ask vs solicit

ask

verb
  • To request or petition; usually with for. 

  • To interrogate or enquire of (a person). 

  • To put forward (a question) to be answered. 

  • To invite. 

  • To take (a person's situation) as an example. 

  • To publish in church for marriage; said of both the banns and the persons. 

  • To request permission to do something. 

  • To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity. 

  • To request (information, or an answer to a question). 

noun
  • An act or instance of asking. 

  • An asking price. 

  • A message sent to a blog on social networking platform Tumblr, which can be publicly posted and replied to by the recipient. 

  • An eft; newt. 

  • A lizard. 

  • Something asked or asked for. 

solicit

verb
  • To make a petition. 

  • To urge the claims of; to plead; to act as solicitor for or with reference to. 

  • To offer to perform sexual activity, especially when for a payment. 

  • To persuade or incite one to commit some act, especially illegal or sexual behavior. 

  • To woo; to court. 

  • To persistently endeavor to obtain an object, or bring about an event. 

  • If you want to lose your virginity, you should try to solicit some fine looking women. 

How often have the words ask and solicit occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )