Library / English Dictionary

SOLICIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a solicitation or petition for something desired

Example:

She is too shy to solicit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "solicit" is one way to...):

ask (make a request or demand for something to somebody)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Incite, move, or persuade to some act of lawlessness or insubordination

Example:

He was accused of soliciting his colleagues to destroy the documents

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "solicit" is one way to...):

cause; get; have; induce; make; stimulate (cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Approach with an offer of sexual favors

Example:

The young man was caught soliciting in the park

Synonyms:

accost; hook; solicit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "solicit" is one way to...):

offer (make available or accessible, provide or furnish)

Verb group:

hook; snare (entice and trap)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

solicitation (the act of enticing a person to do something wrong (as an offer of sex in return for money))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently

Example:

My neighbor keeps soliciting money for different charities

Synonyms:

beg; solicit; tap

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "solicit" is one way to...):

ask for; bespeak; call for; quest; request (express the need or desire for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "solicit"):

quest (seek alms, as for religious purposes)

canvass (solicit votes from potential voters in an electoral campaign)

buttonhole; lobby (detain in conversation by or as if by holding on to the outer garments of; as for political or economic favors)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

solicitation (an entreaty addressed to someone of superior status)

solicitor (a petitioner who solicits contributions or trade or votes)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make amorous advances towards

Example:

John is courting Mary

Synonyms:

court; romance; solicit; woo

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "solicit" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "solicit"):

chase; chase after (pursue someone sexually or romantically)

display (attract attention by displaying some body part or posing; of animals)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot solicit Sue

Credits

 Context examples: 

After the success of completing the PDR, NASA’s project team can start the process of soliciting proposals later this year and awarding a contract early next year to build the piloted, single-engine X-plane.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)

The Diagnostic Imaging Program (DIP), of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) solicits exploratory/developmental (R21) grants that articulate highly innovative research concepts in diagnostic cancer imaging to provide investigators with the initial resources required to accomplish feasibility and pilot testing of innovative ideas.

(Exploratory/Developmental Grant for Diagnostic Cancer Imaging, NCI Thesaurus)

The Rushworths were the only addition to his own domestic circle which he could solicit.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Under a mistaken persuasion of her possessions and claims, he had courted her acquaintance in Bath, solicited her company at Northanger, and designed her for his daughter-in-law.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Need I say, that it soon became necessary for me to solicit from—HEEP—pecuniary advances towards the support of Mrs. Micawber, and our blighted but rising family?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She had the remembrance of all this, she had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets and some apprehensions; she was fully satisfied of being still quite as handsome as ever, but she felt her approach to the years of danger, and would have rejoiced to be certain of being properly solicited by baronet-blood within the next twelvemonth or two.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He had already bought a farm with his money, on which he had designed to pass the remainder of his life; but he bestowed the whole on his rival, together with the remains of his prize-money to purchase stock, and then himself solicited the young woman’s father to consent to her marriage with her lover.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Experiments carried out in the Mozambican bush now show that this unique human-animal relationship has an extra dimension: not only do honeyguides use calls to solicit human partners, but humans use specialised calls to recruit birds’ assistance.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and bent on making her known to his sister.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But he was still talking on, describing his affection, soliciting a return, and, finally, in words so plain as to bear but one meaning even to her, offering himself, hand, fortune, everything, to her acceptance.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)