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navel-gazing

[ ney-vuhl-gey-zing ]

noun

Slang.
  1. excessive absorption in self-analysis or focus on a single issue.


navel-gazing

noun

  1. informal.
    self-absorbed behaviour
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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yvlog History and Origins

Origin of navel-gazing1

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….”
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The amount of navel-gazing that took place in those years was epic.

From

Throw in the sheer tonnage of think pieces and appreciations and other navel-gazing and you’d be forgiven for asking: Do we also need a book about Lorne Michaels?

From

And if there's one thing I was trained to avoid as a female writer in male-dominated MFA workshops, it's the cardinal sin of memoir: excessive navel-gazing.

From

On stage, the star remembered being criticised at the start of her career for writing "navel-gazing" songs about "challenging relationships", often tackling subjects of abuse and violence.

From

Lest that suggest “Postcards From the Edge” relies on navel-gazing storytelling that borrowed freely from the star’s own very public struggles with addiction, Fisher proves early on to be a master ventriloquist.

From

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