to importune
3
9.6
- verb
- /ˌɪmpɔːrˈtuːn/
- Formal
:
importunar
- During the meeting, he importuned his colleagues for more resources to complete the project.
Examples
-
The children would importune their parents for ice cream every time they passed the shop.
-
Forgive me for importuning you.
-
Immediately after convocation, groups began importuning me to speak.
Fiction book (1991) -
Has he importuned you with love in honorable fashion?
Fiction book (1999) -
Letters fly back and forth as Adamma importunes her mother and father.
Academic text (2003) -
There he was importuned to pass on to Moscow yet more urgent warnings of the coming German attack.
Academic text (1996) -
My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honorable fashion.
-
She importuned me: had she given me Shikhabeddin Sukhraverdi to read?
Fiction book (1996) -
She continued to importune her boss for a raise until he finally agreed to discuss it.
Synonyms
39
4.7
To annoy someone by asking them the same thing many times
34
3.2
To annoy someone by asking for things again and again
12
7.8
To surround a person with many requests and questions
1
9.8
To repeatedly demand payment of a debt
To keep asking or complaining to make someone do something
How Insistent
58
6.1
39
4.7
34
3.2
285
3.9
- Formal
3
9.6
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Etymology
Importune comes from old parts in- meaning 'not' and portunus, a root meaning 'suitable', the same root you see in opportune and opportunity. So to importune someone is to push or ask at a bad time, again and again, until it becomes annoying.