importunity
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌɪmpɔːrˈtjuːnɪti/
- Formal
:
importunidad
- Her persistent importunities for a promotion finally got noticed by the manager.
- an unmastered importunity
Examples
-
Or lose your heart... or your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity.
-
I must tell you that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed upon by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms that you show my letter to nobody.
Blog text (29) -
Jesus does not reprimand Thomas for his importunity.
Academic text (2008) -
I want every man to have his fair share of the world's goods... so I can be rid of his importunity, so that I can say to him: "Now you've got what you want, your fair share of the world's gear.
-
Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain if with too... credent ear you list his songs, or... lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity.
-
With chillingly ruthless importunity, she urges her husband to commit regicide against their supposedly honored guest, Duncan.
Academic text (2018) -
He sought "to paint a picture of foreign policy" that would present its "rational essence," abstracting from personality and prejudice, and, especially in democracies, from the importunities of popular opinion that "impair the rationality of foreign policy."
Academic text (1990) -
The child's importunity for a new toy became too much for his parents to handle.
-
Despite his friend's importunity to join the game, he chose to stay home and study.
Synonyms
23
3.9
A strong request or feeling that pushes someone to act
18
4.2
A strong, repeated request that makes people act
Repeatedly asking for something in a way that annoys people
How Insistent
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Importunity comes from putting in- meaning 'not' together with portune (the same root you see in opportunity and opportune, which mean 'a good time'). It originally meant 'not at a good time', so importunity now means keeping on asking in an annoying way.