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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Instead of "Said": Words for Asking and Offering
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Othello
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
She seemed to be tired of my questions: and, indeed, what claim had I to importune her?
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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
At last he boldly importunes and asks that a day shall be set to try his case.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators by Elbert Hubbard
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
He had importuned a doctor in Atlanta to play messenger boy for him.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2019
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
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
When the issue of men convicted of importuning was raised in Parliament before the Turing law passed, former Home Office minister Sam Gyimah said they were not eligible.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2019
But Graham’s importuning of Trump seemed to have failed, and the senator was none too happy to be confronted with evidence of it.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 22, 2019
Consider California Governor Jerry Brown, who is importuning the White House to yield oversight of his state’s bullet train.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2017
Yossarian whirled and seized the chaplain by the shirt front in an importuning grip.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
