ask for the moon

ask for the moon idiom
Make an unreasonable demand, request the unattainable, as in $1,000 for her birthday? Mary might as well be asking for the moon. This hyperbolic idiom appeared in the mid-1800s in slightly different form. Charles Dickens had it as cry for the moon (in Bleak House, 1852) and William Makepeace Thackeray as wish for the moon (in Lovell the Widower, 1860). Today ask is the most common version.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Is there an implication (albeit mild) here that to ask for the moon is to act somewaht insanely?

Posted by Ray Bromham 84 days ago.

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