invite

invite, bid, solicit, court, woo are comparable when they mean to request or encourage a person or a thing to come to one or to fall in with one's plans or desires.

Invite in its ordinary and usual sense implies a courteous request to go somewhere, do something, or give some assistance which it is assumed will be agreeable or at least not disagreeable to the person invited

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invite a few friends to dinner

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invite an acquaintance to spend the night

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invite an audience to express their opinions

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he had invited all the girls, including Miss Tolman, to go out with him on various occasions, but . . . everyone declined his offer— Woodfin

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In this sense the word usually implies providing an opening for those who otherwise might hesitate to go, or do, or give without such a request. Consequently, in its extended sense invite implies providing an opening by such means as a seductive manner or a challenging statement or policy that serves as an encouragement or temptation to another

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dress so conspicuously as to invite unwelcome attentions

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fairly imminent collisions invited by the Captain's inept conning— Heggen

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the writer who brings a new revelation is not necessarily called upon to invite the execration of the herd— Ellis

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Bid (see also COMMAND vb) is increasingly uncommon in the sense of to request the presence of (as at a feast or great occasion)

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as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage— Mt 22:9

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but bid (usually with for), from its sense to offer a price for something up for sale, has developed an extended use in which it means to make an effort to win or attract or an appeal (as for sympathy) and in this use sometimes comes close to invite in conveying the notion of offering a tempting opening for something

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in his difficult position he could not bid for their affection; he wanted only their obedience— Douglas

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stood for Congress in this virgin district, bidding for the support of labor— Green Peyton

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Solicit (see also ASK 2) differs from invite in stressing urgency or need rather than courtesy in requesting or encouraging

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we may come to feel a little impatient at having our pity so continually solicited— Edmund Wilson

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moral utterances which solicit the obedience of children— Melden

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Court basically implies an endeavor to win the favor of a person (as by flattery, attentions, or making love). Only in its extended sense does it imply a providing of a favorable opportunity by tempting or encouraging something to come to one or to happen to one

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he kept himself somewhat aloof, seeming to avoid notice rather than to court it— Arnold

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so long as a scientific textbook is obsolete in a decade or less, to poetize science is to court mortality— Lowes

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Woo basically implies amorous courting; consequently, in its extended sense it frequently stresses a drawing to or upon one by allurements, blandishments, and extravagant promises

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Herodotus in search of a public . . . found a favorable "pitch," as we should say, and wooed an audience to him— Quiller-Couch

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the young author trying to woo his reader, via heavy humor— Keene

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Occasionally the word is very close to court and scarcely distinguishable from it

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you . . . woo your own destruction— Shak.

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Analogous words: *ask, request, solicit: *lure, tempt, entice, inveigle: excite, *provoke, stimulate