English

Verb

pop the question

1. (idiomatic) To propose marriage.
   • 1846, Herman Melville, Typee, ch. 26:

     I was not able to learn what particular ceremony was observed in forming the marriage contract, but am inclined to think that it must have been of a very simple nature. Perhaps the mere "popping the question", as it is termed with us, might have been followed by an immediate nuptial alliance.

   • 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, Stubb's Calendar, or The Fatal Boots, ch. 9:

     [A]t a pic-nic to Kenilworth, where we drank a good deal of champagne, I actually popped the question, and was accepted. In another month, Robert Stubbs, Esq., led to the altar, Leah, widow of the late Z. Manasseh, Esq., of St. Kitt's!

   • 1874, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux, ch. 19:

     If ever I do pop the question, I shall do it on the spur of the moment. There'll be no preparation with me, nor yet any beating about the bush. "Would it suit your views, my dear, to be Mrs. Spooner?" that's about the long and the short of it.

   • 2003 July 13, "He Says and She Says," Newsweek (retrieved 14 Feb 2014}:

     70% of men welcome the idea of women's proposing marriage; 48% of women say they'd be willing to pop the question.

Translations