SOLICIT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does solicit mean? 

• SOLICIT (verb)
  The verb SOLICIT has 5 senses:

1. make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently

2. make amorous advances towards

3. approach with an offer of sexual favors

4. incite, move, or persuade to some act of lawlessness or insubordination

5. make a solicitation or petition for something desired

  Familiarity information: SOLICIT used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOLICIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they solicit    ... he / she / it solicits   
Past simple: solicited   
Past participle: solicited   
-ing form: soliciting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

beg; solicit; tap

Context example:

My neighbor keeps soliciting money for different charities

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 2

Meaning:

Make amorous advances towards

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

court; romance; solicit; woo

Context example:

John is courting Mary

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

Sense 3

Meaning:

Approach with an offer of sexual favors

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

accost; hook; solicit

Context example:

The young man was caught soliciting in the park

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:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

He was accused of soliciting his colleagues to destroy the documents

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 5

Meaning:

Make a solicitation or petition for something desired

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

She is too shy to solicit

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Fanny's heart beat quick, and she felt quite unequal to surmising or soliciting anything more.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Research now reveals that humans use special calls to solicit the help of honeyguides and that honeyguides actively recruit appropriate human partners.

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

To have her company so warmly solicited!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“He means, solicited by him, Mr. Copperfield,” said Mrs. Micawber, archly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And old Madam Reed, or the Misses, her daughters, will be solicited by you to seek a place, I suppose?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Could they turn from their door one, however monstrous, who solicited their compassion and friendship?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

On finding Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon after breakfast, he addressed the mother in these words: May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Sir Walter spurned the idea of its being offered in any manner; forbad the slightest hint being dropped of his having such an intention; and it was only on the supposition of his being spontaneously solicited by some most unexceptionable applicant, on his own terms, and as a great favour, that he would let it at all.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They would have solicited the honour earlier, but had been waiting the arrival of a folding-screen from London, which they hoped might keep Mr. Woodhouse from any draught of air, and therefore induce him the more readily to give them the honour of his company.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He added, that upon the confidence of some merit, the war being at an end, he went to Rome, and solicited at the court of Augustus to be preferred to a greater ship, whose commander had been killed; but, without any regard to his pretensions, it was given to a boy who had never seen the sea, the son of Libertina, who waited on one of the emperor’s mistresses.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)