What's the difference between ask and enquire?

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.

Enquire


Definition:

  • (v. i. & t.) See Inquire.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I started yelling at him to come back,” Brittany Nicely, of Dayton, told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
  • (2) All patients completed the same set of 29 linear analogue scales that enquired about the severity of health related problems and symptoms.
  • (3) The National Enquirer later published a picture of Rice in Hart’s lap aboard a yacht called Monkey Business.
  • (4) In a comparative study to enquire whether parents of twins, especially of dizygotic twins, have a higher frequency of sexual intercourse than parents of singleton infants, data on sociodemographic status, coital frequency and other variables were collected using a postal questionnaire.
  • (5) magazine to American Media, the publisher of titles including the National Enquirer, for an undisclosed sum.
  • (6) Having offloaded Jonjo Shelvey amid rumours that he was a disruptive, brooding influence, Swansea City have decided to enquire about bringing disruptive, brooding influence Ravel Morrison to the Liberty Stadium from Lazio.
  • (7) Three methods were used to investigate the presence of lower extremity arterial disease - enquiring about symptoms of intermittent claudication; clinical examination (and particularly the detection of arterial bruits); and pressure index calculations from measurements of the ankle and brachial systolic blood pressure using a Doppler ultrasound probe.
  • (8) For the patients in the physician reminder group the physician was reminded at an office visit to assess the patient's tetanus vaccination status and to recommend vaccination; those in the other two reminder groups received a telephone call or letter enquiring about their tetanus vaccination status and recommending a booster dose.
  • (9) Villarreal have informed Arsenal that they will have to meet the €20m buy-out clause in the centre-half Gabriel’s contract if he is to move to London, with the Spanish club one of a number of teams – including Real Sociedad – who have enquired after Joel Campbell’s availability at the Emirates stadium. ]
  • (10) The periodontists enquired about and advised on smoking significantly more frequently than did the other dentists; 71% of the periodontists often or always enquired about, and 62% advised their patients on smoking.
  • (11) The bottom one is smaller: "Please Enquire Within".
  • (12) Even so, a free society requires an independent press: turbulent …enquiring…bustling…and free.
  • (13) In Experiment I children tried to identify which of a set of unfamiliar targets had a given name (X), and after they had chosen, we enquired either whether they knew their chosen item was (X) or whether they were sure.
  • (14) * In Chancery, having noted My Lady Dedlock's interest, Mr Tulkinghorn is enquiring about the identity of the scrivener.
  • (15) And we enquire whether the body is bilaterally asymmetrical.
  • (16) Once there, Lomax - a trainspotter to the end - enquired about the gauge of tracking used for the dolly shot.
  • (17) Eighty-three patients who had been investigated by cholecystogram, barium meal and fibreoptic endoscopy more than two years previously were interviewed to enquire into their reactions to the investigations carried out, their present symptoms, and their present smoking and alcohol consumption.
  • (18) In this paper, Mr Thompson, one of the research fellows appointed to the Edinburgh Medical Group research project, seeks to define medical ethics in relation to traditional ethics in the philosophical sense of enquiring into right and wrong modes of thought and conduct, and to carry that study further into the field of moral decisions made by doctors and other professional people who care for the sick.
  • (19) The problem of why, on the one hand, people bring about death actively while in psychogenic death they "let themselves die" is enquired into.
  • (20) When I enquired about the scope of the study, Dr Sadaf Farooqi, Wellcome Trust senior clinical fellow and reader in human metabolism, explained: "We know that when you look at weight problems across populations, they usually stem from a combination of environmental factors that act upon genes.