Definition of ask

"ask" in the verb sense

1. ask

make a request or demand for something to somebody

"She asked him for a loan"

2. ask

direct or put seek an answer to

"ask a question"

3. ask, require, expect

consider obligatory request and expect

"We require our secretary to be on time"

"Aren't we asking too much of these children?"

"I expect my students to arrive in time for their lessons"

4. ask, inquire, enquire

address a question to and expect an answer from

"Ask your teacher about trigonometry"

"The children asked me about their dead grandmother"

"I inquired about their special today"

"He had to ask directions several times"

5. necessitate, ask, postulate, need, require, take, involve, call for, demand

require as useful, just, or proper

"It takes nerve to do what she did"

"success usually requires hard work"

"This job asks a lot of patience and skill"

"This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice"

"This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert"

"This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent"

6. ask out, ask, invite out, take out

make a date

"Has he asked you out yet?" "He asekd me to a dance"

7. ask

require or ask for as a price or condition

"He is asking $200 for the table"

"The kidnappers are asking a million dollars in return for the release of their hostage"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for ask

Ask much to have a little. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Great ships ask deep waters. [ Proverb ]

Better to ask than go astray. [ Proverb ]

Better ask than lose your way. [ Italian Proverb ]

You ask an elm-tree for pears. [ Proverb ]

All we ask is to be let alone. [ Jefferson Davis ]

Ask my companion, if I'm a thief. [ Proverb ]

Ask the seller, if his ware be bad. [ Proverb ]

Ask your purse what you should buy. [ Proverb ]

Better ask twice than go wrong once. [ German Proverb ]

Ask why God made the gem so small,
And why so huge the granite?
Because God meant mankind should set
The higher value on it. [ Burns ]

Ask me questions concerning tomorrow. [ Congreve ]

It is hard to ask; it is sweet to give. [ Mme. de Girardin ]

We ask advice, but we mean approbation. [ Colton ]

'Tis easier for the generous to forgive.
Than for offence to ask it. [ Thomson ]

I ask for a fork and you bring me a rake. [ Proverb ]

A man must ask his wife's leave to thrive. [ Proverb ]

Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive. [ Montgomery ]

He that serves well needs not ask his wages. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

When you are in the way you ask for the path. [ Proverb ]

It is greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
And ask them what report they bore to heaven. [ Young ]

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs. [ Goldsmith ]

I would not live alway; I ask not to stay
Where storm after storm rises dark over the way. [ William A. Muhlenberg ]

Ask the mother, if the child be like his father. [ Proverb ]

I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath;
Who shuns not to break one, will sure crack both. [ William Shakespeare ]

Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine.
Earth for whose use? Pride answers, 'Tis for mine
For me kind nature wakes her genial power,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower. [ Pope ]

He that is too proud to ask is too good to receive. [ Proverb ]

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for. [ Oprah Winfrey ]

Better spare to have of thine own than ask of other men. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

You must ask your neighbours if you shall live in peace. [ Proverb ]

Ill natures, the more you ask them, the more they stick. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

He that serves well need not be afraid to ask his wages. [ Proverb ]

God is always at leisure to do good to those that ask it. [ Proverb ]

A good man will requite a gift; an ill man will ask more. [ Proverb ]

He'll never get a pennyworth that is afraid to ask a price. [ Proverb ]

You should ask the world's leave before you commend yourself. [ Proverb ]

To be happy, one must ask neither the how nor the why of life.

If you ask me a question I don't know, I'm not going to answer. [ Yogi Berra ]

You ought to obtain what you ask, as you only ask what is fair. [ Plaut ]

Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. [ Bible ]

Women ask if a man is discreet, as men ask if a woman is pretty.

