asking

English

From Middle English asking, askyng, askynge, from Old English āscung (“asking; question; inquiry”), equivalent to ask +‎ -ing.

asking

asking (plural askings)

The act or process of posing a question or making a request.
His asking was greeted with silence.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Evening Alone”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 303:
  The large eyes sought his own, as if asking for help, and yet unable to do more than look their mute asking.
(rare in the singular) A request, or petition.
- 2005, Beth Miller, The Woman's Book of Resilience: 12 Qualities to Cultivate, page 125:
  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.
(in the plural) The marriage banns.

Normally found in plural, or in set phrases such as for the asking or time of asking.

asking (comparative more asking, superlative most asking)

That asks; that expresses a question or request.
- 1924, Edna Ferber, So Big‎, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 109:
  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.
- 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:
  […] all of them looked at each other in an asking way.

asking

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.