a-building

See also: abuilding

English

Alternative forms

• abuilding

Etymology

From a- (“in, on”) +‎ building (“the act or process of building”).

Adverb

a-building (not comparable)

1. Being built or under construction, as a structure or a vessel.
   • 1890, William Morris, chapter XXVI, in News from Nowhere:

     This talk brought us up to the house that was a-building, not a large one, which stood at the end of a beautiful orchard surrounded by an old stone wall.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 141:

     "Of these nineteen ships a-building no more than two can take the water before a month be past, and but seven more ere six months' time, push we never so mightily the work."

Anagrams

• audibling