Sealioning
noun, verb
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A 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. uncountable
"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."
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of sealion form-of, gerund, participle, present
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"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."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.