IMPORTUNE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does importune mean? 

• IMPORTUNE (verb)
  The verb IMPORTUNE has 1 sense:

1. beg persistently and urgently

  Familiarity information: IMPORTUNE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPORTUNE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they importune    ... he / she / it importunes   
Past simple: importuned   
Past participle: importuned   
-ing form: importuning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Beg persistently and urgently

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

importune; insist

Context example:

I importune you to help them

Hypernyms (to "importune" is one way to...):

beg; implore; pray (call upon in supplication; entreat)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "importune"):

besiege (harass, as with questions or requests)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They importune him to write the letter

 Context examples 

But I will no longer importune my young cousin.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She seemed to be tired of my questions: and, indeed, what claim had I to importune her?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Eleanor only replied, “I cannot wonder at your feelings. I will not importune you. I will trust to your own kindness of heart when I am at a distance from you.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Charles and Hal begged her to get off and walk, pleaded with her, entreated, the while she wept and importuned Heaven with a recital of their brutality.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Where, for the first time in many revolving years, the overwhelming pressure of pecuniary liabilities was not proclaimed, from day to day, by importune voices declining to vacate the passage; where there was no knocker on the door for any creditor to appeal to; where personal service of process was not required, and detainees were merely lodged at the gate!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have almost forgotten you since: other ideas have driven yours from my head; but to-night I am resolved to be at ease; to dismiss what importunes, and recall what pleases.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Why do you importune me about her!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Oh, intolerable questions, when I could do nothing and go nowhere!—when a long way must yet be measured by my weary, trembling limbs before I could reach human habitation—when cold charity must be entreated before I could get a lodging: reluctant sympathy importuned, almost certain repulse incurred, before my tale could be listened to, or one of my wants relieved!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)