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Meaning & use

ask out

verb·Everydayinformal

Last updated

UK/ˌɑːsk ˈaʊt/
US/ˌæsk ˈaʊt/

Meanings

  1. verbphrasal verbinformal

    To invite someone to go somewhere with you socially, especially on a romantic date.

    Grammar: Separable and transitive: ask someone out, or ask out the new girl; with a pronoun, always ask her out.

    Patterns

    • ask someone out
    • ask someone out to something
    • ask someone out for something

    He finally got up the courage to ask her out.

    She asked me out for coffee after class.

    Why don't you ask him out to the concert?

  2. verbphrasal verb

    To invite someone to come out to an event or to go outdoors, not necessarily romantically.

    Grammar: Also separable: ask them out to dinner.

    Patterns

    • ask someone out to something

    Our neighbors asked us out to dinner on Friday.

    The coach asked the new player out to the lake with the team.

    She asked the guests out onto the terrace to see the sunset.

Word forms

third person singularasks out
past tenseasked out
past participleasked out
-ing formasking out

Common combinations

ask someone out on a date
He asked her out on a date.
ask someone out for coffee
She asked him out for coffee.
get asked out
She got asked out twice this week.
too shy to ask out
He was too shy to ask her out.
ask out to dinner
They asked us out to dinner at their new place.

Synonyms and how they differ

invite
Invite is neutral and covers any invitation, while ask out usually suggests a romantic date.
date
Date describes the ongoing relationship and not the moment of inviting, which ask out names.
proposition
Proposition is more direct and can sound pushy or inappropriate, whereas ask out sounds polite and ordinary.

Opposites

turn downreject

Word family

ask verb
to request or invite
asking noun
the act of requesting
asker noun
a person who asks
ask around phrasal verb
to question various people

Commonly confused: ask out or ask over?

ask out vs ask over

Ask over means to invite someone to your home, while ask out means to invite them to go somewhere else.

Practice

Tom has liked Priya for months, so tonight he plans to ___ and suggest dinner at a new restaurant.

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