Asking
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act or process of posing a question or making a request. countable, uncountable
"I have an asking for you."
- 2 the verbal act of requesting wordnet
- 3 A request, or petition. countable, rare, singular, uncountable
"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."
- 4 The marriage banns. countable, in-plural, uncountable
- 1 present participle of ask form-of, participle, present
- 1 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."
Example
More examples"She's asking how that's possible."
Etymology
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.
From Middle English asking, askyng, askynge, from Old English āscung (“asking; question; inquiry”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiskungu, equivalent to ask + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "asking"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.