query

• quæry (archaic)

An anglicisation of quere, an obsolete variant form of Latin quaere, second-person singular present active imperative of quaerō (“seek, look for; ask”). Cognate with French quérir, Italian chiedere, Portuguese querer, Romanian cere, and Spanish querer. Compare question.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪə.ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪ.ɹi/, /ˈkwɛ.ɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹi, -ɛɹi

query (plural queries)

1. A question, an inquiry (US), an enquiry (UK).

   The teacher answered the student’s query concerning biosynthesis.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, “The Gateway, and Some Who Passed”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 29:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.

2. A question mark.
   • Oliver Sacks, Awakenings

     She had written in her diary: "I don't think I am in a concentration-camp??????", the queries growing larger and more numerous till they covered the entire page […]

   • 2006, "Pip", Re: Royal Enfield motorbike - why would anyone buy one? (on newsgroup rec.motorcycles)

     I refer you to your line above, where you use a query and a bang together.

3. (computing, databases) A set of instructions passed to a database.

   The database admin switched on query logging for debugging purposes.

• subquery

• Query on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

query (third-person singular simple present queries, present participle querying, simple past and past participle queried)

1. (intransitive) To ask a question.
2. (transitive) To ask, inquire.
3. (transitive) To question or call into doubt.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess‎:

     The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

4. (computing, databases) To pass a query to a database to retrieve information.
   • 1999, Luciano Floridi, Philosophy and computing: an introduction, page 104:

     Linked tables can be accessed, queried, combined and reorganised much more flexibly and in a number of ways that may not be immediately predictable when the database is under construction.

5. (transitive, Internet) To send a private message to (a user on IRC).
   • 2000, "Phantom", Re: Uhm.. hi... I guess... (on newsgroup alt.support.boy-lovers)

     He parted the channel saying "SHUTUP!"... so I queried him, asking if there was something I could do.. maybe talk...

   • 2000, "Robert Erdec", Re: Help; mIRC32; unable to resolve server arnes.si (on newsgroup alt.irc.mirc)

     if you know someone who is in the channel, you can query them and ask for the key.