admiring

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling or showing admiration for someone or something, with approval and respect.

   He cast an admiring glance at the vintage car parked outside.

   Her admiring colleagues praised the elegant solution she had found.

   Similarappreciative, approving, respectful, adoring

   Oppositedisapproving, contemptuous, scornful, disdainful

   Note

   The gradable adjective, and grading is how to tell it from the verb form. It takes more and most (a more admiring look, the most admiring of reviews), and it sits comfortably after very. The participle instead takes an object, as in admiring the view. If a degree word fits and no object follows, the word is working as an adjective.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of admire.

   He stood admiring the craftsmanship of the old clock for several minutes.

   Admiring her own reflection, she carefully adjusted her hat.

   Note

   Here the verb is in progress or turned into a noun, and it wants an object: stood admiring the clock, admiring her reflection. Behind it lie two older uses of admire. One, now obsolete, meant simply to marvel at something, with no approval implied. The other is a rare US dialect use meaning to be keen on doing something, sometimes followed by to: I'd admire to see that.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The feeling of regarding someone or something with respect and warm approval.

   The young writer's admiring of the great poets shaped his own style.

   Public admiring of the hero grew steadily with each passing year.

   Similaradmiration, esteem, respect, reverence

   Oppositecontempt, disdain, scorn

   Note

   A noun that, unlike admiration, can be counted. Its plural, admirings, names acts of admiring rather than a settled feeling. Its home is devotional prose. Isaac Barrow, writing before 1678, sets self-admirings beside fond self-pleasings. Matthew Henry and James Hamilton's Daily Communion with God (1847) urges frequent adorings and admirings of God. Outside that register, admiration is the safer choice.

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