ask for the moon

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

“Edison is going to ask for the moon, and we’re going to say, ‘no, dial it back.’”

From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2025

Still, to paraphrase a line from “Now, Voyager,” a movie that came out around the same time this play originally opened, perhaps we shouldn’t ask for the moon when we already have the star.

From New York Times • Apr. 5, 2017

A government cannot "ask for the moon," Chief Justice John Roberts said.

From Reuters • Jan. 15, 2013

Well, they're 22-year-olds in 1973, let's not ask for the moon.

From The Guardian • Apr. 21, 2010

She did ask for the moon, very nearly.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse