question

noun

1. A worded or expressed sentence, phrase, or only a word on its own, which asks for information, a reply, or a response; an interrogative.

   “What is your question?”

   “I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.”

   “Can I ask you two a question? / Please, Christ, yes. / How can you two live like this? / How can... / Don't google the question, Moss!”

   “When bodies change quickly or noticeably, assumptions often follow—and so does the desire to ask one potentially fraught question: Did medication play a role?”

2. A subject or topic for consideration or investigation.

   “The question of seniority will be discussed at the meeting.”

   “There was a question of which material to use.”

   “I've ordered it all, but there’s still the question of who’s going to pay.”

   “The question of the plausibility of the counter-factual is seen as key in all three discussions of allohistorical fiction (as it is in Demandt's and Ferguson's examinations of allohistory) (cf. Rodiek 25–26; Ritter 15–16; Helbig 32).”

3. A doubt or challenge about the truth, accuracy, or validity of a matter.

   “His claim to the property has come under question.”

   “The story is true beyond question.”

   “He obeyed without question.”

   “There was no question of his blaming me for his frustration.”

   “There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.”

4. A proposal to a meeting as a topic for deliberation.

   “I move that the question be put to a vote.”

5. (archaic, historical, with-definite-article)Interrogation by torture.

   “I, not at all ambitious of the crown of martyrdom, resolved to temporize: so that, when I was brought to the question the second time, I made a solemn recantation […]”

   “The Scottish privy council had power to put state prisoners to the question.”

6. (obsolete)Talk; conversation; speech.

   “Made she no verbal question?”

verb

1. (transitive)To ask questions of; to interrogate; to ask for information.

   “Yet he lingered in Perryville with the determination of seeing Ruth, and questioning her about Helen Murray's letters.”

   “However, a Carlisle newspaper got hold of the story, and at the half-yearly meeting of the Caledonian Railway Company, held on March 17, 1863, a shareholder, Mr. Meiklem, questioned the Chairman, Lt.-Col. Salkeld, regarding a "Chase of Engines," described in the newspaper article. The Chairman admitted that the statements made in the article were perfectly true.”

   “Another former resident noticed the car because it was new and upscale and no one ever came back to question him. This points to serious flaws in the investigation from the beginning.”

2. (transitive)To raise doubts about; have doubts about.

   “Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.”

   “He questioned South Korean claims that China is a major source of its pollution.”

   “Isaacson reports that Musk’s fractured relationship with Jenna, who is trans, partly led to Musk’s rightward turn toward libertarianism and questioning what he considers the “woke-mind-virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman.””

3. (intransitive)To ask a question or questions; inquire or seek to know; examine.

   “He that questioneth much shall learn much.”

4. (intransitive, obsolete)To argue; to converse; to dispute.

   “I pray you, think you question with the Jew.”