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Ask   /æsk/   Listen
Ask

verb
(past & past part. asked; pres. part. asking)
1.
Inquire about.  Synonyms: enquire, inquire.  "He had to ask directions several times"
2.
Make a request or demand for something to somebody.
3.
Direct or put; seek an answer to.
4.
Consider obligatory; request and expect.  Synonyms: expect, require.  "Aren't we asking too much of these children?" , "I expect my students to arrive in time for their lessons"
5.
Address a question to and expect an answer from.  "The children asked me about their dead grandmother"
6.
Require as useful, just, or proper.  Synonyms: call for, demand, involve, necessitate, need, postulate, require, take.  "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"
7.
Require or ask for as a price or condition.  "The kidnappers are asking a million dollars in return for the release of their hostage"



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"Ask" Quotes from Famous Books



... He can only see what I desire should be seen; that is to say, that I have around me eleven thousand brave men, who ask no better than to have their throats cut in honor of the parliament ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... to the situation; also to acknowledge your telegram. It was nice of you to send it like that, the minute you got my scolding letter from Easthampton. I'm sorry I was so severe, though I had some excuse to be cross. I forgive you freely, now things are turning out a little better, and I ask you to do ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)

... Lady, I ask no other meed Than that you suffer me to serve; My faith and love shall never swerve, I'm yours whatever ...
— The Evolution of Love • Emil Lucka

... ignorance of the labouring population will, occasionally, break out into the notice of the world. "What can I do?" he exclaims. "I feel with intensity the horrors I read of: but what can one man do?" I only ask him to study what he feels. He is a citizen. He cannot be such an isolated being as to have no influence. The conclusions which he comes to, after mature reflection, will not be without their weight. If individual citizens were anxious ...
— The Claims of Labour - an essay on the duties of the employers to the employed • Arthur Helps

... me, and this I put down to the worthy Marko's influence. Thrice I saw him while out shooting, but only once within speaking distance. I then called to him 'Marko, I know thou wilt try and kill me; but listen, I am married and have a wife and child at home. For their sakes I ask thee to shoot at me from the front, and thus give me a chance ...
— The Land of the Black Mountain - The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro • Reginald Wyon

... days ago a terrible dragon alighted in the gardens of the palace and sent word to Princess Zenza that if within three days she did not provide him with someone brave enough to go home with him and cook his meals and keep his cavern tidy, he would burn our fields with his fiery breath. Yet who, I ask you, would be housekeeper for a dragon? Suppose he did n't like the puddings you made for him—why, he might eat you up! All would have been lost had not a brave little kitchen-maid named Tilda volunteered to go. It is for her that we are mourning. At two o'clock ...
— The Firelight Fairy Book • Henry Beston

... to ask them," was Lord Hastings' answer to this question. "For my own part, I feel that it is hardly fair to keep this information ...
— The Boy Allies with the Victorious Fleets - The Fall of the German Navy • Robert L. Drake

... grew very sick of his contract to do the begging and resolved to die before he would ask for aid from such people again. I told him I would have both food and lodging at the next place we stopped. He said it was useless to make the attempt, and I confess that the numerous refusals we had met with were calculated to dishearten many a person; but I had faith ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... are not in the valley they are out of the valley, and once they are out they have broken the law. Who am I that you should ask, since the law is made by ...
— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville

... about private life there. We have Pierre Loti's exquisite dream pictures of his deserted palace at Pekin, and we have many useful and expert accounts of the roads, mines, railways, factories, laws, politics, and creeds of the Celestial Empire. But the book I ask for could not be written by anyone who was not of Chinese birth, and it would probably be written by a woman. It might not have much literary form or value, but it would enter into those minutiae of life that the masculine traveller ...
— Home Life in Germany • Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick

... I said, all my hospitable feelings awakened—for I can never feel but that Windy Gap is my particular home—'Shall I go and ask her? Our tea must be ready now ...
— My New Home • Mary Louisa Molesworth

... our death-beds, Mrs. Godber,—peace, as I humbly presume to hope, the peace of christian charity and mutual forgiveness. Frail creatures that we are! the best will need forgiveness; the guiltiest, I trust, who brings a contrite heart, will not ask it in vain." Then, after a pause, he added solemnly—"You also, Mrs. Godber, will ...
— Walladmor: - And Now Freely Translated from the German into English. - In Two Volumes. Vol. II. • Thomas De Quincey

... story, and yet fearing that there might be some foundation for it, Tony had confided to his sister that he meant to ask Jim about it, notwithstanding Theodore's warning to beware how he did so. Jim's anger at the questions he had put, especially at that regarding the "poisoning," had been enough to convince him that it was all true. Jim had a secret which he was afraid to have ...
— Uncle Rutherford's Nieces - A Story for Girls • Joanna H. Mathews

... said Jennie, stolidly. "I helped set it, with him pretending to be all worked up, for the doctor to see. He got rid of me all right. He's got one of his spies there now, a Bolshevik like himself. You can ask the neighbors." ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... would ask, what can we as practical men gather from these experiments? A great deal has been written and said as to the best means to secure conductors carrying currents of very low tension, such as telephone circuits, from being ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 417 • Various

