to ask for something, to request: to put in a claim for a thing one wants and expects to receive
At its core this word names the act of asking for a thing. It is not the asking of a question and not asking to know something; it is requesting an object, a favor, an action, expecting the other party to grant it. So the thing asked for is almost always in view: bread, a fish, a sign, a man's body, a person's life, good gifts from God.
Because the request always reaches up to someone who can give, the word carries a built in sense of position. The one who asks stands below the one asked: a beggar to a passerby, a subject to a king, a child to a father, a worshiper to God. In the New Testament that upward direction is most often Godward, which is why this is one of the main words for petition in prayer. The same verb covers a polite plea and a hard demand, and the difference is set by who is asking whom and in what tone, not by a change in the word itself.
The senses below are shades of that one act, sorted by the relationship between asker and giver. They share a single core, so a verse can sit near the border between asking God, asking a person, and pressing a demand on someone in power.