importunate

[im-pawr-chuh-nit]

adjective

1. urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so.

2. pertinacious, as solicitations or demands.

3. troublesome; annoying.

   importunate demands from the children for attention.

importunate

/ ɪmˈpɔːtjʊnɪt /

adjective

1. persistent or demanding; insistent

2. rare,  troublesome; annoying

Other Word Forms

• importunately adverb
• importunateness noun
• unimportunate adjective
• unimportunately adverb
• unimportunateness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of importunate¹

1520–30; importune (adj.) + -ate ¹

Example Sentences

The number, a duet for Victoria and Jonquil, doesn’t make importunate emotional demands and is all the more poignant for its restraint.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

All these filmmakers’ needy, importunate wooing of their writers — and their eventual dickering over script credit — makes their courtship of actual women such as Candice Bergen or Amy Irving look halfhearted by comparison.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Far from brutal mercenaries, the fighters are portrayed as heroes, going beyond the call of duty to help importunate countries fend off chaos agents often linked to the West, which is held in disdain.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“He seems very importunate, sir. I have never seen him so eager. I don’t know but what, if you don’t see him soon, he will have one of his violent fits.”

Read more on Literature

On the face of it, they satisfied an importunate US last week by banning the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei from doing business in Britain.

Read more on The Guardian