interrogate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to ask questions of (a person), sometimes to seek answers or information that the person questioned considers personal or secret.
- Synonyms:
- query
-
to examine by questions; question formally.
The police captain interrogated the suspect.
-
to analyze (an idea or belief), especially by thoroughly and dispassionately questioning its underlying assumptions.
The antiwork movement seeks to interrogate the concept of work as we know it today.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- interrogable adjective
- interrogatingly adverb
- interrogee noun
- reinterrogate verb
- uninterrogable adjective
- uninterrogated adjective
Etymology
Origin of interrogate
First recorded in 1475–85; from Latin interrogātus, past participle of interrogāre “to question, examine,” equivalent to inter- “between, among, together” + rogā(re) “to ask” + -tus past participle suffix; inter-
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Starting Sunday the funeral home holding his body was surrounded by dozens of soldiers, national guardsmen, and police who interrogated anyone who came close.
From Barron's
And suspicion lands on Clark, who is interrogated for what seems like days without access to legal counsel.
Another, “Altars,” is a tame and ultimately bland song by Ms. Aitchison’s high standards, with a chorus—“One is not the loneliest number”—that draws on a pop cliché without interrogating or transforming it.
But The Wall Street Journal spoke to two men who said they were detained and interrogated by Hamas at Nasser hospital in recent weeks.
I bet none of her future classmates have been interrogated by the FBI.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
