What's the difference between ask and direct?

Ask


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To request; to seek to obtain by words; to petition; to solicit; -- often with of, in the sense of from, before the person addressed.
  • (v. t.) To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity; as, what price do you ask?
  • (v. t.) To interrogate or inquire of or concerning; to put a question to or about; to question.
  • (v. t.) To invite; as, to ask one to an entertainment.
  • (v. t.) To publish in church for marriage; -- said of both the banns and the persons.
  • (v. i.) To request or petition; -- usually followed by for; as, to ask for bread.
  • (v. i.) To make inquiry, or seek by request; -- sometimes followed by after.
  • (n.) A water newt.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Here we have asked whether protection from blood-borne antigens afforded by the blood-brain barrier is related to the lack of MHC expression.
  • (2) In a debate in the House of Commons, I will ask Britain, the US and other allies to convert generalised offers of help into more practical support with greater air cover, military surveillance and helicopter back-up, to hunt down the terrorists who abducted the girls.
  • (3) Collins said she asked Sullivan several questions, including who the women were.
  • (4) People should ask their MP to press the government for a speedier response.
  • (5) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (6) I ask a friend to have a stab at, “down at cafe that does us butties”, and he said: “Something to do with his ass?” “Whose arse?” He looked panicked.
  • (7) Of the five committees asked to develop bills, four have completed their work, and the Senate Finance Committee announced today that it will move forward next week.
  • (8) The Hamilton-Wentworth regional health department was asked by one of its municipalities to determine whether the present water supply and sewage disposal methods used in a community without piped water and regional sewage disposal posed a threat to the health of its residents.
  • (9) Considerate touches includes the free use of cruiser bicycles (the best method of tackling the Palm Springs main drag), home-baked cookies … and if you'd like to get married, ask the manager: he's a minister.
  • (10) An age- and education-matched group of women with no family history of FXS was asked to predict the seriousness of problems they might encounter were they to bear a child with a handicapping condition.
  • (11) For example, 75% of them were asked about their family life, marital status and children in interviews.
  • (12) Other than failing to get a goal, I couldn’t ask for anything more.” From Lambert’s perspective there was an element of misfortune about the first and third goals, with Willian benefitting from handy ricochets on both occasions.
  • (13) But because current donor contributions are not sufficient to cover the thousands of schools in need of security, I will ask in the commons debate that the UK government allocates more.
  • (14) He had been just asked to open their new town hall, in the hope he might donate a Shakespeare statue.
  • (15) The information about her father's semi-brainwashing forms an interesting backdrop to Malala's comments when I ask if she ever wonders about the man who tried to kill her on her way back from school that day in October last year, and why his hands were shaking as he held the gun – a detail she has picked up from the girls in the school bus with her at the time; she herself has no memory of the shooting.
  • (16) After an introductory training program, the students asked the patients arriving at the hospital out-patient clinic for permission to observe them throughout the attendance given.
  • (17) When asked why the streets of London were not heaving with demonstrators protesting against Russia turning Aleppo into the Guernica of our times, Stop the War replied that it had no wish to add to the “jingoism” politicians were whipping up against plucky little Russia .
  • (18) In each of the clinics I visit I ask how much the surrogates are paid.
  • (19) Gwendolen Morgan, the lawyer at Bindmans dealing with the case, said: "We have grave concerns about the decision to use this draconian power to detain our client for nine hours on Sunday – for what appear to be highly questionable motives, which we will be asking the high court to consider.
  • (20) A subgroup of 40 patients was asked to complete a brief survey on medical care information and satisfaction.

Direct


Definition:

