Meanings
- uncountableA type of trolling or harassment that consists of pursuing people with relentless requests for evidence or debate, often tangential or previously addressed, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity, and feigning ignorance of the subject matter, in order to wear down an opponent and incite angry responses that will discredit them.
Sealioning thus works both to exhaust a target’s patience, attention, and communicative effort, and to portray the target as unreasonable. While the questions of the “sea lion” may seem innocent, they’re intended maliciously.
2019 March 7, Amy Johnson, Berkman Klein Centier1 more example
Sealioning is a harassment tactic by which a participant in a debate or online discussion pesters the other participant with disingenuous questions under the guise of sincerity, hoping to erode the patience and goodwill of the target to the point where they appear unreasonable.
2022 April 26, Tristan Kennedy, The Conversation
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of sealion
Cite this entry
sealioning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sealioning
“sealioning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sealioning. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sealioning,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sealioning.
Source: sealioning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.