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ask for the moon
ask for the moon
To make requests or demands that are (or are perceived to be) extraordinary or unreasonable. I just asked them if we could go to lunch a little earlier, and they're acting like I'm asking for the moon! I'm not taking out all the green jellybeans for him, he's asking for the moon!
ask for the moon
Fig. to make outlandish requests or demands for something, such as a lot of money or special privileges. She's asking for the moon, and she's not going to get it. Don't ask for the moon. Be reasonable!
ask/cry for the moon
to want something that is not possible (usually in continuous tenses) There's no point hoping for a permanent peace in the area. It's like asking for the moon.
ask for the moon
Make an unreasonable demand, request the unattainable, as in $1,000 for her birthday? Mary might as well be asking for the moon. This hyperbolic idiom appeared in the mid-1800s in slightly different form. Charles Dickens had it as cry for the moon (in Bleak House, 1852) and William Makepeace Thackeray as wish for the moon (in Lovell the Widower, 1860). Today ask is the most common version.