asking
That asks; that expresses a question or request.
Adjective
- That asks; that expresses a question or request.
- It was as when some great gentle dog brings in a limp and bedraggled prize dug from the yard and, laying it at one’s feet, looks up at one with soft asking eyes. - 1924, Edna Ferber, So Big, New York: Grosset & Dunlap,...
- […] all of them looked at each other in an asking way. - 1942, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 12, in Dust Tracks on a Road, New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, published 1969, page 235:
- He stepped to me while taking purchase on the handrail and looked through me with an asking look; finally he added with a sardonic smile. "I know now that you feel; hatred coming from deep." - 2015, Agnes Toth, The...
Origin
From Middle English askinge, askande, from Old English āsciende, from Proto-West Germanic *aiskōndī, present participle of Proto-West Germanic *aiskōn (“to ask”), equivalent to ask + -ing.
Forms
Derived
Noun
- The act or process of posing a question or making a request.
- His asking was greeted with silence.
- The large eyes sought his own, as if asking for help, and yet unable to do more than look their mute asking. - 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Evening Alone”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […],...
- Form's silent asking, man's loving speech, the mute proclamation of the creature, are all gates leading into the presence of the Word. - 1923, Martin Buber, I and Thou:
- A request, or petition.
- After many askings, pleadings, and episodes, all leading to nothing, she finally slumped down at the side of a well in a village where she was unknown. - 2005, Beth Miller, The Woman's Book of Resilience: 12 Qualities...
- The marriage banns.
Origin
From Middle English asking, askyng, askynge, from Old English āscung (“asking; question; inquiry”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiskungu, equivalent to ask + -ing.
Forms
Verb
- present participle of ask