All 5 Uses

inquiry
in
Washington Black
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It did not then occur to me to question why he had chosen me, if he did not believe me capable of learning; instead I heard only the praise, and I found the edge falling off my fear, so that I could finally hear his questions for what they were, inquiries only, and sometimes I could even answer without stammering.†
p. 47.4

inquiries = questions or investigations
And he has discovered much, it's true, but the one thing that has defied all his powers of inquiry is my mother's heart.†
p. 65.6 *

inquiry = questioning or investigating
He believed if he made the correct inquiries he could find this "most interesting man" he had mentioned, a great friend and associate of his father's, one Mister Farrow.†
p. 145.5

inquiries = questions or investigations
At first I thought he come to make trouble, to rustle me up for those brothers I cut the other night, but he was only making inquiries.†
p. 228.3
I would say that he passed from a place of inquiry to a place of uncontested belief.†
p. 343.8

inquiry = questioning or investigating

Definitions:

(1) (inquiry)
a question or investigation -- especially one meant to gather information or find out the truth
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)