navel-gazing
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of navel-gazing
First recorded in 1955–60; navel ( def. ) + gaz(e) ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ); perhaps from Hours With the Mystics (1856) by Robert Alfred Vaughan, English Congregationalist minister and author (1823–57), “...if a man shut himself up… turning his thoughts inward, gazing towards his navel..., he would at length behold a divine glory….”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But you shouldn’t expect your children to be lying around all day, navel-gazing, or working 12-hour shifts in a South American lithium mine.
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
Sometimes his neurotic, navel-gazing side gets the better of his artistry, as was the case at his concert at the Greek Theatre in the summer of 2024.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025
In its short history, Wikipedia has had its fair share of navel-gazing controversies—an entry detailing them has almost 400 footnotes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 4, 2025
The amount of navel-gazing that took place in those years was epic.
From Salon • Feb. 24, 2025
Jamil admitted that anorexia had made her "an exhausted, boring, navel-gazing obsessive person" in her teens and early 20s.
From BBC • May 30, 2024
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
