INQUIRY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Inquiry

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/ɪnkwˈaɪri/ /ɪnkwərri/ Listen

noun

Inquiry n. (pl. inquiries) (Written also enquiry)

1.

The act of inquiring; a seeking for information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. "He could no path nor track of foot descry, Nor by inquiry learn, nor guess by aim." "The men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate."

2.

Search for truth, information, or knowledge; examination into facts or principles; research; investigation; as, physical inquiries. "All that is wanting to the perfection of this art will undoubtedly be found, if able men... will make inquiry into it."

Court of inquiry. See under Court.

Writ of inquiry, a writ issued in certain actions at law, where the defendant has suffered judgment to pass against him by default, in order to ascertain and assess the plaintiff's damages, where they can not readily be ascertained by mere calculation.

Synonyms: Interrogation; interrogatory; question; query; scrutiny; investigation; research; examination.

See images of 'Inquiry'

Etymology of 'Inquiry'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inquiry" Quotes from Famous Books

... her discovery was made. She was half determined to probe for an explanation of the coincidence when she came downstairs to a late breakfast. But no good opportunity presented itself for the broaching of any such inquiry. ...

— Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper • James A. Cooper

... Mannheim, every night at the same hour, he heard, or thought he heard, in his room, when he was lying in bed, a crackling noise like that produced by parchment or thick paper. This circumstance caused inquiry, when it was told him that the sounds were attributable to the following cause:—The house in which he lived had belonged to a widow who had an only son. In order to prevent him marrying a poor but amiable girl to whom he was attached, he was sent to ...

— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... The dominant interest in the French romances is the same as in the Provenal lyric poetry and in the Romaunt of the Rose; namely, the idealist or courteous science of love. The origins of this mode of thought are difficult to trace fully. The inquiry belongs more immediately to the history of Provence than of France, for the romancers are the pupils of the Provenal school; not independent practitioners of the same craft, but directly indebted to Provence for some of their main ideas and a good ...

— Epic and Romance - Essays on Medieval Literature • W. P. Ker

... and shaken all the life out of an earthworm, as Italian cooks pound all the spirit out of a steak, and then gulped him, they stand up in honest self-confidence, expand their red waistcoats with the virtuous air of a lobby member, and outface you with an eye that calmly challenges inquiry. "Do I look like a bird that knows the flavor of raw vermin? I throw myself upon a jury of my peers. Ask any robin if he ever ate anything less ascetic than the frugal berry of the juniper, and he will answer that his vow forbids him." Can such an open bosom ...

— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education

... sterility is here attributed, as it is everywhere in the valleys of Aragua, to the cultivation of indigo; which, according to the planters, is, of all plants, that which most exhausts (cansa) the ground. The real physical causes of this phenomenon would be an interesting inquiry, since, like the effects of fallowing land, and of a rotation of crops, it is far from being sufficiently understood. I shall only observe in general, that the complaints of the increasing sterility ...

— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt

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