a-building

adverb

Being built or under construction, as a structure or a vessel.

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Meanings

adverba-building (not comparable)

alternative abuilding

  1. not comparableBeing built or under construction, as a structure or a vessel.

    This talk brought us up to the house that was a-building, not a large one, which stood at the end of a beautiful orchard surrounded by an old stone wall.

    1890, William Morris, chapter XXVI, in News from Nowhere
    1 more example

    "Of these nineteen ships a-building no more than two can take the water before a month be past, and but seven more ere six months' time, push we never so mightily the work."

    1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, chapter 141, in The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC

Origin

From a- (“in, on”) + building (“the act or process of building”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

a-building. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a-building

MLA

“a-building.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a-building. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “a-building,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a-building.

Source: a-building on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.