Etymology 1
From Middle English lokinge, lokinde, lokande, lokende, from Old English lōciende, present participle of Old English lōcian (“to look”), equivalent to look + -ing.
Verb
looking
- present participle and gerund of look
- as the last part of compound adjectives: relating to or having the appearance of.
dorky-looking
1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
1988 September 12, New York Magazine, page 226:Good-Looking, Funny Guy — (Not funny-looking, good guy), 36, Jewish, athletic.
Etymology 2
From Middle English lokinge, lokunge, from Old English *lōcung (attested in Old English þurhlōcung), equivalent to look + -ing.
Noun
looking (plural lookings)
- The act of one who looks; a glance.
2005, Felix Driver, Luciana Martins, Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire, page 162:A complicated interplay of lookings and viewings is in play. The staging and performance of the photograph, then, is as much the subject of the photograph as the ostensible subjects […]