solicit
/səˈlɪsɪt
/verb (solicits, soliciting, solicited)
1 [with object] Ask for or try to obtain (something) from someone: he called a meeting to solicit their views [no object]: don’t solicit for money...
- Meanwhile, in 1967, Stuart Montgomery of Fulcrum Press in London solicited poems for another collection.
- I did not directly solicit participation at these meetings.
- Do you seek out major authors and solicit manuscripts?
Synonyms
ask for, request, apply for, put in for, seek, beg, plead for, sue for, crave, canvass, call for, drum up, press for
rare impetrate
ask, beg, beseech, implore, plead with, entreat, appeal to, apply to, lobby, petition, importune, canvass, supplicate, call on, press, pressure
rare obsecrate
1.1Ask (someone) for something: historians and critics are solicited for opinions by the auction houses...
- I mean, if someone solicits you to do something like that, wouldn't you call the police?
- I solicited Robert Tagorda's expert thoughts on this subject, because he's a lot smarter where issues of grand strategy are concerned than me.
- I'm somewhat skeptical because if someone ever solicited me to kill someone, I'd call the police.
2 [no object] Accost someone and offer one’s or someone else’s services as a prostitute: (as noun soliciting) although prostitution was not itself an offence, soliciting was...
- Every day of the week, police cars will drive past prostitutes who are soliciting and ignore them unless it is blatant, offensive, or something of that nature.
- It was not until 1985 that the law penalized the client for kerb-crawling, even though for many years it had penalized prostitutes for soliciting in the street.
- In June 1908 the presence of high-class prostitutes soliciting on trains was reported in newspapers.
Synonyms
work as a prostitute, engage in prostitution, accost people, make sexual advances, tout (for business)
North American informal hustle
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French solliciter, from Latin sollicitare 'agitate', from sollicitus 'anxious', from sollus 'entire' + citus (past participle of ciere 'set in motion').