Solicit

//səˈlɪsɪt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Solicitation. archaic

    "(1) How many male or female students are named (or otherwise identified) in the context of a solicit? (2) How many words of a solicit are directed to a particular student?"

Verb
  1. 1
    To persistently endeavor to obtain an object, or bring about an event. transitive

    "to solicit alms, or a favour"

  2. 2
    make a solicitation or petition for something desired wordnet
  3. 3
    To woo; to court. transitive

    "American railroads are not permitted to operate long-haul road routes, but the I.C.C. decision of 1954 did permit them to solicit trailer business in, say, New York for Chicago provided the trailer was piggybacked in between."

  4. 4
    incite, move, or persuade to some act of lawlessness or insubordination wordnet
  5. 5
    To persuade or incite one to commit some act, especially illegal or sexual behavior. transitive

    "That fruit […] sollicited her longing eye."

Show 8 more definitions
  1. 6
    approach with an offer of sexual favors wordnet
  2. 7
    To offer to perform sexual activity, especially when for a payment. transitive

    "My girlfriend tried to solicit me for sex, but I was tired."

  3. 8
    make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently wordnet
  4. 9
    To make a petition.
  5. 10
    make amorous advances towards wordnet
  6. 11
    To disturb or trouble; to harass. archaic, transitive
  7. 12
    To urge the claims of; to plead; to act as solicitor for or with reference to. transitive

    "Should My brother henceforth study to forget The vow that he hath made thee, I would ever Solicit thy deserts."

  8. 13
    To disturb; to disquiet. obsolete, rare, transitive

    "1611-1615, George Chapman, Iliad, Book XVI Hath any ill solicited thine ears?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
romancewooaccostaccostaddressaddress

Example

More examples

"West is in trouble not because he is a gay man, but because he is a man who was apparently willing to use the power of his public office to solicit sexual favors."

Etymology

From Middle English soliciten, solliciten, from Old French soliciter, solliciter, borrowed from Latin sollicitō (“stir, disturb; look after”), from sollicitus (“agitated, anxious, punctilious”, literally “thoroughly moved”), from sollus (“whole, entire”) + perfect passive participle of cieō (“shake, excite, cite, to put in motion”).

Related phrases

bring about

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.