... therefore, to report favorably on Senator Wilson's amendment, because woman not only needs the ballot for her protection, but the nation needs her voice in legislation for the safety and stability of our institutions. We simply ask you to apply your theory of government, your declaration of rights, the principles enunciated by the great Republican party, the far-seeing wisdom with which step by step you have secured all men in their inalienable rights, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... gold which he lent to the King. But as the King never offered to pay, one morning Drakesbill set out, singing as he went, "Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?" To all the objects he met and to their questions he replied, "I am going to the King to ask him to pay me what he owes me." When they begged, "Take me with you!" he was willing, but he said, "You must make yourself small, get into my mouth, and creep under my tongue!" He arrived at the palace with his companions concealed in his mouth: a Fox, a Ladder, Laughing ...
— A Study of Fairy Tales • Laura F. Kready

... of these savages was without some remarkable scar: one of them attracted our attention by a deep cut across the belly. We contrived to ask him how he got this cicatrice; and he pointed to his lance, from which it may be inferred that they are not unaccustomed to war, either with their neighbours or each other, and that they are possessed of skilful surgeons. ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue

... so terribly distressed. You needn't, if you don't want to. I dare say that the superintendent at the mill would jump at the chance. I think I shall ask him, anyway." Her manner changed. "Why do they always call him the old man? He is not such a very ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason

... Drummond A Welcome William Browne The Complete Lover William Browne Rubies and Pearls Robert Herrick Upon Julia's Clothes Robert Herrick To Cynthia on Concealment of her Beauty Francis Kynaston Song, "Ask me no more where Jove bestows" Thomas Carew A Devout Lover Thomas Randolph On a Girdle Edmund Waller Castara William Habington To Amarantha that She would Dishevel her Hair Richard Lovelace Chloe Divine Thomas D'Urfey My Peggy Allan Ramsay Song, ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various

... Robert Turold, bending abstractedly over his papers. "But you had better ask Thalassa. He'll tell you. ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees

... usual gracious charms, and should they offer you any advice upon worldly matters, which we must not permit ourselves to neglect, send for me. I will leave you now. Mrs. Franklin will call upon you to-morrow. Try to be brave and calm, and pray for the guidance which will be vouchsafed you, should you ask ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... pressure? I should worry! And say, I just dropped into the Meteorological Department's office and looked at the barometer. She'd jumped up half an inch in about two seconds, wiggled round some, and then come back to normal. You can see the curve yourself if you ask Fraser to show you the self-registering barograph. Some doin's, I ...
— The Man Who Rocked the Earth • Arthur Train

... have carefully calculated that with one hundred thousand pounds the scheme can be successfully set in motion, and that it can be kept going on an annual income of 30,000 which is about three and a-quarter per cent. on the balance of the million sterling, for which I ask as an earnest that the public intend to put its hand to this business with serious resolution; and our judgment is based, not on any mere imaginings, but upon the actual result of the experiments already made. Still it must be remembered that ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth

... advantage of such an education. (Cheers.) I now, gentlemen, have to propose to you the toast which has been committed to me, and which is 'Honour to the memory of George Stephenson, and may the college to be erected to his memory prove worthy of his fame.' I must ask you to drink this toast standing; and consider that the birth of Stephenson is a subject of jubilation. I think that although he is dead we may drink that toast with hearty cheering. (Hear, hear, ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... back, sir," said Dolly, with respectful compassion. "You've no call to catch cold; and I'd ask you if you'd be so good as tell my husband to come, on your way back—he's at the Rainbow, I doubt—if you found him anyway sober enough to be o' use. Or else, there's Mrs. Snell 'ud happen send the boy up to fetch and carry, for there may be ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... she was inwardly terrified in spite of her apparent confidence, and she resolved to break through her present system of silence and resignation. She brought about one of those little scenes in which husband and wife are on an equal footing; less timid at such a moment, she dared to ask Balthazar the reason for his change, the motive of his constant seclusion. The ...
— The Alkahest • Honore de Balzac

... old man dies, will inherit his property?" Edward smiled, and looking at the young girl, said, "Now, I ask you, maiden, if your father does not ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat

... for me. I did not go to him. He offered to pay my debts if I would swear to such a statement. I did not ask why or for whom. I swore to it and gave him a list of my creditors. I waited until they were paid. Then my conscience"—I could not help revolting at the thought of conscience in such a wretch, and the word itself seemed to stick in his ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... that mean, sly-boots? Ah, you know well enough! What were you and Antonio talking about all the time this morning? Did he not ask you ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 • Various

... opening into this hallway, three of which were occupied by Pinac, Fico and Poons, and the fourth Von Barwig took possession of. They all begged him to take their rooms, but he shook his head and smiled and they knew it was useless to ask him, so the skylight musketeers, as they called themselves, had complete possession of the hall, which served ...
— The Music Master - Novelized from the Play • Charles Klein

... basis of reality. And on that ground France was, perhaps, rightly omitted. But why, when the crown was thus remoulded, and its jewelry unset, if this one pearl were to be surrendered as an ornament no longer ours, why, we may ask, were not the many and gorgeous jewels, achieved by the national wisdom and power in later times, adopted into the recomposed tiara? Upon what principle did the Romans, the wisest among the children of this world, leave so many inscriptions, as records of their power ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... Mrs. Chantrey," she said, "but I thought I might make bold to ask what news you've had ...
— Brought Home • Hesba Stretton

... him a splendid present as a reward for this good news, and at once sent ambassadors to ask the Dear Little Princess in marriage. The King, her father, gave his consent; and Prince Hyacinth, who, in his anxiety to see the Princess, had gone three leagues to meet her, was just advancing to kiss her hand when, to the horror of ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... If you ask a politician of local authority whether the sitting member is a good one, he will reply, "No; he hasn't any influence at Washington at all. He can't do a thing for us!" Or, "Yes, he's pretty good; he seems to get things through all right." The "things" which the ...
— The Twentieth Century American - Being a Comparative Study of the Peoples of the Two Great - Anglo-Saxon Nations • H. Perry Robinson

... kind offer. I may perhaps I don't know avail myself of it. If anything should bring Mrs. Carleton this way we should like to see her. I am glad to see my friends," he said, shaking the young gentleman's hand, "as long as I have a house to ask 'em to!" ...
— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell

... Wamphray, who rides with his kinsman the redoubted Lord of Johnstone, who is banded with the doughty Earl of Douglas; and the earl and the lord, and the laird and I, the esquire, fly our hawks where we find our game, and ask no man whose ground ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... do this—if they prefer to hazard all for the sake of destroying the government—it is for them to consider whether it is probable I will surrender the government to save them from losing all. If they decline what I suggest, you scarcely need to ask what I will do. What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the contest, leaving any ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... are not as our little games. I had become acquainted with it and its proprietor, Mr. Hamilton, in that irregular and only way which is usual with such acquaintances. I was walking by the house one summer day, and stopped to ask my way. A handsome dark-brown girl was busy at the wash-tub, two or three older women were clustered at the gate, and in all their faces was the manner of the diddikai or chureni, or half-blood gypsy. As I spoke I dropped my voice, and ...
— The Gypsies • Charles G. Leland

... as we shall hereafter show, he has availed himself of Mr. Prescott's labors to an extent which demanded the most ample "acknowledgment." No such acknowledgment is made. But we beg to ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he should have spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, at least with respect. He himself informs us that "the most kindly relations" existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. Wilson opened the correspondence ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 18, April, 1859 - [Date last updated: August 7, 2005] • Various

... moment later with the blanket and spread it over the bed. He lay very still while she patted and smoothed it into place. He was mustering up his courage to ask for something—a curious state of mind for Billy Grant, who had always taken what he ...
— Love Stories • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... loquacity of the scholars of his day, remarks elsewhere with some astonishment, that the young nobles who came of a morning to hear his lectures could not be prevailed upon to enter into political discussions: 'When I ask them what people think, say, and expect about this or that movement in Italy, they all answer with one voice that they know nothing about the matter.' Still, in spite of the strict imposition of the State, much was to be learned from the more corrupt members of the aristocracy by those who were willing ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt

... finds its egress for several other hours through the brain. But in the child the mode of action must change every few minutes. He is made tired with five minutes' labor. He is satisfied with five minutes' rest. He will ride his rocking-horse, if alone, a short time, and then he comes to you to ask you to tell him a story. While listening to the story, his muscles are resting, and the force is spending its strength in working the mechanism of the brain. If you make your story too long, the brain, ...
— Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young • Jacob Abbott

... ask me to write exactly what I felt in No. 3 when I slept there on March 1st. Well, it is rather difficult to describe! I never felt frightened out of my wits at nothing before, if it was nothing. ...
— The Alleged Haunting of B—— House • Various

... Utopian ideas. I do not believe in perpetual peace, nor in the absolute rule of the law of nations as affecting the rivalries of governments and the facts of history. I know that ambitious intrigue and violent enterprise will always have a part in the destinies of nations. I only ask that ambition and force shall not be permitted to take that part, controlled only by their own will. At least they ought to be recognised for what they are, and called by their right names; their claims, and the results of them, ought to be placed ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton

... has arrived for you to ask of the Great Spirit this "reverence" i.e., the sanctity of this degree. I am interceding in your behalf, but you think my powers are feeble; I am asking him to confer upon you the sacred powers. He may cause many to die, but I shall henceforth watch your course of success in life, ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various

... Prime Minister to give me the Chiltern Hundreds, and then startle and disturb him by showing the utmost interest in my work. I should profess a general knowledge of my duties, but wish to be instructed in the details. I should ask to see the Under-Steward and the Under-Under-Steward, and all the fine staff of experienced permanent officials who are the glory of this department. And, indeed, my enthusiasm would not be wholly unreal. For as far as I can recollect ...
— Alarms and Discursions • G. K. Chesterton

... fascination of a hypnotic stare upon another field, which for a time brooked no rival. How could the old, familiar phenomenon, light, interest any one when the new agent, galvanism, was in view? As well ask one to fix attention on a star while a meteorite blazes across ...
— A History of Science, Volume 3(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... Girls coming up ask me what to bring by way of outfit. I used to make out a long list. Now I tell them to bring clothes enough for six weeks and their favorite ...
— The Yukon Trail - A Tale of the North • William MacLeod Raine

... is not sought for the sake of something else, is good in itself, as stated in Ethic. i, 6, 7. But pleasure is not sought for the sake of something else; for it seems absurd to ask anyone why he seeks to be pleased. Therefore pleasure is good in itself. Now that which is predicated of a thing considered in itself, is predicated thereof universally. Therefore every pleasure ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... you would not be answered," came sharply. "We have a right here, having discovered this cavern, and we claim it under a concession of the Honduras Government. I shall have to ask you to withdraw." ...
— Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders - or, The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold • Victor Appleton

... know whether her guardian was come to see her, but she had not the courage to ask before her friend; and she in her turn was afraid by the too sudden mention of his name, to discompose her. Her maid, however, after some little time, entered the chamber, and whispered Miss Woodley. Miss Milner ...
— A Simple Story • Mrs. Inchbald

... to that prayer, Ralph, if I could," said Bill, in a deep, sad voice; "but it would be a mere mockery for a man to ask a blessing for others who dare not ask one for himself. But, Ralph," he continued, "I've not told you half o' the abominations I have seen durin' my life in these seas. If we pull long together, lad, I'll tell you more; ...
— The Coral Island • R.M. Ballantyne

... is a King of power unknown; Firm are the orders of his throne; If he resolve, who dare oppose, Or ask him why or what ...
— Hymns for Christian Devotion - Especially Adapted to the Universalist Denomination • J.G. Adams

... immense treasure. The first year he offered government a million of francs for his release; the second, two; the third, three; and so on progressively. He is now in his fifth year of captivity; he will ask to speak to you in private, and offer you ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... "There is a gentleman up-stairs from Britain or America," was the response. He pointed the way, and Talleyrand ascended the stairs. In a dimly lighted room sat a man of whom the great minister of France was to ask a favor. He advanced, and poured forth in elegant French and broken English, "I am a wanderer, and an exile. I am forced to fly to the New World without a friend or home. You are an American. Give me, then, I beseech you, a letter of yours, so that I may ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... nod; 'I know all about them; I've read it sixty hundred times, I think, and I know that verse by heart. I want to ask you about it.' ...
— Odd • Amy Le Feuvre

... Very shortly she must control herself because the dinner-bell would ring and she must go. To stay and send the conventional excuse of a headache would bring her husband up to her, and although he was so full of his own affairs that the questions that he would ask her would be perfunctory and absent-minded, she felt that she could not endure, just now, to be alone ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... desired to ask me freely whether I were not troubled in mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was punished by the command of some prince, by exposing me in that chest, as great criminals in other countries have been forced to sea in a leaky vessel ...
— Gulliver's Travels - Into Several Remote Regions of the World • Jonathan Swift

... brief review with a reference to the religious standpoint, it may be well now to ask how the Church is to regard the Stage as an educational institution? The Stage cannot be put down. It responds to an instinct which is ineradicable, and which need not be ignoble. The parables of the New Testament are the sublimest recognition of that instinct. The drama is older than the theatre. ...
— The Idler, Volume III., Issue XIII., February 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly. Edited By Jerome K. Jerome & Robert Barr • Various

... Dinadan rode unto the court of King Arthur; and by the way as he rode he saw where stood an errant knight, and made him ready for to joust. Not so, said Dinadan, for I have no will to joust. With me shall ye joust, said the knight, or that ye pass this way. Whether ask ye jousts, by love or by hate? The knight answered: Wit ye well I ask it for love, and not for hate. It may well be so, said Sir Dinadan, but ye proffer me hard love when ye will joust with me with a sharp spear. But, fair knight, said Sir Dinadan, sith ye will joust with ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... the matter. "The bringing-up of women," he says, "is commonly such" that they cannot have the necessary qualifications, "for they are not brought upon learning in schools, nor trained in disputation." And even so, he can ask, "Are there not in England women, think you, that for learning and wisdom could tell their household and neighbours as good a tale as any Sir John there?" For all that, his advocacy is weak. If women's rule is not unnatural in a sense preclusive of its very existence, it is neither so convenient ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson

... to uphold the integrity of the empire, and the maintenance of the laws; and he thanked them as a friend to a liberal and popular policy, for their declared resolution to redress the grievances of Canada. He would ask Mr. Warburton and his friends, whether they were aware that till within the last seventy years printing-presses were forbidden in Canada; that at the present day the vast majority of the electors ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... curtains wrought with gold in various figures, which she resolves some time or other to hang up. All these she displays to her company whenever she is elate with merit, and eager for praise; and amidst the praises which her friends and herself bestow upon her merit, she never fails to turn to me, and ask what all these would cost, if I had ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... of the Senate, a treaty entered into on behalf of the United States with the Piankeshaw Indians, whereby our possessions on the north bank of the Ohio are entirely consolidated; and I ask the advice and consent of the Senate ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 10. • James D. Richardson

... no longer remain here with propriety, sir,' said she, 'and I may be allowed to ask, by what right ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe

... I decided to ask permission to go over this recently contested area, and therefore turned back to Brigade headquarters in the village of Roye-sur-Matz, which we had just left. There, in a second talk with the officer who had previously directed us, I learned for the first time that we ...
— The Note-Book of an Attache - Seven Months in the War Zone • Eric Fisher Wood

... also in its arctic region, that is in the north, a great island named Scandza, from which my tale (by God's grace) shall take its beginning. For the race whose origin you ask to know burst forth like a swarm of bees from the midst of this island and came into the land of Europe. But how or in what wise we shall explain hereafter, if it be the ...
— The Origin and Deeds of the Goths • Jordanes

... due, and a handsome mancia besides, he was still unsatisfied, and referred to the tariff in proof that he had been under-paid. On that confronted and defeated, he thanked us very cordially, gave us the number of his brougham, and begged us to ask for him when we came next to Padua and needed ...
— Italian Journeys • William Dean Howells

... is not the practice of the British government to interfere with the affairs of other independent states!' and a British envoy to Cabool, while refusing everything that was important for him to ask, kindly cautioned him to abstain from connecting himself ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 425 - Volume 17, New Series, February 21, 1852 • Various

