Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To beset with insistent or repeated requests; entreat pressingly.
- v. Archaic To ask for urgently or repeatedly.
- v. To annoy; vex.
- v. To plead or urge irksomely, often persistently. See Synonyms at beg.
- adj. Importunate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Unseasonable; inopportune; untimely.
- Importunate.
- n. An importunate person; one offensively persistent.
- To press or harass with solicitation; ply or beset with unremitting petitions or demands; crave or require persistently.
- To crave or require persistently; beg for urgently.
- To annoy; irritate; molest.
- [A false use, by confusion with import.] To import; signify; mean.
- Synonyms Request, Beg, Tease (see ask); appeal to, plead with, beset, urge, plague, worry, press, dun.
- To make requests or demands urgently and persistently.
Wiktionary
- v. To harass with persistent requests.
- v. To approach to offer one's services as a prostitute.
- adj. Grievous, severe, exacting.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Inopportune; unseasonable.
- adj. Troublesome; vexatious; persistent; urgent; hence, vexatious on account of untimely urgency or pertinacious solicitation.
- v. To request or solicit, with urgency; to press with frequent, unreasonable, or troublesome application or pertinacity; hence, to tease; to irritate; to worry.
- v. To import; to signify.
- v. To require; to demand.
WordNet 3.0
- v. beg persistently and urgently
Etymologies
- French importuner, from Old French importun, inopportune, from Latin importūnus : in-, not; see in-1 + portus, port, refuge; see per-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“WORDS ACCENTED ON THE LAST SYLLABLE: address _address'_ adept _adept'_ adult _adult'_ ally _ally'_ commandant _commandänt '(ä as in arm) _ contour _contour'_ dessert _dessert'_ dilate _dilate'_ excise _eksiz'_ finance _finance'_ grimace _grimace'_ importune _importune'_ occult _occult'_ pretence _pretence'_ research _research'_ robust _robust'_ romance _romance'_ tirade _tirade'_”
“They simply want to scream racism and blather about the civil rights of non-citizens and see the law as an opportunity to importune for their point of view.”
“Michelle Dulak Thomson: If it is “rude” and “insensitive” to importune people at the entrances and exits of buildings they really need to get into/out of, I have a serious beef with the local Girl Scouts.”
“If it is “rude” and “insensitive” to importune people at the entrances and exits of buildings they really need to get into/out of, I have a serious beef with the local Girl Scouts.”
“Usually, it is the girls who voluntarily provide service and even actively importune the customers.”
Global Voices in English » China: Underage prostitution ring sparks public indignation
“Now I need to send these out to people I mean to importune for blurbs ...”
“Around the time ofLast Tango'srelease, waitstaff in restaurants began to importune customers by announcing their first names — the waitstaff's, that is, not the patrons.”
“ Someone must hold our table while I importune the insensitive clods who look over the shoulders of their chattering wives to see the scores of silly Boston "Bruins" and "Celtics".”
Fictionaut: Quixote Bronson, Savior of Neglected Suburban Housewives
“Rachel has written to Harriet but it will take so long before she can receive information from there that I must importune you again my love to --- our anxiety and in doing so I feel reluctance because I know your heart is so tenderly interested that it must experience pain from the idea of the --- danger.”
““Twelve dollars per fish,” I importune, following him into his warehouse.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘importune’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Words I Used to Know
Words that make you go "I know that word...what the heck does it mean?!?
pulchritude, sanguine, trenchant, picaresque, gloaming, perfidious, confabulation, epiphany, importune, fulminate, efficacious, maladroit and 111 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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AngelFace's list
Words that build up, edify, educate, encourage, deepen understanding, increase knowledge, and make the world a richer, fuller, more colorful world.
disseminate, epiphany, transcend, scintillating, effervescent, radiant, iridescence, lamentations, mica, labrynthine, introspective, importune and 1 more...
bilby
Some great inquisitors in nature say,
Royal and generous forms sweetly display
Much of the heavenly virtue, as proceeding
From a pure essence and elected breeding:
Howe'er, truth for him thus nuch doth importune,
His form and value both deserv'd his fortune;
For 'tis a question not decided yet,
Whether his mind or fortune were more great.
- John Webster, 'A Monumental Column', 1613. Aug 2, 2009