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importune
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show 76 more with this conextual meaning
  • 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.   (source)
    importunes = urges repeatedly
  • — 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!   (source)
    importuned = begged
  • Meanwhile, Sophie and I living on the modest plantation in dignified seclusion, my reputation growing, the author himself being increasingly importuned by the media but steadfastly refusing all interviews.†   (source)
  • And at the same time I fear to importune it too much, because I do not know what might happen then.†   (source)
  • After she had unsuccessfully canvassed the town and refused the importuning of many eager Carpetbaggers, she finally decided to take Tommy's suggestion and ask Hugh Elsing.†   (source)
  • His uncle, who was among the first to be hungry, came importuning to his door, and indeed the man and his wife and his seven children had nothing to eat.†   (source)
  • Madeline's friends all importuned her: Was there real danger?†   (source)
  • Jim cautioned Joan to rest, and importuned her and promised to watch while she slept.†   (source)
  • Please call him back!" importuned Helen, in distress.†   (source)
  • For the land's sakes, tell us all about it," importuned Mrs. Cass.†   (source)
  • He importunes, persecutes one, and levies a regular tax on all travellers.†   (source)
  • I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.†   (source)
  • It seemed the more gold Jim acquired the more passionate he became, the more he importuned Joan, the more he hated Kells.†   (source)
  • Bo's raptures were not silent, and the instant the sun sank and the color faded she just as rapturously importuned Helen to get out the huge basket of food they had brought from home.†   (source)
  • To the sellers in the market, to the barmen and barmaids, to the beggars who importuned him for a lob Mr Dedalus told the same tale—that he was an old Corkonian, that he had been trying for thirty years to get rid of his Cork accent up in Dublin and that Peter Pickackafax beside him was his eldest son but that he was only a Dublin jackeen.†   (source)
  • He was far from gentle as he jostled off the first importuning fellows; the others, gaping at him, opened a lane for him to pass through.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • She was tired of being feted, admired, loved, followed, and importuned; tired of people; tired of houses, noise, ostentation, luxury.†   (source)
  • "If ye have faith, so much as the grain of a mustard seed," she quoted to herself—and now, in the face of these importuning reporters added: "Did my son kill her?†   (source)
  • But other memories importuned her also; the recollection of similar situations, as skillfully led up to, but through some malice of fortune, or her own unsteadiness of purpose, always failing of the intended result.†   (source)
  • She begged him, she importuned him, to listen to reason, to be guided by her, to fight the wildness that had obsessed him, to make sure that she would not be left alone.†   (source)
  • "Let us risk all that," she importuned.†   (source)
  • Had it been an instinct which had importuned her to save this man when he lay ill and hopeless in the shack at Chiricahua?†   (source)
  • To understand himself was to be released from strain, worry, ceaseless importuning doubt and wonder and fear.†   (source)
  • But you're a man!" she importuned.†   (source)
  • Old Bill Stillwell came up to be importuned by Alfred regarding the conduct of cowboys on occasion, and he not only corroborated the assertion, but added emphasis and evidence of his own.†   (source)
  • She wouldn't understand the hint, but followed me to a sideboard, where I went to lay my bonnet, and importuned me in a whisper to give her directly what I had brought.†   (source)
  • Jean Valjean sometimes said to her, smiling at his happiness in being importuned: "Do go to your own quarters!†   (source)
  • But the firmness gradually faded away before her incessant importunings and tantrums.†   (source)
  • CHRISTIAN: He dares... ROXANE: Oh, he will not importune me forever!†   (source)
  • She seemed to be tired of my questions: and, indeed, what claim had I to importune her?†   (source)
  • 'To importune the wise out of season is to invite calamity.'†   (source)
  • But I will no longer importune my young cousin.†   (source)
  • At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles.†   (source)
  • Will it ultimately reach the clear surface of my consciousness, this memory, this old, dead moment which the magnetism of an identical moment has travelled so far to importune, to disturb, to raise up out of the very depths of my being?†   (source)
  • Gradually, to be sure, the stress of the old thoughts would return; but at least they did not importune her waking hour.†   (source)
  • She was really intensely troubled by this new development, but did not feel that under the circumstances it was wise to importune Clyde too much.†   (source)
  • 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!†   (source)
  • I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church.†   (source)
  • Did he understand all those mysterious murmurs which warn or importune the spirit at certain moments of life?†   (source)
  • The term for which Edmond had engaged to serve on board The Young Amelia having expired, Dantes took leave of the captain, who at first tried all his powers of persuasion to induce him to remain as one of the crew, but having been told the history of the legacy, he ceased to importune him further.†   (source)