  • (a.) Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means.
  • (a.) Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken.
  • (a.) Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.
  • (a.) In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.
  • (a.) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body.
  • (v. t.) To arrange in a direct or straight line, as against a mark, or towards a goal; to point; to aim; as, to direct an arrow or a piece of ordnance.
  • (v. t.) To point out or show to (any one), as the direct or right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way; as, he directed me to the left-hand road.
  • (v. t.) To determine the direction or course of; to cause to go on in a particular manner; to order in the way to a certain end; to regulate; to govern; as, to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army.
  • (v. t.) To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order; as, he directed them to go.
  • (v. t.) To put a direction or address upon; to mark with the name and residence of the person to whom anything is sent; to superscribe; as, to direct a letter.
  • (v. i.) To give direction; to point out a course; to act as guide.
  • (n.) A character, thus [/], placed at the end of a staff on the line or space of the first note of the next staff, to apprise the performer of its situation.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Direct fetal digitalization led to a reduction in umbilical artery resistance, a decline in the abdominal circumference from 20.3 to 17.8 cm, and resolution of the ascites within 72 h. Despite this dramatic response to therapy, fetal death occurred on day 5 of treatment.
  • (2) One hundred and twenty-seven states have said with common voice that their security is directly threatened by the 15,000 nuclear weapons that exist in the arsenals of nine countries, and they are demanding that these weapons be prohibited and abolished.
  • (3) However, when first trimester specimens were analyzed, the direct-product measurements were significantly larger than the corresponding 3H2O assay results.
  • (4) The generally accepted hypothesis is a coronary spasm but a direct cardiotoxicity of 5-FU cannot be.
  • (5) One hour after direct mechanical cardiomassage (DMCM) a moderately pronounced edema of the intercellular spaces in the basal compartment of the seminiferous epithelium, normal content of lactate and succinate dehydrogenases, and a certain decrease in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases and NAD- and NADP-diaphorases were noted.
  • (6) Using monoclonal antibodies directed against the plasma membrane of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, we demonstrated previously that a glycoprotein with an Mr = 23,000 (gp23) had a non-polarized cell surface distribution and was observed on both the apical and basolateral membranes (Ojakian, G. K., Romain, R. E., and Herz, R. E. (1987) Am.
  • (7) Results indicated a .85 probability that Directive Guidance would be followed by Cooperation; a .67 probability that Permissiveness would lead to Noncooperation; and a .97 likelihood that Coerciveness would lead to either Noncooperation or Resistance.
  • (8) Multiple overlapping thin 3D slab acquisition is presented as a magnitude contrast (time of flight) technique which combines advantages from multiple thin slice 2D and direct 3D volume acquisitions to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of vessel detail.
  • (9) In addition to oncogenes, the transferred DNA contains genes that direct the synthesis and exudation of opines, which are used as nutrients by the bacteria.
  • (10) A total of 104 evaluable patients 20-90 years old treated by direct vision internal urethrotomy a.m. Sachse for urethral strictures reported retrospectively via a questionnaire their sexual potency before and after internal urethrotomy.
  • (11) However, direct measurements of mediator release should be carried out to reach a firm conclusion.
  • (12) Despite of the increasing diagnostic importance of the direct determination of the parathormone which is at first available only in special institutions in these cases methodical problems play a less important part than the still not infrequent appearing misunderstanding of the adequate basic disease.
  • (13) These data indicate that RNA faithfully transfers "suppressive" as well as "positive" types of immune responses that have been reported previously for lymphocytes obtained directly from tumour-bearing and tumour-immune animals.
  • (14) The occupation of the high affinity calcium binding site by Ca(II) and Mn(II) does not influence the Cu(II) binding process, suggesting that there is no direct interaction between this site and the Cu(II) binding sites.
  • (15) The pancreatic changes are unlikely to be an artefact, but rather a direct toxic effect of the alcohol as confirmed by the biochemical changes.
  • (16) Errors in the initial direction of response were fewer in binocular viewing in comparison with monocular viewing.
  • (17) In the second approach, attachment sites of DTPA groups were directed away from the active region of the molecule by having fragment E1,2 bound in complex, with its active sites protected during the derivatization.
  • (18) The stages of mourning involve cognitive learning of the reality of the loss; behaviours associated with mourning, such as searching, embody unlearning by extinction; finally, physiological concomitants of grief may influence unlearning by direct effects on neurotransmitters or neurohormones, such as cortisol, ACTH, or norepinephrine.
  • (19) Completeness of isolation of the coronary and systemic circulations was shown by the marked difference in appearance times between the reflex hypotensive responses from catecholamine injections into the isolated coronary circulation and the direct hypertensive response from a similar injection when the circulations were connected as well as by the marked difference between the pressure pulses recorded simultaneously on both sides of the aortic balloon separating the two circulations.4.
  • (20) The direct monocyte source is not sufficient to insure the stability of this population.