importune
Americanverb (used with object)
-
importunes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
importuned,
past participle, past
-
importuning
present participle
-
to press or beset with solicitations; demand with urgency or persistence.
- Synonyms:
- solicit, supplicate, implore, entreat, beseech
-
to make improper advances toward (a person).
-
to beg for (something) urgently or persistently.
- Synonyms:
- solicit, supplicate, implore, entreat, beseech
-
Obsolete. to annoy.
-
Obsolete. to press; impel.
verb (used without object)
-
importunes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
importuned,
past participle, past
-
importuning
present participle
-
to make urgent or persistent solicitations.
- Synonyms:
- plead
-
to make improper advances toward another person.
adjective
verb
-
to harass with persistent requests; demand of (someone) insistently
-
to beg for persistently; request with insistence
-
obsolete
-
to anger or annoy
-
to force; impel
-
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
importunesimple
-
importunessimple
-
have importunedperfect
-
has importunedperfect
-
am importuningprogressive
-
are importuningprogressive
-
is importuningprogressive
-
have been importuningperfect progressive
-
has been importuningperfect progressive
Past
-
importunedsimple
-
had importunedperfect
-
was importuningprogressive
-
were importuningprogressive
-
had been importuningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of importune
1350–1400; Middle English (adj.) < Latin importūnus unsuitable, troublesome, relentless; see im- 2, opportune
Explanation
Sure, to importune is to beg, but use it only when you're talking about going beyond mere begging into more urgent territory. The woman importuned the judge to release her innocent brother from jail. The original Latin term actually meant something closer to "to bother." Bear that in mind when you're deciding whether to use importune, because that's the kind of begging you'd want to be talking about when you do. Imagine needing something so badly that you cannot stop asking for it: then you might importune someone to get it. After a year of being importuned, dad let me have the car.
Vocabulary lists containing importune
Romeo and Juliet
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Instead of "Said": Words for Asking and Offering
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Othello
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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.
See Examples For:
In the Book of Samuel, Israelites importune its eponymous judge to “Give us a king to rule over us, like all the other nations.”
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024
“The needs are too great. And if we pass a strong package with strong bipartisan support, it will importune the House somehow or other to act, despite the morass they are in.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
They aren’t here to importune men for anything.
From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2019
And too many of the works are so large, and importune the visitor so aggressively, that one feels hectored by hectares of art.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2015
And at the same time I fear to importune it too much, because I do not know what might happen then.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
In the novel, the Mongoose importunes Ashok to remarry; it is actually Ms. Uma, a former lover whom Ashok reconnects with after his separation from Pinky, who appears to suggest that Balram be replaced.
From Slate ● Jan. 22, 2021
The High Line, incidentally, provides an ideal platform for public art that importunes without annoying—unlike most of its kind today, which tends to fail as civic symbolism or as art, if not both.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2014
When Aaron ignores him, Teddy importunes Lea in a grocery store and invites himself to her husband’s 40th-birthday bash.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2013
Thee the poor countryman solicits with his anxious vows; whosoever plows the Carpathian Sea with the Bithynian vessel, importunes thee as mistress of the ocean.
From The Works of Horace by Horace
In another place the refrain urges and importunes; it is time for flight: Cold and keen the north wind blows, Silent falls the shroud of snows.
From A Lute of Jade : selections from the classical poets of China by L. (Launcelot) Cranmer-Byng
The son must endure the gall of being mocked and seeing his mother importuned by greedy suitors who feast nightly on the family’s stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Instead of writing “The verbiage from the campaigners importuned the dispossession of their statesmen,” write “The protestors demanded the resignations of their congressional representatives.”
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
She importuned Fred to notice the blood on the cuspid and to imagine the agony surrounding its expulsion from her mouth.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2021
That, they believe, will maximise the number of congressmen being importuned by victims to repeal the offending law, says John Weekes, a former Canadian ambassador to the WTO who now practises trade law.
From Economist ● Jun. 18, 2015
“Rob, this is Helen at Base Camp,” Wilton importuned, sounding as if she was on the brink of tears.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
This brings to mind the medieval episode of England’s King Henry II idly importuning some knights to rid him of Archbishop Thomas Becket, only to be surprised when they actually did it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
It had to be around here someplace, but Michael R. Jackson could not readily locate his Pulitzer Prize certificate when an importuning visitor asked for a look.
From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2022
Many of the women I met in Tbilisi’s food world spoke of Jorjadze as though she were standing in their kitchens, importuning them to use newspaper to gauge the freshness of meat.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019
I remember that the aide who came into the room held my hand without asking me, which seemed like a little bit of an importuning gesture.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2018
Zooey watched her for a full minute or so, then said, not precisely kindly, but without importuning, “Franny. What about it? Shall I try to get Buddy on the phone?”
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
