“Making to” does mean roughly what you found in the dictionary. “She's making to run away” is mostly synonymous to “she's about to run away”. The difference is that “about to” indicates that she will run away in the future and doesn't convey how the narrator knows this, whereas “making to” tells us that the narrator sees something that shows that she intends to run away. She may be getting into a running stance, or distancing herself from the narrator. If she's “making to” run away, she might still change her mind, or be prevented from running away. That is, she is preparing to do it, but she might be interrupted either by internal reasons (change of mind) or external reasons (prevented) — in fact here it's a combination of the two (the narrator grabs her arm, and she doesn't really attempt to escape).
As a rule, gerunds should be used like their verbal counterparts. If the verb is a phrasal verb, then the gerund should be constructed accordingly.
So your example "Thinking of you makes me happy" is correct, because you'd use "of" if you rephrased this with "think" as a verb:
When I think of you, it makes me happy.
However, this is incorrect
He has finished washing of the dishes.
because you'd say "I don't want to wash the dishes," not "I don't want to wash of the dishes." That last sentence makes no sense in English.
The Inevitable and Rarely Used Exception
You knew there was going to be an exception, right?
In a few cases, using the gerund + of is correct when it is important to emphasize the specific act the gerund describes. It also sounds extremely formal to an English speaker; it is not a construction one would use in everyday speech except as a joke.
Because this construction refers to a definite act, it must take the definite article "the." The phrase "She enjoys reading of poems" would sound odd to an English speaker, but "She enjoys the reading of poems" is perfectly correct, though having an elevated tone.
And because "the reading of poems" draws attention to the act and not the person performing the act, it can imply the reading of poems by others in addition to her own reading of poems.
A few more examples:
The signing of the Declaration of Independence actually took place on July 2.
The naming of new Nobel Prize laureates is always exciting.
I love the turning of the seasons.
Notice how the use of "the" refers to a specific act or event. The sentence
Signing the Declaration of Independence actually took place on July 2.
does not make sense because without "the," it implies a habitual action, not a specific act or event.
Humorous use of this construction usually makes an insignificant event sound more important than it really is:
Now is the time for the washing of dishes.
I humbly invite you to join me in the drinking of beer.
Best Answer
As "B" is quoting "A" directly, in written English you should place quote marks
In speech there are intonation and rhythmic indicators of this structure.
You shouldn't change it to "asking". If you say "What do you mean by asking a question?" it means "What is your purpose in asking a question". It doesn't ask about the words that A spoke, but asks why "A" asked a question. That doesn't make sense (because A didn't ask a question!)