Questions


ques·tion

Q0027400 (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. To ask questions.Idioms: 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.

Questions/Answers

 

See Also: PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS

  1. Answered me as gravely as if I had asked the meaning of life —Borden Deal
  2. Answered slow, like men who wouldn’t waste anything, not even language —Carl Sandburg
  3. Answered with the finality of a bank vault door —Dick Francis
  4. The answer was in front of him … like a gift-wrapped package waiting to be opened —Andrew Kaplan
  5. Asked, like a man who didn’t want to know —James Crumley
  6. Beat back questions like a ball hitting a brick wall —Anon
  7. A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  8. Curiosity … unrolls its question mark like a new wave on the shore —John Ashberry
  9. 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
  10. Her questions sounded unfelt as though she were speaking from a deep well of hypnosis —Geoffrey Wolff
  11. His answers trickled through my head, like water through a sieve —Lewis Carroll
  12. It was like the question asked by Tennyson about the flowers in the crannied wall —Saul Bellow
  13. One by one, neatly, like index cards out of a machine, the little questions dropped —Roald Dahl
  14. 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
  15. The question falls … like a bird from the sky —Aharon Megged
  16. The question hangs like music in my thoughts —W. P. Kinsella
  17. The question immediately bursts in the sky like a shower of fireworks —Isaiah Berlin, June, 1980
  18. Question [directly] … like a gun —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
  19. Questions bobbed in her mind like corks on a turbulent sea —Paige Mitchell
  20. Questions like ordered bricks —Mary Hedin
  21. Questions like water gushed ceaselessly —Dame Edith Sitwell
  22. Unpleasant and unanswerable questions flopping around in his head like a bat that had mistakenly flown in through the living room window —Laurie Colwin
  23. Was like a psychiatrist, asking questions which really were not those questions at all, but deeper ones —Elizabeth Taylor
  24. Worried her questions like a dog does a bone —Donald MacKenzie
  25. 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