A fool may speer (ask) more questions than a wise man can answer. [ Scotch Proverb ]

Fools may ask more in an hour, than wise men can answer in seven. [ Proverb ]

Chance often gives us that which we should not have presumed to ask. [ Lamartine ]

Talk to him of Jacob's ladder, and he would ask the number of steps. [ Douglas Jerrold ]

If we are told a man is religious, we still ask what are his morals. [ S. de Bouflers ]

A man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for. [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]

This I ask, is it not madness to kill thyself in order to escape death! [ Martial ]

To love is to ask of another the happiness that is lacking in ourselves. [ Rochepedre ]

We should ask, not who is the most learned, but who is the best learned. [ Lady Montagu ]

I had rather ask of my fire brown bread than borrow of my neighbour white. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read. [ Emerson ]

Ask a kite for a feather, and she'll say, she has but just enough to fly with. [ Proverb ]

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, pass no criticisms. [ George Eliot ]

One of the greatest of human sufferings is to ask of one's self: Does God exist? [ Erckmann Chatrian ]

Do you wish a portrait that is not flattered? Ask a woman to make one of her rival. [ De Propriac ]

Most people who ask advice of others have already resolved to act as it pleases them. [ Knigge ]

Flirtation is a circulating library, in which we seldom ask twice for the same volume. [ N. P. Willis ]

Ten Things To Do.

Do good to all.
Speak evil of none.
Hear and know the facts before judging.
Think before speaking.
Hold an angry tongue.
Be kind to the distressed.
Ask pardon for all wrongs.
Be patient toward everybody.
Stop the ears to a tale-bearer.
Disbelieve most of the ill reports concerning friends, neighbors, and people in general.

Some oblige as others insult. One is tempted to ask reparation of them for their services. [ Napoleon I ]

Our supple tribes repress their patriot throat And ask no questions but the price of vote. [ Samuel Johnson ]

Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats. And ask no questions but the price of votes. [ Dr. Johnson ]

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. [ Jesus ]

When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

Were one to ask me in which direction I think man strongest, I should say, his capacity to hate. [ Beecher ]

He found shelter among books, which insult not, and studies that ask no questions of a youth's finances. [ Lamb ]

I will pick up a few straws here and there over the broad field, and ask you a few moments to look at them. [ Garfield ]

When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good! [ Colton ]

Do not ask if a man has been through college. Ask if a college has been through him; if he is a walking university. [ Chapin ]

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose. Labor is life. [ Carlyle ]

You may set it down as a truth, which admits of few exceptions, that those who ask your opinion really want your praise. [ Oliver Wendell Holmes ]

It is the habit of party in England to ask the alliance of a man of genius, but to follow the guidance of a man of character. [ Lord John Russell ]

Resolution is the youngest and dearest daughter of Destiny, and may win from the fond mother almost any favor she chooses to ask. [ Lowell ]

Part with it as with money, sparing; pay no moment but in purchase of its worth: and what its worth ask death-beds; they can tell. [ Young ]

Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor. [ Daniel Webster ]

Does an error do harm you ask? Not always! but going wrong always does. How far we shall certainly find out at the end of the road. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Be this the first law established in friendship, that we neither ask of others what is dishonourable, nor ourselves do it when asked. [ Cicero ]

They who dare to ask anything of a friend, by their very request seem to imply that they would do anything for the sake of that friend. [ Cicero ]

The highest mark of esteem a woman can give a man is to ask his friendship; and the most signal proof of her indifference is to offer him hers.

When a man dies, they who survive him ask what property he has left behind. The angel who bends over the dying man asks what good deeds he has sent before him. [ Koran ]

It is vain for you to expect, it is impudent for you to ask of God forgiveness on your own behalf, if you refuse to exercise this forgiving temper with respect to others. [ Hoadley ]

As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it. [ Ben Jonson ]

The present is withered by our wishes for the future; we ask for more air, more light, more space, more fields, a larger home. Ah! does one need so much room to love a day, and then to die? [ E. Souvestre ]

I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think; but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of men. [ Emerson ]

Men are what their mothers made them; you may as well ask a loom which weaves huckaback, wiry it does not make cashmere, as expect poetry from this engineer, or a chemical discovery from that jobber. [ R. W. Emerson ]

There are strange coincidences in life: they occur so a propos that the strongest minds are impressed, and ask if that mysterious and inexorable fatality in which the ancients believed, is not really the law that governs the world. [ Alfred Mercier ]

