ask

To request or petition.; To request (information, or an answer to a question).intransitivetransitive

• I asked her age.
• I didn't know the answer so I asked.

To request or petition.; To request or enquire of (a person).ditransitivetransitive

• I asked her (for) her age.
• I’m going to ask this lady (for) directions.

To request or petition.; To request (an item or service) (see also ask for).transitiveusually

• to ask for a second helping at dinner
• to ask for help with homework

To request or petition.; To request (someone to do something).transitive

• Emma asked Jim to close his eyes.

To request or petition.; To request permission (to do something).

• She asked to see the doctor.
• Did you ask to use the car?

To put forward (a question) to be answered.

• to ask a question
• to ask a riddle

To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity.

• What price are you asking for the house?
• It’s asking a lot of this old car to make it all the way up to Scotland.

To invite.

• Don’t ask them to the wedding.

To indirectly encourage or make more likely (an undesirable outcome).figuratively

• Walking around with such an expensive watch is asking to be mugged.

To publish in church for marriage; said of both the banns and the persons.

An act or instance of asking.informal

• To ask for a gift is a privilege, a wonderful expression of commitment to and ownership of the organization. Getting a yes to an ask can be a rush, but asking for the gift can and should be just as rewarding.
• That really does not seem much of an ask.

Something asked or asked for.informal

• I know this is a big ask, but …

An asking price.informal

• The buy prices are a bit higher than the sell prices; the difference between the buy/sell is called bid/ask spread. If you are selling a stock, you’ll get the bid price; if you are buying a stock, you’ll get the ask price.

A message sent to a blog on social networking platform Tumblr, which can be publicly posted and replied to by the recipient.Internetinformal

• Answering 'asks' like this is one common way that Tumblr bloggers interact with their followers, so it is in the act of publicly answering these asks that I examine community building practices.
• The following example from Black Mental Health illustrates an ask from an anonymous follower seeking social support: […]

An eft; newt.Scotlandalsoinformal

• He looked at the beast. It was not an eel. It was very like an ask.

A lizard.informal

• We hear of Adder dens, but detailed accounts of the discovery of one are very rare. Service (1902) records that a peatman, when levelling on an estate by the Solway, found in a hole in the ground, some 8 inches below the surface, 40 adders,