English

Verb

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

1. To bother, trouble, irritate.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.17:

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

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.

Translations

Adjective

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.

Related terms

• importunate

French

Verb

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. first-person singular present subjunctive of importuner
5. second-person singular imperative of importuner

Italian

Adjective

importune f pl

1. feminine plural of importuno

Anagrams

• impunterò, premunito

Latin

Adjective

importūne

1. vocative masculine singular of importūnus

References

• 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
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “importune”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

Portuguese

Verb

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

Spanish

Verb

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.