importune

From Middle French importuner, from Medieval Latin importunari (“to make oneself troublesome”), from Latin importunus (“unfit, troublesome”), originally "having no harbor"

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmpɔːˈtjuːn/, /ɪmˈpɔːtjuːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪmpɔɹˈtuːn/

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

1. To bother, trouble, irritate.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     To deliberate, be it but in slight matters, doth importune me.

   • 1813, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Chapter 14

     But I will no longer importune my young cousin.

2. To harass with persistent requests.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 1

     You were kneel'd to, and importun'd otherwise / By all of us; […].

   • Jonathan Swift

     Their ministers and residents here have perpetually importuned the court with unreasonable demands.

3. To approach to offer one's services as a prostitute, or otherwise make improper proposals.
4. (obsolete) To import; to signify.
   • Spenser

     It importunes death.

importune (comparative more importune, superlative most importune)

1. (obsolete) Grievous, severe, exacting.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     And therewithall he fiercely at him flew, / And with importune outrage him assayld [...].

2. (obsolete) Inopportune; unseasonable.
3. (obsolete) Troublesome; vexatious; persistent.
   • Spenser

     And their importune fates all satisfied.

   • Francis Bacon

     Of all other affections it [envy] is the most importune and continual.

• importunate

• entropium

importune

1. first-person singular present indicative of importuner
2. third-person singular present indicative of importuner
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of importuner
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of importuner
5. second-person singular imperative of importuner

importune f pl

1. feminine plural of importuno

• impunterò, premunito

importūne

1. vocative masculine singular of importūnus

• importune in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• importune in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• importune in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

importune

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of importunar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of importunar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of importunar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of importunar

importune

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of importunar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of importunar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of importunar.