navel-gazing

noun

navel-gaz·​ing ˈnā-vəl-ˈgā-ziŋ How to pronounce navel-gazing (audio)
: useless or excessive self-contemplation

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
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.
Ortberg urged staff to focus on beating its French planemaker competitor Airbus instead of navel-gazing at its own issues. Byeleanor Pringle, Fortune, 21 Nov. 2024 In the end, this leads to a novel that might be Murakami’s most navel-gazing work, and one that has the unmistakable feel of a coda. Bailey Trela, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024 If the idea of a deep dive into the pop-culture Zeitgeist of Obama’s presidency feels like an exhausting amount of navel-gazing, well, nothing could be more true to the spirit of the time. Nate Jones, Vulture, 20 Aug. 2024 That deserves far more digital ink to be spilled than the usual navel-gazing about how iPhones are boring. Steven Aquino, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024 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

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of navel-gazing was in 1922

Podcast

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 21 Dec. 2024.

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