rubberneck

Meanings

Noun

• Someone who engages in rubbernecking, or turning and staring.
• A tourist.
• Someone or something with a flexible neck.

Verb

• To watch by craning the neck (as though it were made of rubber), especially if the observer and observed are in motion relative to each other.

Origin

• Coined in the sense of "tourist" in the United States in the late 19th century. A favored Americanism of H.L. Mencken.