How to Use watercooler in a Sentence

watercooler

noun
  • In the first of two new episodes Rob Lowe counts down the greatest watercooler moments of the ‘80s.
    Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2022
  • To get an idea of how many people are back in the office, just check the watercoolers.
    Fortune, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Here’s where the idea stops being the stuff of sci-fi watercooler talk and starts to sound real.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 30 July 2020
  • The Olympics used to be the ultimate watercooler event.
    Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2021
  • It’s also one of the reasons why Jones has been linked to San Francisco around the league’s watercooler.
    Vincent Frank, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2021
  • In the past, news of a dispute or CEO’s misdemeanor would likely be gossip around the watercooler.
    Anna Shields, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021
  • For more than a decade at its early and mid-2000s peak, American Idol was the nation's watercooler.
    Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 9 Mar. 2018
  • But the O’Neill that Yankees fans came to love was never one to give away an at-bat, which is why no exposed dugout watercooler was safe during an 0-for-4 game.
    Pete Caldera, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2022
  • But the Sports Stadium is more like a news-source-meets-watercooler meant for chatting, not streaming.
    Julia Greenberg, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2016
  • The film's twist is one of those watercooler moments that rivals any horror movie ending.
    Steven Thrash, EW.com, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Nor, they were relieved to discover, did there seem to be any inside jokes or watercooler gossip to catch up on.
    WIRED, 15 Nov. 2022
  • In the Covid/WFH era, watercooler chats are less of a thing and cultural criticism often gets mired in overblown culture wars.
    WIRED, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Teams should be able to share work updates or gather around the virtual watercooler.
    Steven Kramer, Forbes, 10 May 2021
  • And that show was a global phenomenon, back at a time when there weren’t as many channels, there weren’t as many options, and there were still watercooler shows.
    Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 June 2022
  • That’s the watercooler moment — the thing that people are talking about two weeks afterwards.
    Angelique Jackson, Variety, 3 Jan. 2024
  • As Rozell recalls, the 1980s were an era of watercooler chatter when the physical aspects of the office mattered a lot—and art was an important part of that.
    Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2024
  • Having coffee with people and chatting in the kitchen by the watercooler are productive uses of time.
    Shelley Zalis, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2021
  • The informal nature of a chat app, where dozens of coworkers might treat it like a watercooler, could compound this problem.
    Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Employees aren’t chained to their desks and are free to engage in watercooler talk, but there is also a sufficient amount of meaningful work to be done.
    Christopher Tompkins, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2021
  • What are the McLean-like watercooler stories within audit firms?
    Karthik Ramanna, Fortune, 11 July 2020
  • This was once the purview of watercooler chats, but the Covid-19 pandemic took away those natural opportunities to share and learn.
    Ofir Paldi, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Ever get the sense of being left out of watercooler conversations, inside jokes and the fast track for promotions?
    Hui Liao, baltimoresun.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Especially in an officeless office, Slack is the cubicle, the boardroom, the hallway, the watercooler, and the bar.
    Ellen Cushing, The Atlantic, 12 Oct. 2021
  • Though many have weighed in on the watercooler moment that derailed the 94th Academy Awards, Rock has kept relatively quiet about the ordeal.
    Christi Carras, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2022
  • With watercooler talks, social media, and the internet, getting off track throughout the workday is easy.
    Mike Kappel, Forbes, 15 June 2022
  • Art Hogan, a 35-year veteran of Wall Street, fears the industry has lost 18 valuable months of the kind of informal training and camaraderie that happens around the watercooler.
    Matt Egan, CNN, 18 June 2021
  • As news of their divorce hit, watercooler speculation in the nonprofit world reached fever pitch.
    Danielle Stein Chizzik, Town & Country, 5 May 2021
  • Donut’s tagline: Connect around the watercooler, anywhere.
    Ashley Stahl, Forbes, 3 June 2022
  • Buzz and watercooler conversations seem to build over time.
    Chris Morris, Variety, 8 June 2022
  • By the time the trauma of the pandemic hit in 2020, practically the only watercooler show America could handle was gentle Ted Lasso.
    Constance Grady, Vox, 16 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'watercooler.' 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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