| Library / English Dictionary |
ANSWERING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Replying
Example:
an answering smile
Synonyms:
answering; respondent
Classified under:
Similar:
responsive (readily reacting or replying to people or events or stimuli; showing emotion)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb answer
Context examples:
A U.S. agent cannot be in the form of a mailbox, answering machine, or service, or other place where an individual acting as the foreign facility's agent is not physically present.
(Foreign Facility's United States Agent, NCI Thesaurus)
The answer is not known by the person answering.
(Does Not Know, NCI Thesaurus)
But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two days of impatience followed, during which Holmes pricked up his ears at every ring of the bell.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was reading an essay of Saleeby's the other day, and the best Saleeby could say was that Herbert Spencer nearly succeeded in answering Berkeley.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Instead of answering, Harriet turned away confused, and stood thoughtfully by the fire; and though the letter was still in her hand, it was now mechanically twisted about without regard.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
My dearest Catherine, I received your two kind letters with the greatest delight, and have a thousand apologies to make for not answering them sooner.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
“It might be all a lie,” he acknowledged; “but so many fine ladies were going to the devil nowadays that way, that there was no answering for anybody.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He cast on me a glance of surprise; but without answering, he cut a thick slice from his loaf, and gave it to me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Aye—because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he could not help answering her; but she said he seemed quite angry at being spoke to.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Yet, so far have you been from answering my expectation in any of your letters; that on the contrary you are loading our carrier every week with libels, and keys, and reflections, and memoirs, and second parts; wherein I see myself accused of reflecting upon great state folk; of degrading human nature (for so they have still the confidence to style it), and of abusing the female sex.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
