importune
- to press or beset with solicitations; demand with urgency or persistence.
- to make improper advances toward (a person).
- to beg for (something) urgently or persistently.
- Obsolete. to annoy.
- Obsolete. to press; impel.
- to make urgent or persistent solicitations.
- to make improper advances toward another person.
Origin of importune
Synonyms for importune
Related Words for importuning
beset, press, crave, persuade, plead, hound, badger, sell, nag, pray, pester, implore, solicit, appeal, urge, invoke, besiege, plague, ask, beseechExamples from the Web for importuning
Contemporary Examples of importuning
The paper's CEO was importuning her to commit to "some more years" as executive editor just 12 days before she was dismissed.
The Hypocrisy Behind The New York Times’s Abrupt Decapitation of Jill AbramsonRobert Shrum
May 18, 2014
Historical Examples of importuning
After you have given your final decision to my importuning, there can be no further appeal.
Flamsted quarriesMary E. Waller
I now remember that for a year past you have been importuning me about this!
The Daughter of an EmpressLouise Muhlbach
Basil was importuning his companion on some matter which the latter could not hear.
Under the Witches' MoonNathan Gallizier
Instantly the importuning began, everybody crowding about her.
The Arm-Chair at the InnF. Hopkinson Smith
I saw I advanced nothing by importuning her, and I let the matter rest.
The History of ProstitutionWilliam W. Sanger
importune
- to harass with persistent requests; demand of (someone) insistently
- to beg for persistently; request with insistence
- obsolete
- to anger or annoy
- to force; impel
Word Origin for importune
Word Origin and History for importuning
importune
1520s, back-formation from importunity, or else from Middle French importuner, from Medieval Latin importunari "to make oneself troublesome," from Latin importunus "unfit, troublesome," originally "having no harbor" (i.e. "difficult to access"), from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + portus "harbor" (see port (n.1)). Related: Importuned; importuning. As an adjective from early 15c.