English Explanatory Dictionary

ask

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To request or petition.
  2. To request (information, or an answer to a question).
  3. To request or enquire of (a person).
  4. To request (an item or service) (see also ask for).
  5. To request (someone to do something).
  6. To request permission (to do something).
  7. To put forward (a question) to be answered.
  8. To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity.
  9. To invite.
  10. To indirectly encourage or make more likely (an undesirable outcome).
  11. To publish in church for marriage; said of both the banns and the persons.
  12. To take (a person's situation) as an example.
noun
  1. An act or instance of asking.
  2. Something asked or asked for.
  3. An asking price.
  4. A message sent to a blog on social networking platform Tumblr, which can be publicly posted and replied to by the recipient.
noun
  1. An eft; newt.
  2. A lizard.
name
  1. The first male human, according to the Poetic Edda.
name
  1. A surname from Swedish.
noun
  1. Initialism of amplitude shift keying.

Pronunciation

/ɑːsk/ En-uk-to ask.ogg /ask/ /ɑːks/ /æsk/ en-us-ask.ogg /ɛəsk/ ăks /æks/ /ˈas ˈɛs/

Word forms

ask asks asking asked no-table-tags glossary aks aksed askest askedst akses asketh asken aksing ax aske asker ascar askerd askard

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eys- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *h₂isḱéti Proto-Germanic *iskaną Proto-Germanic *aiskaz Proto-West Germanic *aisk Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-West Germanic *-ōn Proto-West Germanic *aiskōn Old English āscian Middle English asken English ask From Middle English asken, axen, from Old English āscian, from Proto-West Germanic *aiskōn, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eys- (“to wish; request”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian aaskje (“to ask, demand, require”), West Frisian easkje (“to ask, demand, require”), Dutch eisen (“to demand, require”), German heischen (“to ask, request, implore”), Russian иска́ть (iskátʹ), Sanskrit इच्छति (iccháti) (whence Hindi ईछना (īchnā).

Synonyms

request

Derived words

askability askable ask after ask around ask back ask box askee ask for ask for it ask for someone's hand in marriage ask for the moon ask for trouble askhole ask how high when someone says jump ask in asking for a friend asking rate ask me anything ask me one about sport ask me one on sport ask my arse ask out ask over ask round ask the impossible ask the question depends who's asking don't ask don't ask me for the asking I ask you if you ask me I thought you'd never ask it's better to ask forgiveness than permission it's easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission misask never ask the barber if you need a haircut no questions asked outask reask shoot first and ask questions later unask who's asking ask price bid-ask spread big ask hard ask tough ask

Translations

Aghwan: 𐔱𐔴𐕚𐔴𐕚𐕒𐕡𐕎 Albanian: lut Arabic: سَأَلَ Arabic: طَلَبَ Arabic: طلب Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܛܵܠܹܒ Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܫܵܐܹܠ Armenian: խնդրել Assamese: খোজা Azerbaijani: diləmək Azerbaijani: arzu etmək Azerbaijani: xahiş etmək Azerbaijani: tələb etmək Basque: eskatu Belarusian: прасі́ць Belarusian: папрасі́ць Bengali: চাওয়া Bengali: বলা Bhojpuri: माँगल Bulgarian: мо́ля Bulgarian: и́скам Burmese: ပန် Burmese: တိုင် Catalan: demanar Cherokee: ᎠᏔᏲᎯᎭ Chickasaw: asilhha Chickasaw: asilhlha Chickasaw: imasilhha Chickasaw: ittimasilhha Chinese Mandarin: 請 /请 Chinese Mandarin: 請求 /请求 Czech: žádat Czech: prosit Dalmatian: precur Danish: bede Dutch: vragen Esperanto: peti Estonian: paluma Finnish: pyytää French: demander Friulian: domandâ Galician: pedir Georgian: სთხოვს Georgian: ითხოვს German: bitten Old High German: bitten Greek: παρακαλώ Greek: ζητώ Ancient Greek: αἰτέω Ancient Greek: ἐξαιτέω Ancient Greek: αἰτίζω Paraguayan Guarani: jerure Hawaiian: noi Hawaiian: ui Hebrew: בִּקֵּשׁ Hebrew: שָׁאַל Hindi: पूछना Hindi: माँगना Hungarian: kér Hungarian: megkér Icelandic: spyrja Icelandic: biðja Ido: demandar Indonesian: minta
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