Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An importunate request; an insistent or pressing demand.
- n. The quality of being importunate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Unseasonableness; inopportunity.
- n. The act or state of being importunate; pertinacity in solicitation or demand; persistent urgency or insistence.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete Unseasonableness; an unsuitable or inappropriate time.
- n. A constant and insistent demanding.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality of being importunate; pressing or pertinacious solicitation; urgent request; incessant or frequent application; troublesome pertinacity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. insistent solicitation and entreaty
Etymologies
- From French importunité, from Latin importunitas. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The word importunity denotes perseverance in an object, without any regard to time, place, or circumstances -- an improper perseverance.”
“His messenger was not prepossessing in appearance, nor indeed did he commend himself to one's too alert olfactory sensibilities; but he was very insistent, and, after all, importunity is still what prevails most with us.”
“Her importunity was provoking to the judge, and she might fear lest it should set him more against her; but our importunity is pleasing to”
“Our importunity is a part of God's answer, both of His answer to us and ours to Him...”
“She was certain now that what she could only call his importunity had proved somehow disastrous to Rodney Lanyon.”
“This attitude is the "importunity" Christ refers to in the parable of Lu 11: 8.”
“His was the holy 'importunity' which Jesus sent forth for our imitation.”
“importunity," signifies freedom from the bashfulness which cannot ask a second time.”
“Let our mere prayers for peace be made acceptable by our actions, by our willingness to shed the pride and importunity that keeps us trying to have our way with drone strikes and night raids.”
““I assured them of my entire disposition to supply Money to them as fast as possible,” Morris recorded in his diary, “and if at any time it is detained longer than it ought I begged they would exert themselves and support me instead of plaguing and Distressing me with importunity.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘importunity’.
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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anotherfailedattempt's Words
kakistocracy, conflagration, pollyanna, equanimity, punctillious, obstreperous, ribald, belligerent, truculent, verbose, lachrymose, onanism and 278 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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Pneumatologia
Terms and phrases from John Owen's (1616-1683) theological writings, to some of which the collective title Pneumatologia has been posthumously applied. Some few of the terms listed herein are Septu...
superstruction, despond, Socinians, unbeholden, unwarrantable, ulcerous, posthume, Photinians, Pelagians, virulently, unavoidably, putid and 221 more...
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