Crossword Dictionary
IMPORTUNE
importune, insist - v
beg persistently and urgently; "I importune you to help them"
Synonyms
appeal, ask, badger, beg, beseech, beset, besiege, con, crave, dun, entreat, goose, harass
Examples
As a tourist, you are importuned for money the moment you step outside your hotel.
He was arrested for importuning a young boy outside the station.
So now I am not importune others, don't try to give others to bring pressure.
Etymology
"harass with solicitation, demand persistently," 1520s, back-formation from importunity, or else from French importuner, from Medieval Latin importunari "to make oneself troublesome," from Latin importunus "unfit, unfavorable, troublesome," literally "having no harbor" (thus "difficult to access"), from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + portus "harbor" (see port (n.1)). Related: Importuned; importuning. As an adjective from early 15c. Portunus was the Roman deity of harbors; hence Portunium "temple of Portunus."