Ask Jeeves

English

Etymology

From Ask Jeeves, a search engine named after Jeeves, a fictional valet in the works of P. G. Wodehouse.

Verb

Ask Jeeves (third-person singular simple present Asks Jeeves, present participle Asking Jeeves, simple past and past participle Asked Jeeves)

1. To search for (something) on the Internet using the Ask Jeeves search engine.
   • 2011, Hayley Okines, Kerry Okines, Alison Stokes, “Kerry; Learning to Live with Progeria”, in Old Before My Time, Accent Press Ltd, →ISBN, page 23:

     Back then Google was still only a small private American company set up by two Stanford University students rather than a globally-recognised verb for finding information online. When we Asked Jeeves about progeria only 2,200 web pages appeared and many of those lacked hard information and facts.

   • 2015, Sarah Weeks, Honey, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 53:

     “I’ve Googled it, Binged it, and Asked Jeeves. They all say the same thing, but I’m not convinced.”

   • 2020, Ottessa Moshfegh, Death in Her Hands, pages 70, 71, 78, and 206:

     “Is Magda dead?” I Asked Jeeves. What I found were 626,000 web pages, […] So I Asked Jeeves, “Does anyone named Magda live in Levant?” and found an African American woman named Magda Levant, living in Lubbock, Texas. […] I clicked open the browser and Asked Jeeves, not the answer to my prayers—for there to be no death, for Walter to be here, with me, for me to return to my life back in Monlith, my life before Charlie, before any of this—for I knew no computer could deliver that. No, instead I Asked Jeeves for a way to take action, some help in my effort to make the world a better place, death and all. Walter would have been so proud. “How does one solve a mystery?” I typed. And then, for good measure, I added the word “murder” before “mystery,” since this was indeed what I was dealing with. I scrolled down the search results. […] I thought to offer the neighbor my wisdom, everything I had learned since I had Asked Jeeves how to solve Magda’s murder.