When all that is fond in our nature is most thoroughly awakened, when we feel most deeply and tenderly - even then, love is so conscious of its instability that we are irresistibly prompted to ask; Do you love me? Will you love me always? [ Balzac ]

Ask men of genius how much they owe to their mothers, and you will find that they attribute almost all to them and their influence; and if we could only guage the mental capacity of the wives of great men, we might perhaps learn why genius is so seldom hereditary. [ Lord Kames ]

Eyes speak all languages; wait for no letter of introduction; they ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither poverty nor riches, neither learning, nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

'Tis, in fact, utter folly to ask whether a person has anything from himself, or whether he has it from others, whether he operates by himself, or operates by means of others. The main point is to have a great will, and skill and perseverance to carry it out. All else is indifferent. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Other parts of the body assist the speaker, but these speak themselves. By them we ask, we promise, we invoke, we dismiss, we threaten, we entreat, we deprecate; we express fear, joy, grief, our doubts, our assent, our penitence; we show moderation, profusion; we mark number and time. [ Quintilian ]

If you lend a person any money, it becomes lost for any purpose as one's own. When you ask for it back again, you may find a friend made an enemy by your kindness. If you begin to press still further either you must part with that which you have intrusted, or else you must lose that friend. [ Plautus ]

It may be too much to expect that nations should be governed in their relations towards each other by the precepts of Christian morality, but surely it is not too much to ask that they should conform to the code of courtesy and good breeding recognized among gentlemen in the intercourse of social life. [ Geo. S. Hillard ]

Almost all men are over-anxious. No sooner do they enter the world than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures so remarkable in early life. Every hour do they ask themselves what progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honor; and on they go as their fathers went before them, till, weary and sick at heart, they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their childhood. [ Rogers ]

Opportunities do not come with their values stamped upon them. Everyone must be challenged. A day dawns, quite like other days; in it a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us. To face every opportunity of life thoughtfully and ask its meaning bravely and earnestly, is the only way to meet the supreme opportunities when they come, whether open-faced or disguised. [ Maltbie Babcock ]

Eyes are bold as lions, roving, running, leaping, here and there, far and near. They speak all languages; they wait for no introduction; they are no Englishmen; ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither poverty nor riches, neither learning nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude, and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. What inundation of life and thought is discharged from one soul into another through them! [ Emerson ]

If we wish to know the political and moral condition of a state, we must ask what rank women hold in it; their influence embraces the whole of life; a wife! - a mother! - two magical words, comprising the sweetest source of man's felicity; theirs is a reign of beauty, of love, of reason, - always a reign! a man takes counsel with his wife, he obeys his mother; he obeys her long after she has ceased to live; and the ideas which he has received from her become principles stronger even than his passions. [ Aime Martin ]

ask in Scrabble®

The word ask is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 7

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays In The Letters ask:

ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word ask

ASK
(21)
ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
(7)

The 23 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In ask

ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(17)
ASK
(14)
ASK
(14)
ASK
(14)
ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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AS
(6)
AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
(2)

ask in Words With Friends™

The word ask is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 7

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays In The Letters ask:

ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word ask

ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(19)
ASK
(17)
ASK
(14)
ASK
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ASK
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ASK
(13)
ASK
(12)
ASK
(9)
ASK
(9)
ASK
(8)
ASK
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ASK
(7)

The 24 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In ask

ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(21)
ASK
(19)
ASK
(17)
ASK
(14)
ASK
(14)
ASK
(14)
ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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ASK
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
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AS
(2)

Words containing the sequence ask

Words that start with ask (5 words)

