Crossword clues for askance
askance
- With a look of disapproval
- Suspiciously civil originally, a snake unfortunately constricts
- Invite to tango, perhaps, bumping daughter sideways
- Suspicious way to look
- With a sideways glance
- With skepticism
- With doubt
- With disapproval or distrust
- With disapproval
- With a sideways look
- Skeptical way to look
- Indirect way to look
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Askance \A*skance"\, Askant \A*skant"\, adv. [Cf. D. schuin, schuins, sideways, schuiven to shove, schuinte slope. Cf. Asquint.] Sideways; obliquely; with a side glance; with disdain, envy, or suspicion.
They dart away; they wheel askance.
--Beattie.
My palfrey eyed them askance.
--Landor.
Both . . . were viewed askance by authority.
--Gladstone.
Askance \A*skance"\, v. t. To turn aside. [Poet.]
O, how are they wrapped in with infamies
That from their own misdeeds askance their eyes!
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1520s, "sideways, asquint," of obscure origin. OED has separate listings for askance and obsolete Middle English askance(s) and no indication of a connection, but Barnhart and others derive the newer word from the older one. The Middle English word, recorded early 14c. as ase quances and found later in Chaucer, meant "in such a way that; even as; as if;" and as an adverb "insincerely, deceptively." It has been analyzed as a compound of as and Old French quanses (pronounced "kanses") "how if," from Latin quam "how" + si "if."\n\nThe E[nglish] as is, accordingly, redundant, and merely added by way of partial explanation. The M.E. askances means "as if" in other passages, but here means, "as if it were," i.e. "possibly," "perhaps"; as said above. Sometimes the final s is dropped ....
[Walter W. Skeat, glossary to Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale," 1894]
\nAlso see discussion in Leo Spitzer, "Anglo-French Etymologies," Philological Quarterly 24.23 (1945), and see OED entry for askance (adv.) for discussion of the mysterious ask- word cluster in English. Other guesses about the origin of askance include Old French a escone, from past participle of a word for "hidden;" Italian a scancio "obliquely, slantingly;" or that it is a cognate of askew.Wiktionary
a. turn to the side, especially of the eyes. adv. 1 (context of a look or glance English) With disapproval, skepticism, or suspicion. 2 sideways; obliquely.
WordNet
adj. (used especially of glances) directed to one side with or as if with doubt or suspicion or envy; "her eyes with their misted askance look"- Elizabeth Bowen; "sidelong glances" [syn: askant, asquint, squint, squint-eyed, squinty, sidelong]
adv. with suspicion or disapproval; "he looked askance at the offer"
with a side or oblique glance; "did not quite turn all the way back but looked askance at me with her dark eyes"
Usage examples of "askance".
The carles looked askance at one another, but straightway opened the gates, and Ralph and his company went forth, and abode the new-comers on a little green mound half a bowshot from the Castle.
Yet he was at ease while Anguls chewed a fingernail and looked at him askance and the female blinked at him through force-grown lashes of half an inch length.
Working through wicked airs and deadly dews That make the laden robber grin askance At the good places in his black romance, And the poor, loitering harlot rather choose Go pinched and pined to bed Than lurk and shiver and curse her wretched way From arch to arch, scouting some threepenny prey.
He stopped abruptly, and Gascoyne, looking askance at him, saw that his eyes were full of tears, whereupon he turned his looks away again quickly, and fell to shooting pebbles out through the open window with his finger and thumb.
One of the Russians looked askance at me, and said there was no doubt about it, as a ukase had been published ordering that the bridge should be built.
Andres Sereno, President of the island country of Kadeira, commander in chief of its army and navy, both titles earned by sweat and blood and viewed askance by an American government that had never been quite sure if he was enemy, friend, or merely neutral.
She looked at Kithra askance, wondering just what her attack on Niggen had unleased on this normally tranquil household.
Bertrand the favourite eyed him askance, mistrusting and disliking him for his association with Andreas.
He stopped short, shrugged his shoulders perplexedly, waved his hand, and again began to pace the sidewalk, looking at Foma askance.
Every askance look, every gaze, every shout, sudden flurry of hooves or boots, every bang or hiss of a constructs pistons is a moment of fear.
The child curtsied and looked askance at her hands with no skirts to spread.
One of the Russians looked askance at me, and said there was no doubt about it, as a ukase had been published ordering that the bridge should be built.
As it is, some may look askance that our prince chooses to go riding with a foreign noble and his bodyguard on such an important day in his life.
A second major reason was that any nonscholarly writing was looked upon as rather frivolous, and a decent person guilty of concocting such material might well be looked upon askance by society, and considered as having lost caste.
I knew Danny broke the regulations by backing horses, but from what he said in the changing room, it was only in amounts of five and ten pounds, which would cause few trainers to look askance at him.