Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. With disapproval, suspicion, or distrust: "The area is so dirty that merchants report the tourists are looking askance” ( Chris Black).
- adv. With a sideways glance; obliquely.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Sidewise; obliquely; out of the corner of the eye; askant.
- To turn aside, as the eyes.
- Perhaps.
- As if; as if (saying).
Wiktionary
- adv. of a look or glance With disapproval, skepticism, or suspicion.
- adv. Sideways; obliquely.
- adj. Turned to the side, especially of the eyes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. Sideways; obliquely; with a side glance; with disdain, envy, or suspicion.
- v. poet. To turn aside.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. with suspicion or disapproval
- adv. with a side or oblique glance
- adj. (used especially of glances) directed to one side with or as if with doubt or suspicion or envy
Etymologies
- Compare Dutch schuin, schuins, sideways, schuiven to shove, schuinte slope. Compare asquint. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Compared to these inducements, the fact that people would look upon her askance was a very insignificant consideration.”
“Let me get a-- let me get a break and get Senator Warner to comment, because I noticed he -- he looked kind of askance at some of the things you were saying.”
“He pays £15 for a haircut and shave at the local barbers, looks askance at anything with a label that doesn't have Oxfam attached to it and, when asked where he got his jacket from, is proud to say "it was my grandfather's.”
The Wall Street Journal: Deconstructing the Unreconstructed Male
“He quickly looked away, and then looked back again, as though that brief, askance glance had “cleared it.””
“Arsenio looks askance at his own Wikipedia article.”
“Hetty eyed him askance but clinked his glass all the same.”
“Men and dogs looked askance at Bâtard when he drifted into their camps and posts.”
“Analysts say investors could look askance at the wrong choice, particularly if the candidate is seen as close to the government, which in South Korea has often taken a strong role in the financial sector.”
“You describe Tea Partiers as looking askance at Boehner's long tenure in leadership, his close ties to lobbyists and his two-pack-a-day baritone and retro Rat Pack persona.”
“Traditional-media critics can look askance all they like at twittery chit-chat websites like All That Chat at Talkinbroadway.com, or at every theatre-related hashtag imaginable, but the fact is, blog posts can be longer and more substantive than many so-called reviews, and even the occasional tweet can be as informative as the scribblings of the reviewing gods.”
The Huffington Post: Leonard Jacobs: Ensnaring Theatre Critics in the Spider-Man Web
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘askance’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
vanish, number one, archangel, commodious, dominie, rubble, glisten, morose, spindle, ventilation, Blessed, christian and 503 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for askance.
kiltwraith 1. with suspicion, mistrust, or disapproval: He looked askance at my offer.
2. with a side glance; sidewise; obliquely Mar 18, 2009
bilby
'You can really have no notion how delightful it will be
When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters out to sea!'
But the snail replied, 'Too far, too far!' and gave a look askance
Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not,
would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not,
could not join the dance.
- Lewis Carroll, 'The Lobster Quadrille'. Nov 8, 2008
mollusque Said with arms akimbo? Aug 24, 2008
Prolagus "All we are saying is give peace askance." Aug 23, 2008
rolig As Jesus said, "If you have faith, askance will be given you!" Aug 23, 2008
reesetee Pro: Haha! I need to use the word that way now. :-) Aug 22, 2008
bilby So you're still waiting for an answerance, Pro? Aug 22, 2008
milosrdenstvi No, more like "Why dost thou look askance at me?" Aug 22, 2008
Prolagus I thought it was a noun, meaning "the act of asking": "would you please respond to my askance?". Aug 22, 2008