"don't ask" meaning in English

See don't ask in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} don't ask
  1. (informal) Used to say that something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain. Tags: informal Related terms: don't ask me, don't ask, don't tell Translations (say that something is too strange complicated to explain): ne petu (Esperanto)

Alternative forms

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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "don't ask",
      "name": "head"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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          "name": "English imperative sentences",
          "parents": [
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            "Sentences"
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          "source": "w"
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to say that something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain."
      ],
      "id": "en-don't_ask-en-phrase-zrGTaJjt",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Used to say that something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "don't ask me"
        },
        {
          "word": "don't ask, don't tell"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "say that something is too strange complicated to explain",
          "word": "ne petu"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "don't ask"
}
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      "args": {
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      },
      "expansion": "don't ask",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "don't ask me"
    },
    {
      "word": "don't ask, don't tell"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
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        "English imperative sentences",
        "English informal terms",
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        "English phrases",
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        "Terms with Esperanto translations"
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      "glosses": [
        "Used to say that something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Used to say that something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "say that something is too strange complicated to explain",
      "word": "ne petu"
    }
  ],
  "word": "don't ask"
}

Download raw JSONL data for don't ask meaning in English (0.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.