importunate

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But they appear all the same--importunate, overbearing, inevitable We may close our doors to visitors in the flesh; but we are forced to welcome these phantoms of the memory; to notice them and converse with them without reserve People become like books to me.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adjective Troublesomely urgent or persistent in requesting; pressingly entreating: an importunate job seeker.

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Examples (50)

  • Others are importunate, and earnest enough, like the beggar's appeal for relief, but without much hope of success. —  Religion in Earnest
  • So importunate were the officers in Hull that once again during the day Peace had to repeat this experience. —  A Book of Remarkable Criminals
  • But from these he was soon ousted by claimants more considerable or more importunate, and in 1651 he removed to “a pretty garden-house” in Petty France, in Westminster, next door to the Lord Scudamore's, and opening into St. James's Park. —  Milton
  • Let it be well understood that she was the least importunate, the least exacting, the most adaptable, of guests Richard took her outstretched hand for the briefest period compatible with courtesy. —  The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance
  • I declined the contract with firmness and constancy, but so importunate was the chief that I could not resist his desire that a Spanish factor might come within my limits with merchandise from Gallinas to purchase his prisoners. —  Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle Latin importunatus, past participle of importunari, importune: see importune, v. According to the sense in English, the form should be *importunant, from Middle Latin importunan(t-)s, present participle
 

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/ɪmˈpɔrtʃjunət/
by American Heritage

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