Meanings
- UKuncountableentertainmentA subgenre of alternative rock music popularised in early 1990s, characterised by a dreamlike sound making much use of effect pedals, and by a detached or introverted performance style.
Then in 2003, they released Still Electric only on their website; with this album, they'd taken on more of a shoegazing style of rock, similar to Chapterhouse or Catherine Wheel.
2013, Pete Crigler, Majorlabelland And Assorted Oddities, page 912 more examples
"[…]Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here, Danny, but wasn't it you who told me that true shoegazing began and ended with Slowdive's 12-inch debut: the imaginatively titled, 'Slowdive'?” “You're taking me out of context here, dude. What I meant was that it was the epoch of the genre. The other bands still made a valid contribution, they just didn't define the moment."
2006, James Buckley, Celebrate Myself, page 12Johansson and Sitek started out in more faithful lo-fi style before filtering the songs through an indie-rock sensibility that's equal parts postpunk-gothic, 4AD dreampop, shoegazing drone, and TV on the Radio epicness.
2011, Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, page 491Synonyms: shoegaze
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of shoegaze
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA subgenre of alternative rock music popularised in early 1990s, characterised by a dreamlike sound making much use of effect pedals, and by a detached or introverted performance style.
Origin
From shoe + gazing, because of the tendency of such performers to look down rather than at the crowd and the heavy use of effect pedals.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 瞪鞋搖滾 /瞪鞋摇滚, 低頭搖滾 /低头摇滚
- 瞪鞋搖滾 /瞪鞋摇滚 (dèngxié yáogǔn)indie music genre
- 低頭搖滾 /低头摇滚 (dītóu yáogǔn)indie music genre
- 自賞搖滾 /自赏摇滚 (zìshǎng yáogǔn)indie music genre
- 盯鞋 (dīngxié)indie music genre
Esperanto ŝugejzo
- ŝugejzoindie music genre
Finnish shoegazing
- shoegazingindie music genre
Polish shoegaze
- shoegazeindie music genre
Spanish shoegazing
- shoegazingindie music genre
Cite this entry
shoegazing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shoegazing
“shoegazing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shoegazing. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shoegazing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shoegazing.
Source: shoegazing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.