"ask the impossible" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "asks the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asking the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asked the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asked the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "ask the impossible (third-person singular simple present asks the impossible, present participle asking the impossible, simple past and past participle asked the impossible)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1975, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act Amendments of 1975, page 199",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Miriam Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Birth of the Institute of Physics in Rome, page 114",
          "text": "To ask too much now would be to ask the impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Inez Haynes Gillmore, The Story of the Woman's Party",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To request or expect something that is too difficult."
      ],
      "id": "en-ask_the_impossible-en-verb-CQunIl0n",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "do the impossible"
        },
        {
          "word": "ask for the moon"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "pyytää mahdottomia"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "demander l’impossible"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "żądać niemożliwego"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ask the impossible"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "asks the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asking the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asked the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "asked the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "ask the impossible (third-person singular simple present asks the impossible, present participle asking the impossible, simple past and past participle asked the impossible)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "do the impossible"
    },
    {
      "word": "ask for the moon"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1975, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act Amendments of 1975, page 199",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Miriam Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Birth of the Institute of Physics in Rome, page 114",
          "text": "To ask too much now would be to ask the impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Inez Haynes Gillmore, The Story of the Woman's Party",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To request or expect something that is too difficult."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "pyytää mahdottomia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "demander l’impossible"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "żądać niemożliwego"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ask the impossible"
}