Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Troublesomely urgent or persistent in requesting; pressingly entreating.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Troublesomely solicitous or pressing; vexatiously persistent; pertinacious.
  • Troublesome; vexatious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Troublesomely urgent; unreasonably solicitous; overpressing in request or demand; urgent; teasing.
  • adjective rare Hard to be borne; unendurable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a demand: persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so.
  • adjective Of a person: given to importunate demands, selfishly or thoughtlessly demanding.
  • verb rare To importune, or to obtain by importunity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective expressing earnest entreaty

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin importune +‎ -ate

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French importuner ("to bother, disturb")

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Examples

  • But I explained, in my purest Tuscan, that I was not of the ordinary kind of importunate tourist.

    The French Immortals Series — Complete Various

  • But I explained, in my purest Tuscan, that I was not of the ordinary kind of importunate tourist.

    The Ink-Stain (Tache d'encre) — Complete Ren�� Bazin 1892

  • The word "importunate" has the signification of a wearisome repetition of a request, a constant asking, impossible to satisfy.

    Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn Lafcadio Hearn 1877

  • 'importunate' in asking again for my two Sophocles Abstracts, you must know that such importunity cannot but be grateful.

    Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes Vol. II Edward FitzGerald 1846

  • So much of success is pure dumb luck and/or being super-hot and/or having an importunate sister, as you have so eloquently described here.

    Getting Published « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • These dreary folk, echoes of the dead past and importunate and self-elected pall-bearers for the present and future, proxy-livers of life and vicarious sensualists that they are in a eunuch sort of way, insist, since their own selves, environments, and narrow agitations of the quick are mediocre and commonplace, that no man or woman can rise above the mediocre and commonplace.

    THE KANAKA SURF 2010

  • Initially, Wordsworth was supposed to be transferring his importunate family to England, but instead he dodged all responsibility and transferred his idealized love to his sister, Dorothy, who alone of all his family still seemed to admire and adore him.

    Wordsworth & Coleridge I « Tales from the Reading Room 2010

  • This time, however, it's Americans who're the importunate immigrants.

    The Karate Kid betrays America's fear of China 2010

  • Consistent doses of hip-hop have been replaced by methodical dances and importunate hooks that stay in your head long after you've turned the radio off.

    Timothy Cooper: Happy Birthday, Tupac Shakur 2010

  • I love this poor, sad country dearly but, as some importunate fellows might be eager to point out, our cuisine is not exactly one of our strong points.

    "Thick as mince and a clatty bastit" Peter Rozovsky 2010

Comments

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  • "expressing earnest entreaty"

    -an alliterative definition

    November 15, 2007

  • ...how she now dreaded

    each night the importunate mauve-capped swollen member.

    - Peter Reading, Carte Postale, from Diplopic, 1983

    June 30, 2008