Meaning of request in English

request

noun

uk/rɪˈkwest/ us/rɪˈkwest/

B1 [ C or U ]

the act of politely or officially asking for something:

They received hundreds of requests for more information.

[ + to infinitive ] The boss refused our request to leave work early.

The clause was added to the contract at Carlos's request (= because Carlos asked for this).

An application form will be sent to you on request (= if you ask).

Compare

order noun (INSTRUCTION)

[ C ]

a song or something similar that someone has asked to be included in a show or on the radio:

The next song is a request from/for Roz in Oxford.

Grammar

Requests

When we make a request, we ask someone for something, or we ask someone to do something. …

Asking for something

There are different ways of asking for something. We usually ask for something in a polite and indirect way, for example, using can, could, would you mind if and may: …

Asking someone to do something

There are a number of ways of asking someone to do something in a polite and indirect way. We often use please to make our requests more polite: …

request

verb [ T ]

formal uk/rɪˈkwest/ us/rɪˈkwest/

to ask for something politely or officially:

[ + that ] We requested that the next meeting be held on a Friday.

[ + obj + to infinitive ] Visitors are requested not to walk on the grass.

I requested a taxi for eight o'clock.

(Definition of request from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

request | American Dictionary

request

noun [ C/U ]

us/rɪˈkwest/

an act of asking for something, or the thing asked for:

[ C ] The library gets a lot of requests for books about new babies.

[ U ] An application will be sent to you upon request (= if you ask).

request

verb [ T ] us/rɪˈkwest/

[ + that clause ] The caller requested that his name not be mentioned on the air.

(Definition of request from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

request | Business English

request

verb [ I or T ]

formal uk/rɪˈkwest/ us

to ask for something:

They've requested a formal meeting to discuss the issue.

Here are the documents you requested.

We need to request permission to use these photos in the ad.

request that The CEO has requested that all senior staff attend the reception.

request

noun [ C ]

formal uk/rɪˈkwest/ us

a question in which you ask for something:

They have not yet responded to our request for information.

make a request (for sth) They have made a formal request for access to our financial records.

at the request of sb/at sb's request Changes were made to the contract at the request of our partners.

decline/turn down a request

receive a request

respond to a request

on request

if something is available on request, you have to ask for it if you want it:

A schedule of fees is available on request.

(Definition of request from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of request

request

No information was requested about the parents themselves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The parent who requests a label does not ask to be enlightened, but to test and reinforce the child's lexicon.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Space is left above the stack for responses to requests for information such as types.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When the server starts up, it parses the configuration file, and if there are no errors found, immediately starts serving requests.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All the requests were for the same 1k file.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perhaps only older children understand indirect requests as observers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Each of the indirect requests was issued in one of three ways, corresponding to the three within-subject conditions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Among the reply-types considered are expansions, repeats, recasts, and requests for clarification.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On a third turn, the third object was requested.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Her requests in these instances were somewhat more restrained than earlier ones.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Clarification requests play an important role in effective conversations, and children must learn the conversational rules for interpreting and responding to such requests.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The action requested by the command, if valid, is performed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

From the application's point of view, the requirement was to deliver joint values whenever requested by the feeder.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To let respondents spontaneously express their opinions, an open-ended question requested of them to list conditions in their companies which they found attractive and unattractive.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To probe this issue further, workers were requested to list the things they liked about their companies and things they did not like.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of request

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.