ask the impossible

verb

To request or expect something that is too difficult.

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Meanings

verbask the impossible (third-person singular simple present asks the impossible, present participle asking the impossible, simple past and past participle asked the impossible)

present singular third person asks the impossible · participle present asking the impossible · participle past asked the impossible · past asked the impossible

  1. To request or expect something that is too difficult.

    To ask too much now would be to ask the impossible.

    2019, Miriam Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Birth of the Institute of Physics in Rome, page 114
    2 more examples

    We ask the impossible of our law enforcement agencies, we ask the impossible of our health and rehabilitative agencies, and we confuse the public even further.

    1975, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act Amendments of 1975, page 199

    What I ask is, will you use your influence within your Party? I do not ask the impossible, though I might from you, for you have done the impossible.

    2022, Inez Haynes Gillmore, The Story of the Woman's Party

Translations

Finnish pyytää mahdottomia
  • pyytää mahdottomiaTranslations
French demander l'impossible
  • demander l'impossibleTranslations
German das Unmögliche verlangen
  • das Unmögliche verlangenTranslations
Polish żądać niemożliwego
  • żądać niemożliwegoTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

ask the impossible. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ask%20the%20impossible

MLA

“ask the impossible.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ask%20the%20impossible. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ask the impossible,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ask%20the%20impossible.

Source: ask the impossible on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.