solicit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To seek to obtain by persuasion, entreaty, or formal application: a candidate who solicited votes among the factory workers.
2. v. To petition persistently; importune: solicited the neighbors for donations.
3. v. To entice or incite to evil or illegal action.
4. v. To approach or accost (a person) with an offer of sexual services.
5. v. To make solicitation or petition for something desired.
6. v. To approach or accost someone with an offer of sexual services in return for payment.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To arouse or excite to action; summon; invite; tempt; allure; entice.
2. In criminal law:
3. To incite (another) to commit a crime.
4. To entice (a man) in a public place: said of a prostitute.
5. To endeavor to bias or influence by the offer of a bribe.
6. To disturb; disquiet; make anxious.
7. To seek to obtain; strive after, especially by pleading; ask (a thing) with some degree of earnestness or persistency: as, to solicit an office or a favor; to solicit orders.
8. To petition or ask (a person) with some degree of earnestness or persistency; make petition to.
9. To advocate; plead; enforce the claims of; act as solicitor or advocate for or with reference to.
10. Synonyms and
11. Request, Beg, etc. (see ask), press, urge, pray, plead for or with, sue for.
12. To make solicitation.
13. n. Solicitation; request.

Wiktionary

1. v. To persistently endeavor to obtain an object, or bring about an event.
2. v. To woo; to court.
3. v. To persuade or incite one to commit some act, especially illegal or sexual behavior.
4. v. To offer to perform sexual activity, especially when for a payment.
5. v. To make a petition.
6. v. archaic To disturb or trouble; to harass.
7. v. To urge the claims of; to plead; to act as solicitor for or with reference to.
8. v. obsolete, rare To disturb; to disquiet.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To ask from with earnestness; to make petition to; to apply to for obtaining something.
2. v. To endeavor to obtain; to seek; to plead for.
3. v. To awake or excite to action; to rouse desire in; to summon; to appeal to; to invite.
4. v. obsolete To urge the claims of; to plead; to act as solicitor for or with reference to.
5. v. To disturb; to disquiet; -- a Latinism rarely used.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make amorous advances towards
2. v. make a solicitation or petition for something desired
3. v. incite, move, or persuade to some act of lawlessness or insubordination
4. v. approach with an offer of sexual favors
5. v. make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently