What's the difference between ask and summon?

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.

Summon


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To call, bid, or cite; to notify to come to appear; -- often with up.
  • (v. t.) To give notice to, or command to appear, as in court; to cite by authority; as, to summon witnesses.
  • (v. t.) To call upon to surrender, as a fort.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Senior executives at Network Rail are likely to be summoned to Westminster to explain the engineering overruns that caused chaos for Christmas travellers over the weekend.
  • (2) After five days watching birds illegally shot down and becoming embroiled in tense stand-offs with the police and hunters, Packham was summoned to a police station and interviewed for five hours.
  • (3) Had not Jaggers summoned me to see him on the day of my majority some years later, I might have wondered at the psychological implausibility of an old woman training a child to be a psychopath, but luckily I was so caught up by the possibility of my benefactor's name being revealed that the thought quite slipped my mind.
  • (4) Letterman was summoned to a grand jury hearing later yesterday at which he gave his side of the story.
  • (5) Chelsea must summon a response at Atlético Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, trying to blot out the memory of the lead that was surrendered so wastefully here.
  • (6) RPC wrote back the next day saying Ashley was in the US and complained that the official had mentioned the prospect of a formal summons for Ashley: “Raising the spectre of a summons, in circumstances where our client has already volunteered the chairman as a witness to assist the committee and we are now liaising over availability, is, in our client’s view, inappropriate.” In the email, RPC said Hellawell was no longer available on 4 March but was now free on 25 March.
  • (7) Horrocks plans to summon the spirit of Margaret Thatcher to make his case: “The [1970] Conservative government came in with a manifesto commitment to kill the Open University, to kill Harold Wilson’s brainchild at birth.
  • (8) The banalities of a news conference take on a strange significance when the men who summon the world's cameras are members of a feared insurgent group that banned television when they ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al-Qaida.
  • (9) The French president, François Hollande, summoned key ministers to a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon, postponing a planned visit to France's Indian Ocean territories.
  • (10) But among the football-faith community the legendary Anfield Road stadium is not considered a sacred site for nothing, and on this memorable night everyone felt what mighty magic can be summoned here.” Describing the match as “a classic in the illustrious history of these two clubs for years to come”, the commentator Daniel Theweleit also believed that the atmosphere at Anfield put Dortmund’s own famed fan culture into the shade: “Even those who have watched the club for centuries agreed that Dortmund has never achieved this kind of intensity.” Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung found satisfaction in seeing the German coach Jürgen Klopp exporting his magic touch across the Channel.
  • (11) The Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, is anticipating a Football Association summons after Saturday’s loss to Southampton .
  • (12) The former Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid coach made an immediate impact, interrupting a scheduled squad day off by summoning his players for an introductory meeting and training session on Friday afternoon.
  • (13) The shooting down of the plane comes the day after Turkey called for a UN security council meeting to discuss Russian actions in Syria, following the summoning of the Russian ambassador in Ankara to hear a protest over air attacks on Turkmen villages.
  • (14) So why is a CEO such as Marissa Mayer summoning Yahoo staff back into the office ?
  • (15) Around 400 attended court on Friday, most of them responding to a court summons for the first time, many of them anxious and angry about the process.
  • (16) In addition, BBC executives and trustees were summoned by parliamentary committees more than once a month.
  • (17) "Some of you may have heard we have a new judge this year," said Forsyth, summoning his finest brow-raise and hauling the audience at least temporarily on side by sheer force of showbiz will.
  • (18) Stanley stood up, summoned his secretary and said: "Call my bookie."
  • (19) The general atmosphere was that there was no point in summoning the police – the policeman is a local settler from Kiryat Arba who comes to pray with the Hebron settlers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs on Fridays.
  • (20) The Brexiters, by summoning up the patriotic genie, are implicitly calling on Britons to either become more parochial and less diverse – or else aspire to a second imperial age.