importunate
Americanadjective
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urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so.
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pertinacious, as solicitations or demands.
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troublesome; annoying.
importunate demands from the children for attention.
adjective
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persistent or demanding; insistent
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rare troublesome; annoying
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of importunate
Explanation
Importunate means annoyingly persistent or relentless, like a cranky child's importunate demands for candy in line at the grocery store checkout. Importunate rhymes with unfortunate, and importunate questions, in their irritating persistence, are unfortunate indeed. Importunate restaurant patrons tend to inundate their unfortunate waiter with demands, and one student's importunate questions can keep a teacher busy through an entire class period. You'll see in importunate the Latin root port, which means "harbor." From this came importunus, "troublesome," but also "having no harbor."
Vocabulary lists containing importunate
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Importunate telegrams flashed from the President's Palace to Brer Briand at Geneva begging him to become Premier for the twelfth time.
From Time Magazine Archive
Importunate scruples were added to temptation, and while thus violently assailed on many sides, she seemed not to receive light or comfort from any.
From The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation by Religious of the Ursuline Community, A
"Importunate?" asked K. "Yes," said the lawyer, laughing as he did so, had a fit of coughing and then, once it had passed, began to laugh again.
From The Trial by Wyllie, David
The Importunate Mr. Gibbon The news that the addresses of young Mr. Forcus were being paid not to her but to her younger sister could not altogether have come as a surprise to Bessie.
From Mrs. Day's Daughters by Mann, Mary E.
But let me eat, comfortless as I am, Uninterrupted; for no call is loud As that of hunger in the ears of man; Importunate, unreas’nable, it constrains His notice, more than all his woes beside.
From The Odyssey of Homer by Cowper, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
