importune
[im-pawr-toon, -tyoon, im-pawr-chuh n]
- 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.
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- to make urgent or persistent solicitations.
- to make improper advances toward another person.
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Origin of importune
Synonyms
See more synonyms for importune on Thesaurus.com1, 3. beseech, entreat, implore, supplicate, solicit. 6. plead.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for importuning
Contemporary Examples
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
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
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin importūnus tiresome, from im- in- 1 + -portūnus as in opportūnus opportune
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for importuning
importune
v.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper