How to Use ask in a Sentence

ask

1 of 2 verb
  • May I ask the time?
  • I need to ask a question.
  • Did you ask her yet?
  • We had to stop and ask directions.
  • I would have given it to him, but he never asked.
  • Did you ask permission to leave?
  • The Virgo moon asks you to feel where the line is drawn.
    USA TODAY, 23 Mar. 2024
  • Raba showed off her bracelets and asked about the girls’ tent.
    Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
  • That was the first and last time I was asked to do that on television.
    Lizz Winstead, Rolling Stone, 19 Nov. 2023
  • Babin saw a baseball bat in the car between the two front seats and asked Schuckman to get out.
    Katie Moore, Kansas City Star, 4 Apr. 2024
  • When Claud asks him about his day, Rudd explains that it’s been rough.
    Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 July 2023
  • On his way in, Shelton asks the other deputy to give him a Taser.
    Tony Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec. 2023
  • Many have called my daughter sick, or have asked what's wrong with her.
    Blake Bakkila, Health, 9 Aug. 2023
  • At a midnight Mass, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem asked people to look for the light.
    Andrew jeong, Washington Post, 25 Dec. 2023
  • My old soccer coach became the coach of pole vaulting and asked me to try out one day.
    Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Dec. 2023
  • Glass laughs when asked how Stewart reacted to the script.
    Adam B. Vary, Variety, 11 Jan. 2024
  • He was asked where the victory ranks in his five seasons at BYU.
    Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Make sure to contact them ahead of time and ask before payment.
    Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY, 29 July 2023
  • She’s found the best way to bridge that gap is to allow employers to ask questions.
    Arcelia Martin, Dallas News, 18 May 2023
  • Dirty pulled out five crisp twenty-dollar bills and asked me where the bathroom was.
    Dante Ross, Rolling Stone, 9 Aug. 2023
  • When asked about this, the Israel Prison Service did not respond.
    David Noriega, NBC News, 30 Nov. 2023
  • What a huge honour to have been asked to be Ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day.
    Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 28 Feb. 2024
  • When asked about its plans, 2K Games did not respond to a request for comment.
    Herb Scribner, Washington Post, 22 June 2023
  • Taurus April 20-May 20 The world is calling your name, asking you to come out and explore.
    Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 11 June 2023
  • In April, attorneys for Del Rey asked a federal judge to toss the case out.
    Bill Donahue, Billboard, 23 June 2023
  • The defense is asking the court for more time to decide, or to make an exception to that rule.
    Sasha Pezenik, ABC News, 11 June 2023
  • Organizers asked those outside the fairgrounds to avoid the area.
    Dennis Romero, NBC News, 15 Oct. 2023
  • Oxford coach Wes Brooks thought for just a minute when asked to reflect on his 2023 baseball team.
    Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 17 May 2023
  • His 11-year-old daughter came to him after Oct. 7 asking: Who’s bad?
    Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2023
  • That error was so large that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, noticed and emailed to ask about the problem.
    Sebastian Herrera, WSJ, 18 Nov. 2023
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ask

2 of 2 noun
  • The largest ask, from the village of Dolton, was for $11 million.
    Chicago Tribune, 29 Sep. 2022
  • The more specific the ask, the more precise the results.
    Cheryl Robinson, Forbes, 12 Nov. 2023
  • That’s a real hard ask for a loved one to do that recording.
    Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 26 Dec. 2022
  • Of course, with the ongoing actors’ strike, that’s a big ask.
    Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 10 Oct. 2023
  • That may be a tall ask, but Stars fans would love to see Robertson get back in the goal column.
    Joseph Hoyt, Dallas News, 3 May 2023
  • His ask was simple: Could the new field at the park be named in his father's honor?
    The Indianapolis Star, 23 Mar. 2023
  • They’ve been thrusted into the limelight of this team, which is a big ask.
    Cam Kerry, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Oct. 2022
  • This is a big ask off the layoff but 6-to-1 compensates us.
    Ed Derosa, The Courier-Journal, 3 May 2023
  • The ask, at its core, is coming from a place of having to build up the confidence to do this work.
    Juan A. Ramírez, New York Times, 20 Nov. 2023
  • The new big ask may be to raise the finance to retain total IP on higher end movies.
    John Hopewell, Variety, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Clearly, the powers that be were aware that landing Queen Bey would be a tall ask.
    Kyle Denis, Billboard, 13 Dec. 2023
  • Charter flights for playoff teams doesn’t seem like a big ask in 2022.
    Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 27 Aug. 2022
  • That is too big an ask of all but the most ardent Putin apologists.
    James Nixey, CNN, 23 Sep. 2022
  • The White House's ask will be a hard sell to Republican lawmakers in the House.
    Allison Pecorin, ABC News, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Asking Coyle and Zacha to fill the shoes of two of the top 10 Bruins forwards of all-time is not a reasonable ask.
    Matt Porter, BostonGlobe.com, 11 May 2023
  • But with no takers, the home’s ask was slashed to $29 million in October.
    James McClain, Robb Report, 11 Dec. 2023
  • In a studio, going from a black screen to a picture on the screen is a simple, simple ask.
    Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 21 Feb. 2023
  • But the ultimate ask, which was done at the Ellipse, was to pause the voting for a period of time.
    Nbc Universal, NBC News, 6 Aug. 2023
  • That’s a big ask from parents who are already spread too thin on the heels of a global crisis, though.
    Good Housekeeping, 16 May 2023
  • That’s a big ask, to come in and basically improv for 17 days.
    Charna Flam, Variety, 5 May 2023
  • What was your reaction to getting the ask to come back into this world and bring Cordelia back?
    Emily Longeretta, Variety, 10 Oct. 2023
  • But winning on the stage on the road against the quarterback who has done it before is a little too big of an ask.
    Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press, 7 Jan. 2023
  • Purdue should be up to the ask to make this thing competitive.
    Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 29 Aug. 2022
  • Of course, this is was a deeply Heat-ed ask, pitting two Italianx kings against each other.
    Vulture, 15 May 2023
  • So going out for eight weeks to do performances of three hours and 20 minutes is a very big ask.
    David Browne, Rolling Stone, 14 July 2022
  • That was an – hold on one second- that was an aspirational ask.
    Nbc Universal, NBC News, 6 Aug. 2023
  • Judging by the response before their wide release, this isn’t a big ask.
    Halie Lesavage, Harper's BAZAAR, 5 July 2023
  • All of my asks and requests were along the lines of just being faithful to the source material.
    Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 1 July 2023
  • The company and its debtors made the ask in a statement Sunday, setting a Feb. 28 deadline to return the cash.
    Ben Kamisar, NBC News, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Given their recent stretch of abysmal play, doing so feels like quite an ask.
    cleveland, 7 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ask.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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