Questions

ques·tion  (kwschn)

n.

1.

a. An expression of inquiry that invites or calls for a reply.

b. An interrogative sentence, phrase, or gesture.

2. A subject or point open to controversy; an issue.

3. A difficult matter; a problem: a question of ethics.

4. A point or subject under discussion or consideration.

5.

a. A proposition brought up for consideration by an assembly.

b. The act of bringing a proposal to vote.

6. Uncertainty; doubt: There is no question about the validity of the enterprise.

v. ques·tioned, ques·tion·ing, ques·tions

v.tr.

1. To put a question to. See Synonyms at ask.

2. To examine (a witness, for example) by questioning; interrogate.

3. To express doubt about; dispute.

4. To analyze; examine.

v.intr.

To ask questions.

Idioms:

in question

Under consideration or discussion.

out of the question

Not worth considering; impossible: Starting over is out of the question.

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[Middle English, from Old French, legal inquiry, from Latin quaesti, quaestin-, from *quaestus, obsolete past participle of quaerere, to ask, seek.]

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question·er n.

question·ing·ly adv.

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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