ASKANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does askance mean? 

• ASKANCE (adjective)
  The adjective ASKANCE has 1 sense:

1. (used especially of glances) directed to one side with or as if with doubt or suspicion or envy

  Familiarity information: ASKANCE used as an adjective is very rare.

• ASKANCE (adverb)
  The adverb ASKANCE has 2 senses:

1. with suspicion or disapproval

2. with a side or oblique glance

  Familiarity information: ASKANCE used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASKANCE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used especially of glances) directed to one side with or as if with doubt or suspicion or envy

Synonyms:

askance; askant; asquint; sidelong; squint; squint-eyed; squinty

Context example:

sidelong glances

Similar:

indirect (not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination)

• ASKANCE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

With suspicion or disapproval

Context example:

he looked askance at the offer

Sense 2

Meaning:

With a side or oblique glance

Context example:

did not quite turn all the way back but looked askance at me with her dark eyes

 Context examples 

She nodded her head and looked at him askance, as though astonished that he should have aught to say.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Certes, he would have a welcome for you,” quoth Sir Nigel; “but indeed he might look askance at one who comes without permit over the marches.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even Gertrude was beginning to look askance.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I see that you look askance at me, Sir Charles Tregellis, but you should pray to God, sir, that you may never have the chance of finding out what you would yourself be capable of in the same position.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now, I make a point of never having any prejudices, and of following docilely wherever fact may lead me, and so, in the very first stage of the investigation, I found myself looking a little askance at the part which had been played by Mr. Alec Cunningham.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then it was that the lust of the chase would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The same curious accident happened to him in the rooms of the Indian—a silent, little, hook-nosed fellow, who eyed us askance, and was obviously glad when Holmes’s architectural studies had come to an end.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Five hundred and eight paces will serve my turn,” answered the Brabanter, looking askance at this new opponent.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The public not unnaturally goes on the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole, and looks askance at the curative powers of the man whose own case is beyond the reach of his drugs.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)