Plenty of people saw these films, and their teeth were set on edge by the cultural homogeneity, the navel-gazing conversations, the unremarkable visual palate, or the nonchalant performances contained therein.
—Vikram Murthi, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2024
This persistent reliance on navel-gazing is annoying, and with everything being so on the surface, there’s no urgency whatsoever to the story.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 23 July 2024
The calamitous results of this year’s European Parliamentary elections for Macron and Scholz could result in a prolonged period of French and German navel-gazing—and hence a lack of progress on many EU priorities.
—Matthias Matthijs, Foreign Affairs, 11 June 2024
Critics sometimes derisively describe it as navel-gazing.
—Andrea Kane, CNN, 9 June 2024
In that sense, turning the camera back on one’s self shouldn’t qualify as navel-gazing.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2024
But the voiceovers also feel like lumps of prose in a film too busy navel-gazing to build narrative shape or momentum.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024
This is a coach who can’t see far enough past his own nose to understand that in moments of defeat, a coach’s sole job isn’t navel-gazing.
—Los Angeles Times, 24 Nov. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'navel-gazing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near navel-gazing
Cite this Entry
“Navel-gazing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/navel-gazing. Accessed 20 Sep. 2024.
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