querying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of query.

   Analysts are querying the database for last quarter's sales figures.

   Querying the witness too aggressively can backfire in court.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of query at once: asking a question, casting doubt on a claim, sending a query letter, passing instructions to a database, even messaging someone privately on IRC. The object usually tells you which one is meant. Querying a figure doubts it, and querying a database retrieves from it. With be it builds the progressive; as a gerund it stands in a noun's place.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of making a query, asking a question to obtain or verify information.

   The auditor's persistent querying uncovered several accounting errors.

   Excessive querying from the floor delayed the vote by an hour.

   Similarquestioning, inquiry, interrogation, probing

   Note

   Unlike the gerund of the verb form, this noun can be counted and takes a plural: queryings, separate acts of questioning. The plural can carry an edge of complaint. Melancthon Williams Jacobus, in Notes, critical and explanatory, on the book of Genesis (1864), dismissed "captious queryings and cavillings", pairing the word with cavil so that the questions read as nitpicking rather than honest inquiry.

3. 3
   adjective

   Inclined to ask questions or express doubt; questioning in manner.

   A querying glance passed between the two scientists during the demonstration.

   Her querying tone made the speaker pause and clarify his claim.

   Similarquestioning, inquiring, quizzical, curious, doubtful

   Oppositeaccepting, trusting

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