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''importune'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''importune'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

importune - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

importune (third-person singular simple present importunes, present participle importuning, simple past and past participle importuned)

  • (transitive) To bother, irritate, trouble.
    • ✤ To deliberate, be it but in slight matters, doth importune me.1
    • ✤ But I will no longer importune my young cousin.2
  • (transitive) To harass with persistent requests.
    • ✤ Gentlemen, importune me no farther,/For hovv I firmly am reſolu’d you knovv:/That is, not to beſtovv my yongeſt daughter,/Before I haue a husband for the elder: […]3
    • ✤ You were kneel’d to, & importun’d otherwiſe/By all of vs; […]4
    • ✤ [W]e have been obliged to hire Troops from ſeveral Princes of the Empire, whoſe Ministers and Reſidents here, have perpetually importuned the Court with unreaſonable Demands, under which our late Miniſters thought fit to be Paſſive.5
  • (transitive) To approach to offer one’s services as a prostitute, or otherwise make improper proposals.
  • (obsolete, transitive) To import; to signify.
    • ✤ It importunes death.6

Adjective

importune (comparative more importune, superlative most importune)

  • (obsolete) Grievous, severe, exacting.
    • ✤ And therewithall he fiercely at him flew,/And with importune outrage him assayld […].7
  • (obsolete) Inopportune; unseasonable.
  • (obsolete) Troublesome; vexatious; persistent.
    • ✤ And their importune fates all satisfide.8
    • ✤ Of all other affections it[envy] is the most importune and continual.9

Noun

importune (plural importunes)

  • (obsolete) Synonym of importuner.
    • ✤ And yet in ſome Courts it is otherwiſe vſed, for in Spaine it is thought very vndecent for a Courtier to craue, ſuppoſing that it is the part of an importune: […]10
    • ✤ Which ſhew that importunate People will affirm any Thing, to ſerve Turns, though never fo ſenſeleſs; hoping ſome, that underſtand little, or are very willing, will give credit upon their Authority: And, if Juſtice muſt ſtay till ſuch Importunes are ſatisfied, there’s a ne plus ultra of all Law.11
    • ✤ The Priests of the Holy Land sent me a letter he had written them about me thanking them for their civility to me, & desiring they wd. serve me in every thing &c, therefore these confounded importunes laid themselves at my feet, but his letter was admirable, nobody ever saw such a thing, his coats of Arms printed upon a paper as large as a gazette extraordinary and full as large as my hand open!!!12

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ɪmpɔːˈtjuːn/, /ɪmˈpɔːtjuːn/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) IPA: /ɪmpɔɹˈtuːn/

Etymology 1

From Middle French importuner and its etymon Medieval Latin importūnor (“to make oneself troublesome”), from Latin importūnus (“unfit, troublesome”), originally “having no harbor”.13

Etymology 2

From Middle English importune, inportune, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French importun and its etymon Classical Latin importūnus.14

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter XVII, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XIV, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 155: ↩

  3. c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 210, column 2, lines 50–51: ↩

  4. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 7, column 1: ↩

  5. 1711 December 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Jonathan Swift], The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War, 4th edition, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, →OCLC, page 57: ↩

  6. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16: ↩

  7. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩

  8. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 44: ↩

  9. 1625, Francis[Bacon], “Of Envy”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC: ↩

  10. 1589, [George Puttenham], “Of Decencie in Behauiour Which Also Belongs to the Consideration of the Poet or Maker”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, pages 247–248: ↩

  11. a. 1735, Roger North, “The Times Clearing Up, and How”, in Examen: or, An Enquiry into the Credit and Veracity of a Pretended Complete History; […], London: […] Fletcher Gyles […], published 1740, →OCLC, part III, page 644: ↩

  12. 1813 August 12, Lady Hester Stanhope, The Nun of Lebanon: The Love Affair of Lady Hester Stanhope and Michael Bruce: Their Newly Discovered Letters, London: Collins […], published 1951, →OCLC, page 282: ↩

  13. “importune, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

  14. “importune, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

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