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], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, 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, The Woman's Book of Resilience: 12 Qualities to Cultivate, by Beth Miller - 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, Chapter , p. 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, Dust Tracks on a Road, New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969, Chapter 12, p. 235,
  […] all of them looked at each other in an asking way.

asking

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