Questions
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ques·tion
(kwĕs′chən)n.
1.
A sentence, phrase, or gesture that seeks information through a reply.
2.
a. A subject or point that is under discussion or open to controversy: the question of whether a new school should be built.
b. A matter of concern or difficulty; a problem: This is not a question of too little money.
3.
a. A proposition brought up for consideration by an assembly.
b. The act of bringing a proposal to vote.
4. Law An issue in dispute for the resolution of a court.
5. Uncertainty; doubt: There is no question about the validity of the enterprise. Her integrity is beyond question.
v. ques·tioned, ques·tion·ing, ques·tions
v.tr.
1.
a. To ask a question or questions of (someone).
b. To interrogate (a suspect, for example). See Synonyms at ask.
2. To pose a question or questions regarding (something); analyze or examine: researchers questioning which of the methods will work.
3. To express doubt about; dispute: questioned his sincerity; questioned the expense report.
v.intr.
Idioms: To ask questions.
in question
Under consideration or discussion.
out of the question
Not worth considering because of being too difficult or impossible: Starting over is out of the question.
[Middle English, from Old French, legal inquiry, from Latin quaestiō, quaestiōn-, from *quaestus, obsolete past participle of quaerere, to ask, seek.]
ques′tion·er n.
ques′tion·ing·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Questions/Answers
See Also: PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS
- Answered me as gravely as if I had asked the meaning of life —Borden Deal
- Answered slow, like men who wouldn’t waste anything, not even language —Carl Sandburg
- Answered with the finality of a bank vault door —Dick Francis
- The answer was in front of him … like a gift-wrapped package waiting to be opened —Andrew Kaplan
- Asked, like a man who didn’t want to know —James Crumley
- Beat back questions like a ball hitting a brick wall —Anon
- A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Curiosity … unrolls its question mark like a new wave on the shore —John Ashberry
- Deflected answers like a freight train cutting through the Mississippi Delta —Les Payne on William Renquist’s responses to questions about his civil rights background, Newsday, August 3, 1986
- Her questions sounded unfelt as though she were speaking from a deep well of hypnosis —Geoffrey Wolff
- His answers trickled through my head, like water through a sieve —Lewis Carroll
- It was like the question asked by Tennyson about the flowers in the crannied wall —Saul Bellow
- One by one, neatly, like index cards out of a machine, the little questions dropped —Roald Dahl
- Pursued [a question] like an inquisitor in a torture chamber who was hungry and eager to get the signed statement before his supper —Christopher Isherwood
- The question falls … like a bird from the sky —Aharon Megged
- The question hangs like music in my thoughts —W. P. Kinsella
- The question immediately bursts in the sky like a shower of fireworks —Isaiah Berlin, June, 1980
- Question [directly] … like a gun —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
- Questions bobbed in her mind like corks on a turbulent sea —Paige Mitchell
- Questions like ordered bricks —Mary Hedin
- Questions like water gushed ceaselessly —Dame Edith Sitwell
- Unpleasant and unanswerable questions flopping around in his head like a bat that had mistakenly flown in through the living room window —Laurie Colwin
- Was like a psychiatrist, asking questions which really were not those questions at all, but deeper ones —Elizabeth Taylor
- Worried her questions like a dog does a bone —Donald MacKenzie
- You start a question and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill, and away the stone goes, starting others —Robert Louis Stevenson
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.