... cypress tree, Where now he sits so gracefully, Ask him his name, that radiant moon, And he may grant another boon! Perchance he may to me impart The secret wishes of his heart! Tell him he must, and further say, That I have lived here many a day; That every year, whilst ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... shop. In it are also leaders of labour, Mitchell and Gompers. There are several bishops of various beliefs. Now the Civic Federation tells us—tells the world—that it believes in labour unions. What I want to suggest is this: A dozen of you get together; write a note to your masters and ask them if that belief ...
— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine

... her out to walk this afternoon, and ask her some questions. Perhaps you can find ...
— Clematis • Bertha B. Cobb

... we don't intend to be seen. I will call upon you again to-morrow at ten o'clock. Will you kindly order your captain to be here to meet me? I wish you to give him instructions in my presence that he is to do whatever I ask of him. We will join the boat on the Rhine between Ehrenfels and Assmannshausen. Instruct him to wait for us midway between the two places, on the right bank. And now the ...
— The Sword Maker • Robert Barr

... instruction about Prana, is by no means legitimate. For that a new subject is introduced is proved, not only by those questions and answers; it may be proved by other means also, and we have already explained such means. The following is the reason why the pupil does not ask the question whether there is anything greater than Prana. With regard to the non- sentient objects extending from name to hope—each of which surpasses the preceding one in so far as it is more beneficial to man—the teacher does not ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut

... her knitting with a dignified satisfaction in her neat little effort at oratory, but this was not what Dorothea wanted to hear. Poor thing! she did not even know whether Will Ladislaw was still at Middlemarch, and there was no one whom she dared to ask, unless it were Lydgate. But just now she could not see Lydgate without sending for him or going to seek him. Perhaps Will Ladislaw, having heard of that strange ban against him left by Mr. Casaubon, had felt it better that he and she should not meet again, and perhaps she was wrong ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot

... successively, at the distance of half a foot, a foot, a foot and a half, etc., from the eye: at each of which, and at all the intermediate distances, the inch shall have a different visible extension, i.e. there shall be more or fewer points discerned in it. Now I ask which of all these various extensions is that stated, determinate one that is agreed on for a common measure of other magnitudes? No reason can be assigned why we should pitch on one more than another: and except there be some invariable, determinate extension fixed on to be marked to the word inch, ...
— An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision • George Berkeley

... sunset, he came to take old Hon home. The old miller was the one unchanged soul to her in that he was the one soul that could see no change in June. He called her "baby" in the old way, and he talked to her now as he had talked to her as a child. He took her aside to ask her if she knew that Hale had got his license to marry, and when she shook her head, his round, red face lighted up with the benediction of a ...
— The Trail of the Lonesome Pine • John Fox, Jr.

... thanes and sent to the mother to ask her what the cause of complaint was. Then she declared that she had no land that pertained in ought to her son, and was very angry with him, and calling Leofloeda, her relative, she, in presence of the thanes, bequeathed to her ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford, A Description - Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See • A. Hugh Fisher

... sunlight woke him three hours later—hours of ceaseless vigil for me—it became so clear to me that he remembered absolutely nothing of what he had attempted to do, that I deemed it wise to hold my peace and ask no ...
— Famous Modern Ghost Stories • Various

... I came to live with you," she said. "You are the most stay-at-home person by way of a gentleman that I ever heard of." Then there was a pause for a few minutes, and he said nothing further. "Might a person ask what you are going for?" This she asked in the playful manner which she knew he would ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope

... I'm in so deep at the works that I may get fired any minute. More than that, the boys generally want me to act as spokesman, and so I'm a sort of marked card, and I mightn't get in anywhere else, very easily. And I couldn't ask Jo to go with me to some Eastern factory or foundry town, without being pretty sure of a job. No; ...
— Saturday's Child • Kathleen Norris

... propose no new theories. We simply ask that you secure to ALL the practical application of the immutable principles of our government, without distinction of race, color or sex. And we urge our demand now, because you have the opportunity and the power to take this onward step in legislation. ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... pretty good; but, heavens alive! your prices are away too high.' Then he said, picking up a coat: 'Look here, young man, you're new on the road and I want to figure out and show you that you're getting too much for your goods. Now, you put down there, here is a suit that you ask me $12 for. Just figure the cloth and the linings, and the buttons, and the work. All told they don't cost you people over seven dollars. You ought to be able to—and you can—make me this suit for $10. That's profit enough. ...
— Tales of the Road • Charles N. Crewdson

... "Then I shall ask for a transfer from your command, sir, and if that is not granted, then I shall resign from ...
— Danger in Deep Space • Carey Rockwell

... You do not ask a man to fling his wife and children at the head of each woman he meets, but you like him ...
— A Woman of the World - Her Counsel to Other People's Sons and Daughters • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... and had witnessed some outrageous treatment of her. I had heard that the Shropshire doctor was not rich, and that they lived on her own personal fortune. I was in England again—in London, and walking along Piccadilly with little Pip—when a servant came running after me to ask would I step back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. It was a little pony carriage, which the lady was driving; and the lady and I looked sadly enough on one another. 'I am greatly changed, I know; but I thought you would like ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... the fellow have been doing here?" he soliloquised; "on intimate terms too, apparently; it is very singular; I will wait Miss Ellstowe's return, and ask an explanation." ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb

... disbelief in an intelligent First Cause of the universe, certainly of a personal God,—and thus a gradual drifting away to the dismal shores of that godless Epicureanism which Socrates derided, and Paul and Augustine combated? Do you ask for a confirmation of the truths thus deduced from the denial of the supernaturalism of the Mosaic Code? I ask you to look around. I call no names; I invoke no theological hatreds; I seek to inflame no prejudices. I appeal to facts as incontrovertible ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume II • John Lord

... as follows: "Unless this letter is designed to ask whether Col. M. is still in the army, or discharged by the appointment of a successor, I find nothing which changes the case since my indorsement referred to, as causing resentment and calling for ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... ask for a meeting with his son; and on the morrow the king took him and went forth to visit the prince. The king sat down and provoked debate, upbraiding and chiding him for his disobedience and stubbornness of mind. When Ioasaph again maintained his ease, and loudly declared that he valued nothing ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus

... come up blowing gloriously on a trumpet, take away the whole sheep, and beat the farmer pitifully into the bargain. I have no trumpet; I am only Tom, Dick, or Harry; I am a rogue and a dog, and hanging's too good for me—with all my heart—but just you ask the farmer which of us he prefers, just find out which of us he lies awake to curse ...
— The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various

... urged by voices to save France. At last a peasant uncle went with her to a man in power to ask for troops. The man was ...
— The Children's Book of Celebrated Pictures • Lorinda Munson Bryant

... had an earlier acquaintance with writing—as proved by their inscriptions—than the Phoenicians, then only may he menace the Asiatic into acceptance of his own arbitrary data and dogmas. Then also may he tauntingly ask "how it is that no appreciable trace is left of such high civilizations as are ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... I ask thee, O Shamash! great lord! whether from the 3d day of this month of Iyar, up to the 11th day of the month of Ab of this year, Kashtariti, with his soldiers, whether the Gimirrites, the Manneans, the Medes, or whether any enemy whatsoever will take the said city, Kishassu, enter that said city, ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Morris Jastrow

... If I were defending (since you ask me), I would not loose my grip until I had got her into a rage; and from all I hear that would make the jury believe her capable of anything, even of stabbing herself and swearing it ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... you don't know what passed between us. She was all right then, but—Go to her, Black. She must have recovered by this time. Ask her to come here for a minute. I won't detain her. I will wait for ...
— Dark Hollow • Anna Katharine Green

... snort she called Her trembling lover to her side— "How dare you, wretched youth," she bawled, "Ask me to be your ...
— Eugene Field, A Study In Heredity And Contradictions - Vol. I • Slason Thompson

... forgotten it, but ask herself. Her story was, that she had been married to a peasant in Usdom, who died lately, and his relations then turned her out, that she was now going to Daber, where she had a brother, a fisher in the service of the Dewitz family, and wanted to earn a travelling penny by spinning, ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V1 • William Mienhold

... certain Lady Macleod, after pouring out sixteen cups for him, ventured mildly to ask whether a basin would not save him trouble and be more convenient. "I wonder, madam," he replied, roughly, "why all ladies ask such questions?" "It is to save yourself trouble, not me," was the tactful answer of ...
— The Little Tea Book • Arthur Gray

... without meeting any one. Six miles from the river we saw an old negro woman roasting sweet potatos in the back yard of a house. We were very hungry, and thought we would risk something to get food. Hommat went around near her, and asked her for something to eat. She told him to go and ask the white folks. This was the answer she made to every question. He wound up by asking her how far it was to Mossley's Ferry, saying that he wanted to go there, and get something to eat. She at last ran into the house, and we ran away as fast as we could. We had gone but a short distance when we ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... about 'weltering' but the dictionary should decide—look at it. We say 'weltering in blood'—but do they not also use 'weltering in the wind' 'weltering on a gibbet'?—there is no dictionary, so look or ask. In the meantime, I have put 'festering,' which perhaps in any case is the best word of the two.—P.S. Be quick. Shakespeare has it often and I do not think it too strong for the figure in this ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... speak to you with a sincere heart," said he, turning his face to young Surcouf. "Before I pass from this world I want to relieve my conscience, and ask your forgiveness for all the evil which I have wished you ...
— Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea • Charles H. L. Johnston

... got to make the best of it," answered Ben. "I did hope to speak to mother, to ask her how father was, and to let her know ...
— Dave Porter and His Double - The Disapperarance of the Basswood Fortune • Edward Stratemeyer

... may I ask," it consequently inquired, "will you inscribe? and what place will I be taken to? pray, pray explain to me in lucid terms." "You mustn't be inquisitive," the bonze replied, with a smile, "in days to ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... a price that would stagger humanity." As to the rebel army its existence depended on one man. Most of its officers were from "the lowest of the people." "Take away those who surround your person, how few are there that you can ask to sit at your table." The rebels had hoped for aid from France: but after three years of waiting it had not come and there were no signs of it. The whig party in England was growing smaller. The whole English nation, "all orders and ranks of men are now unanimous and ...
— The American Revolution and the Boer War, An Open Letter to Mr. Charles Francis Adams on His Pamphlet "The Confederacy and the Transvaal" • Sydney G. Fisher

... ask ourselves whether this and similar things mean, exactly, anything? Mr Aiken warns us that his intention has been to use the idea—'the impulse which sends us from one dream or ideal to another, always disillusioned, always creating for adoration some new and subtler fiction'—'as ...
— Aspects of Literature • J. Middleton Murry

... the Monument do? I beg leave, sir, to exercise my birthright as a Yankee, and answer this question by asking two or three more, to which, I believe, it will be quite as difficult to furnish a satisfactory reply. I am asked, What good will the monument do? And I ask, What good does anything do? What is good? Does anything do any good? The persons who suggest this objection, of course think that there are some projects and undertakings that do good; and I should therefore like to have the idea of good explained, ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... told her that she was turning everyone's head, and Lesbia was quite willing to believe her. But was Lesbia's own head quite steady in this whirlpool? That was a question which she did not take the trouble to ask herself. ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... there, and when he had gone home to England he had given evidence as to the disorder which prevailed in New Zealand. He was sent in a war-ship, the Druid, with instructions to keep the white men in order, and to ask the natives if they would like to become subjects of Queen Victoria and live under her protection. If they agreed to do so, he was to form New Zealand into an English colony and he was to be its Lieutenant-Governor under the general control of the ...
— History of Australia and New Zealand - From 1606 to 1890 • Alexander Sutherland

... ask questions. He was speedily informed that it was through the Marchese that they had made the Lieutenant's acquaintance. The Marchese had brought Lorenzi to the house only a few weeks before. A man of the Chevalier's wide experience would hardly need prompting to enlighten him as to ...
— Casanova's Homecoming • Arthur Schnitzler

... below.' We were in the midst of what seemed an endless forest of turpentine pines, and had seen no human habitation for hours. Not knowing where the road might lead us, and feeling totally unable to proceed, we determined to ask shelter at ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... beside him. He knew by the sound of the voice that his rescuer was a Southerner and his heart warmed to him. He wanted greatly to ask a question. Presently ...
— The Vision Spendid • William MacLeod Raine

... nor act to demonstrate his contempt for the financial interests of Austria. Whether a gentler policy on the part of the most powerful statesman in Hungary might have averted the impending conflict it is vain to ask; but in the uncompromising enmity of Kossuth the Austrian Court found its own excuse for acts in which shamelessness seemed almost to rise into political virtue. No sooner had Radetzky's victories and the fall of Milan brought the Emperor back to Vienna than ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe

... thou shouldst have taken that high gift Of Love as it was meant, that mystery Did ask thy faith, the Gods do test our worth, And ere they grant high boons ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown

... that he should be paid at the ordinary rate of such large plate. Meanwhile I carried mine to Madonna Porzia, who looked at it with astonishment, and told me I had far surpassed my promise. Then she bade me ask for my reward whatever I liked; for it seemed to her my desert was so great that if I craved a castle she could hardly recompense me; but since that was not in her hands to bestow, she added laughing that I must ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini

... of hours ago. Yes, indeed! I ran against him at the gate; he was going out again from here; he was coming out of the yard. I tried to ask him about his dog, but he wasn't in the best of humors, I could see. Well, he gave me a shove; I suppose he only meant to put me out of his way, as if he'd say, 'Let me go, do!' but he fetched me such a crack on my neck, so seriously, that—oh! ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian • Various

... know the city very well, and to have a list of its principal citizens in his memory. He knew the best places to shop and the selectest places to eat, and Bertha soon came to ask his advice about other and more intimate affairs. She showed him Mrs. Brent's card, and explained that they were going ...
— Money Magic - A Novel • Hamlin Garland

... could argue the matter further, or ask any one of the thousand questions that he would have liked to get explained regarding cowboys, the driver interrupted to demand how much farther southward he was expected to go; and as Chambers Street was even then just ahead, the eastern turn ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates

... subject of Charms and Spells, I would ask those who are more familiar than myself with the Manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and of our University Libraries, whether they have ever met with (except in MSS. of Chaucer) the remarkable "Night Spell" which the Father of English Poetry has preserved in ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.02.09 • Various

... me, ere I declare my own grief, to ask what has become of the lovely Hemjunah, the Princess of Cassimir? and wonder not at my solicitude, for the mention of her name brings to my memory ideas of the past. How was it possible that lovely being should be betrayed into the powers of those wicked enchanters? ...
— Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers • Various

... they went out into the garden. But where was Gertrude all this time? She had been in the drawing-room a moment before his arrival. They walked out into the lawn, but nothing was said about her absence. Norman could not bring himself to ask for her, and Mrs. Woodward could not trust herself to ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... better ask what didn't we say. We talked and talked and talked as fast as our tongues would go till after midnight, and we wouldn't have stopped then if mother hadn't shooed us off to bed. Oh, I don't think I was ever so happy in ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield

... a man you are to ask!' cried Peg, with some contempt. 'If I had taken money from Arthur Gride, he'd have scoured the whole earth to find me—aye, and he'd have smelt it out, and raked it up, somehow, if I had buried it at the bottom of ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... premises. As the Brethren met on Sunday morning for early worship in the public hall, they joined with one accord in the prayer, "Bless the sweat of the brow and faithfulness in business"; and the only business they allowed was business which they could ask the Lord to bless. To them work was a sacred duty, a delight and a means for the common good. If a man is blessed who has found his work, then blessed were the folk at Herrnhut. "We do not work to live," ...
— History of the Moravian Church • J. E. Hutton

... found dead. You will admit that the whole plan has been worked out with surprising completeness and foresight." "Yes," I answered; "there is no doubt that the fellow is a most infernally clever scoundrel. May I ask if you have ...
— The Red Thumb Mark • R. Austin Freeman

... wrote:—'I require the troops to assist us to maintain order by force if necessary.' Upon this, the officer consented to accompany us. We had hardly taken half a dozen steps when they all began to ask what had become of the order I had just written, for it could not be found. They surrounded me, saying that I had not written it at all, and I was on the point of being trampled underfoot, when a militiaman found it all crumpled up in his pocket. ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... "I'll ask him about her when he gets home," she thought; and she waited anxiously for his return, which occurred much sooner ...
— Darkness and Daylight • Mary J. Holmes

... eager Italians, thus fearless less he poured his free speech; "O my honey-tongued fathers, I turn not away from the faith that ye teach! Not the less hath a man many moods, and may ask ...
— Ride to the Lady • Helen Gray Cone

... is, that there are few shops, no temptation to part with one's pelf, and no beggars, barelegged or barefaced, to ask for it. I do not believe that there are any cases of the cacoethes subscribendi. The natives have got out of the habit of making money, and appear to want nothing in particular, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various

... when dying, she revealed to me a portion of her "secret." This portion of a sacred confidence lies so safe within my everlasting pity that I may share it with you without the remorse of a betrayal. Full understanding we need never ask; the solution, I am convinced, is scarcely obtainable in this world. The message, however, was incomplete because the breath that framed it into broken words failed suddenly; the heart, so strangely given into my unworthy keeping, ...
— The Garden of Survival • Algernon Blackwood

... above a year or two, and was interrupted by frequent absence. If Christ had died once and for all upon the Cross, Christianity must have died with him; but it did not die; nay, it did not begin to live with full energy until after its founder had been crucified. We must ask again, what could that thing have been which turned these querulous and faint-hearted followers into the most earnest and successful body of propagandists which the world has ever seen, if it was not that which they ...
— The Fair Haven • Samuel Butler

... the auxiliaries shall and will are not always capable of being applied to the different persons agreeably to their use in simple declarations: thus, "Will I go?" is a question which there never can be any occasion to ask in its literal sense; because none knows better than I, what my will or wish is. But "Shall I go?" may properly be asked; because shall here refers to duty, and asks to know what is agreeable to the will of an other. In questions, the first person generally ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... which seemed to say that rest, in such a career as hers, was as sweet as it was brief, and a terrible regularity of feature. I apply that adjective to her fine placid mask because she seemed to face you with a question of which the answer was preordained, to ask you how a countenance could fail to be noble of which the measurements were so correct. You could contest neither the measurements nor the nobleness, and had to feel that Mrs. Farrinder imposed ...
— The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II) • Henry James

... thinking, carelessly and without apprehension, of what she should say to G.J. She would tell him that she had suddenly felt unwell. No! That would be silly. She would tell him that he really had not the right to ask her to meet such women as Aida and Alice. Had he no respect for her? Or she would tell him that Aida had obviously meant to attack her, and that the dance with Lieutenant Molder was simply a device to enable her to get away quietly and avoid all scandal ...
— The Pretty Lady • Arnold E. Bennett

... her skinny finger, but the handle of a key, upon her lip. She invites me, with a jerk, to follow her. I do so. She leads me out into a room adjoining—a rugged room, with a funnel-shaped, contracting roof, open at the top, to the bright day. I ask her what it is. She folds her arms, leers hideously, and stares. I ask again. She glances round, to see that all the little company are there; sits down upon a mound of stones; throws up her arms, and yells out, like a fiend, 'La ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens

... ourselves from impatience and resentment. In going along the course of a brook or a river, you sometimes come upon a bend, where you find a heap of smooth and nicely rounded pebble stones thrown up. Did you ever ask yourselves how these pebbles came to be so round and smooth? When broken off from their respective rocks, they were as irregular in form, they had as sharp corners, and as rough, and ragged, and jagged edges, and were altogether as ugly and unsightly things as any fragments ...
— Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again - A Life Story • Joseph Barker

... you are wrong, Isabel; in point of good-breeding, anything is better than hints and mystery. Since I have been so unlucky as to touch upon the subject, better go through with it, and, with all the boldness of innocence ask the question, Are you, my Lord Colambre, or are you not, related or connected with ...
— The Absentee • Maria Edgeworth

... do not behave well to you, mamma could ask Dr. Masham to go and see you, and they will attend to him; and I would ask him too. I wonder,' she continued after a moment's pause, 'if you have everything you want. I am quite sure the instant you are gone, we shall remember something you ought ...
— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli

... begins to play with the Herbert Spencer idea of teaching children by experience; perhaps the most fatuously silly idea that was ever gravely put down in print. On that there is no need to dwell; one has only to ask how the experimental method is to be applied to a precipice; and the theory no longer exists. But Shaw effected a further development, if possible more fantastic. He said that one should never tell a child anything without letting him hear the opposite ...
— George Bernard Shaw • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... continued in the command by Philip II., who, however, restrained him from extreme measures. Alva had subdued the whole Campagna and was at the gates of Rome, when he was compelled by Philip's orders to negotiate a peace. One of its terms was that the duke of Alva should in person ask forgiveness of the haughty pontiff whom he had conquered. Proud as the duke was by nature, and accustomed to treat with persons of the highest dignity, he confessed his voice failed him at the interview and his presence of mind forsook him. Not long after this (1559) he was sent at the head ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia



Words linked to "Ask" :   question, request, cry for, formulate, obviate, query, communicate, cost, bespeak, turn to, quest, interrogate, address, govern, articulate, solicit, compel, give voice, claim, exact, confer with, cry out for, draw, word, call, consult, pry, intercommunicate, phrase



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