to pop the question
- phrasal verb
- /pɑp ðə ˈkwɛsʧən/
- Last night, he finally decided to pop the question and ask her to marry him.
- finally popped the question
- ready to pop the question
- decided to pop the question
It's best to explore partnership wise before you pop the question.
- It's best to explore partnership wise before you pop the question.
Examples
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Surrounded by their closest friends, he took a deep breath to pop the question during dinner.
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Like most women in love, Jordin Sparks is hoping her beau, Jason Derulo, will pop the question very soon.
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Maybe it's to get him to pop the question, but you have to have a plan to do that.
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I cannot believe my son is gonna pop the question.
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So, you gonna pop the question, or what?
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Did he pop the question?
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A good friend of mine from the Army called me on Christmas and told me he was going to pop the question to his girlfriend.
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Thankfully, four months later, he did pop the question!
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Do you think Brian is going to pop the question when you guys get to Hawaii?
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Thinking about getting engaged and worrying about coming up with a unique, dramatic way to pop the question?
Blog text (25)
Synonyms
To ask someone to marry you
Say you want to marry someone and ask them to marry you
Antonyms
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'pop' (to do suddenly) and 'question' (to ask something) can plausibly infer the general sense 'to suddenly ask a question', so there is a visible compositional link. However, the specific conventionalized meaning 'to propose marriage' is an idiomatic narrowing that is not directly predictable from the parts without prior exposure, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
Pop the question may come from the picture of pop as the sudden 'pop' of a bottle cork at a happy moment and question as the big marriage question. So the phrase shows a quick, joyful action and means 'to ask someone to marry you'.