solicitation
n.the act of asking someone for money, help, or information. In a legal context, it often refers to offering sex for money or asking someone to commit a crime.
n.the act of requesting or entreating for something; in legal contexts, the act of offering services for hire or inciting another to commit a crime.
“The charity began a solicitation for donations.”
“The office building has a strict policy against the solicitation of employees by outside sales representatives during work hours.”
“The defendant was charged with solicitation after undercover officers recorded him attempting to hire a private investigator to tamper with the witness testimony.”
Uncountable when referring to the general activity; countable when referring to specific instances or documents.
“Offenders may use a range of more subtle grooming tactics before more obvious forms of online sexual solicitation, such as direct requests for sexual conversations, images or meetings," Logos said.”
“The users were, in Discord’s words, engaged in “sextortion, solicitation of minors to perform online sexual acts, self-harm coercion, swatting and conspiring to commit real world acts of violence”.”
From Middle French sollicitation, from Latin sollicitātiō.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.