asking

1. participlepresentpresent participle of ask

comparative more asking · superlative most asking

1. That asks; that expresses a question or request.

   […] 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

   2 more examples

   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, page 109

   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 Guardian of Power, page 124

plural askings

1. countableuncountableThe act or process of posing a question or making a request.

   His asking was greeted with silence.

   3 more examples

   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. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 303

   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

   If someone asks for love he will not get love, because the very asking makes him unlovely, ugly; the very fact of asking becomes the barrier.

   2023, Osho, Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy, page 89

2. countableraresingularuncountableA 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 to Cultivate, page 125

3. countablein pluraluncountableThe marriage banns.