different between aswing vs asking

English

Etymology

a- +? swing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??sw??/
• Rhymes: -??

Adverb

aswing (not comparable)

1. In a state of swinging.
   • 1838, Thomas Burbidge, “Armoria’s Garden” in Poems, Longer and Shorter, London: William Pickering, p. 177,^[1]

     And sweeping trails of amaranthine blooms

     Crossing the lucent air, aswing or still,

   • 1906, Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 10, p. 170,^[2]

     […] over the western seas, where all the remembered years lie floating idly aswing with the ebb and flow,

   • 1921, Mary Grant Bruce, Back to Billabong, Chapter 8,^[3]

     The procession of people came and went unceasingly, the glass doors always aswing.

   • 1945, Maurice Walsh, Nine Strings to Your Bow, Toronto: Smithers & Bonellie, Chapter 12,^[4]

     […] she sat on her bed and considered things for a long time, her hands tapping the coverlet and one foot aswing.

   • 1994, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Debtford, New York: Vintage, Part 1, p. 8,^[5]

     Undergraduates, their gowns aswing, were kicking a man into the mud.

Anagrams

• saw gin, sawing, wigans

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æsk??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???sk??/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /?ask??/
• (NYC, Philadelphia) IPA^(key): /?e?sk??/
• (AAVE) IPA^(key): /?æks??/

Verb

asking

1. present participle of ask

Noun

asking (plural askings)

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

   His asking was greeted with silence.

2. (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.

3. (in the plural) The marriage banns.

Usage notes

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

Adjective

asking (comparative more asking, superlative most asking)

1. That asks; that expresses a question or request.
   • 1924, Edna Ferber, So Big, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter , p. 109,^[1]

     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,^[2]

     […] all of them looked at each other in an asking way.

Derived terms

• askingly
• asking price

Anagrams

• Gaskin, aksing, gaskin, kiangs

Middle English

Noun

asking

1. Alternative form of askynge