Word Growth involving ask

Shorter words in ask

as

Longer words containing ask

alaska

asked basked

asked casked

asked masked damasked

asked masked hardmasked

asked masked photomasked

asked masked softmasked

asked masked unmasked

asked reasked

asked tasked multitasked

asked tasked outtasked

asked tasked retasked

asked tasked subtasked

asked unasked

askew

asking basking

asking masking hardmasking

asking masking maskings

asking masking photomasking

asking masking softmasking

asking masking unmasking

asking reasking

asking tasking multitasking multitaskings

asking tasking outtasking

asking tasking retasking

asking tasking subtasking

asking unasking unaskingly

asks basks

asks casks

asks flasks

asks masks damasks

asks masks deathmasks

asks masks facemasks

asks masks gasmasks

asks masks hardmasks

asks masks photomasks

asks masks softmasks

asks masks unmasks

asks reasks

asks tasks multitasks

asks tasks outtasks

asks tasks retasks

asks tasks subtasks

asks tasks tasksetter tasksetters

asks tasks tasksetting

bask basked

bask basket basketane basketanes

bask basket basketball basketballer basketballers

bask basket basketball basketballs

bask basket basketful basketfuls

bask basket basketlike

bask basket basketload basketloads

bask basket basketmaker basketmakers

bask basket basketmaking

bask basket basketries

bask basket basketry

bask basket baskets breadbaskets

bask basket baskets bushelbaskets

bask basket baskets clothesbaskets

bask basket baskets washbaskets

bask basket baskets wastebaskets

bask basket basketware basketwares

bask basket basketwork basketworks

bask basket breadbasket breadbaskets

bask basket bushelbasket bushelbaskets

bask basket clothesbasket clothesbaskets

bask basket handbasket

bask basket washbasket washbaskets

bask basket wastebasket wastebaskets

bask basking

bask basks

cask casked

cask casket caskets

cask casks

didaskaleinophobia

didaskaleinophobic didaskaleinophobics

flask flasklike

flask flasks

gasket gaskets

mask damask damasked

mask damask damasks

mask deathmask deathmasks

mask dermaskeleton dermaskeletons

mask facemask facemasks

mask gasmask gasmasks

mask hardmask hardmasked

mask hardmask hardmasking

mask hardmask hardmasks

mask maskable nonmaskable

mask maskable unmaskable

mask masked damasked

mask masked hardmasked

mask masked photomasked

mask masked softmasked

mask masked unmasked

mask masker maskers photomaskers

mask masker maskers unmaskers

mask masker photomasker photomaskers

mask masker unmasker unmaskers

mask masking hardmasking

mask masking maskings

mask masking photomasking

mask masking softmasking

mask masking unmasking

mask maskless

mask masklike

mask masks damasks

mask masks deathmasks

mask masks facemasks

mask masks gasmasks

mask masks hardmasks

mask masks photomasks

mask masks softmasks

mask masks unmasks

mask photomask photomasked

mask photomask photomasker photomaskers

mask photomask photomasking

mask photomask photomasks

mask softmask softmasked

mask softmask softmasking

mask softmask softmasks

mask unmask unmaskable

mask unmask unmasked

mask unmask unmasker unmaskers

mask unmask unmasking

mask unmask unmasks

paraskavedekatriaphobe paraskavedekatriaphobes

paraskavedekatriaphobia

paraskavedekatriaphobic paraskavedekatriaphobics

paraskevidekatriaphobe paraskevidekatriaphobes

paraskevidekatriaphobia

paraskevidekatriaphobic paraskevidekatriaphobics

paraski paraskied

paraski paraskiing

paraski paraskis

reask reasked

reask reasking

reask reasks

saskatoon saskatoons

task intertask

task multitask multitasked

task multitask multitasker multitaskers

task multitask multitasking multitaskings

task multitask multitasks

task outtask outtasked

task outtask outtasking

task outtask outtasks

task retask retasked

task retask retasking

task retask retasks

task subtask subtasked

task subtask subtasking

task subtask subtasks

task taskbar taskbars

task tasked multitasked

task tasked outtasked

task tasked retasked

task tasked subtasked

task tasker multitasker multitaskers

task tasker taskers multitaskers

task taskforce taskforces

task tasking multitasking multitaskings

task tasking outtasking

task tasking retasking

task tasking subtasking

task taskless

task taskmaster taskmasters

task taskmistress taskmistresses

task tasks multitasks

task tasks outtasks

task tasks retasks

task tasks subtasks

task tasks tasksetter tasksetters

task tasks tasksetting

task taskwork taskworks

unaskable