  • I will not importune you.†   (source)
  • Then, however much mother and sister would importune him with little reproaches and warnings he would keep slowly shaking his head for a quarter of an hour with his eyes closed and refusing to get up.   (source)
    importune = beg persistently and urgently
  • and did request me to importune you to let...   (source)
  • Have you importuned her to such a purpose?   (source)
    importuned = begged
  • Importune him once more to go, my lord;   (source)
    importune = urge
  • I am dying, Egypt, dying; only
    I here importune death awhile, until
    Of many thousand kisses the poor last
    I lay upon thy lips.   (source)
    importune = beg
  • You hear how he importunes me:   (source)
    importunes = begs persistently and urgently
  • go and importune her.   (source)
    importune = beg persistently and urgently
  • Against all sense you do importune her.   (source)
  • So please you, he is here at the door and importunes access to you.†   (source)
  • He importuned me to tell him what it was.†   (source)
  • Now he importunes him To tell it o'er: go to; well said, well said.†   (source)
  • I seemed to decline it a while, but suffered myself to be importuned a little, and then yielded.†   (source)
  • Tell him the daughter of the King of France, On serious business, craving quick dispatch, Importunes personal conference with his Grace.†   (source)
  • It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.†   (source)
  • The importance of commerce, in the view of revenue alone, must effectually guard it against the enmity of a body which would be continually importuned in its favor, by the urgent calls of public necessity.†   (source)
  • No, Sir, said the other, nothing at all except the enjoyment of your good company: and so gave over importuning him.†   (source)
  • If I have not therefore importuned you on this head, you will impute it only to my fear of offending the lady, by endeavouring to hurry on so blessed an event faster than a strict compliance with all the rules of decency and decorum will permit.†   (source)
  • He wept, he entreated, he promised, he flattered, he importuned, he pretended with so much feeling and apparent sincerity, that he overthrew the virtuous resolves of Camilla and won the triumph he least expected and most longed for.†   (source)
  • Her uncle kept her in great seclusion and retirement, but for all that the fame of her great beauty spread so that, as well for it as for her great wealth, her uncle was asked, solicited, and importuned, to give her in marriage not only by those of our town but of those many leagues round, and by the persons of highest quality in them.†   (source)
  • She continued importuning me several days, but it was impossible, I told her, for me to commit the secret to anybody.†   (source)
  • He pressed me to tell him what it was troubled me, but I put it off, till at last, importuning me continually, I was forced to form a story, which yet had a plain truth to lay it upon too.†   (source)
  • Well, he importuned me not to talk of going; he assured me he had no dishonourable thing in his thoughts about me, and was very far from offering anything to me that was dishonourable, and if I thought so, he would choose to say no more of it.†   (source)
  • This was the most provoking thing he could have said to me, for I really wanted his further importunities, that I might be prevailed with to bring out that which indeed it was like death to me to conceal; so I answered him plainly that I could not say I was glad not to be importuned, thought I could not tell how to comply.†   (source)
  • Nor need'st thou much importune me to that Whereon this month I have been hammering.†   (source)
  • The king mine uncle is to blame for this: God will revenge it; whom I will importune With earnest prayers all to that effect.†   (source)
  • MOS: And, on first advantage Of his gain'd sense, will I re-importune him Unto the making of his testament: And shew him this.†   (source)
  • Gentlemen, importune me no further, For how I firmly am resolv'd you know; That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder.†   (source)
  • Both have sinned; but thou
    Against God only; I against God and thee;
    And to the place of judgement will return,
    There with my cries importune Heaven; that all
    The sentence, from thy head removed, may light
    On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe;
    Me, me only, just object of his ire!†   (source)
  • which compelled
    Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come
    And gaze, and worship thee of right declared
    Sovran of creatures, universal Dame!†   (source)
  • We shall write to you As time and our concernings shall importune, How it goes with us; and do look to know What doth befall you here.†   (source)
  • My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them, While I, their king, that thither them importune, Do curse the grace that with such grace hath blest them, Because myself do want my servants' fortune.†   (source)
  • Our general's wife is now the general;— I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts and graces:—confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again: she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested: this broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.†   (source)
  • Say that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives, to whom, thyself art witness, I am betroth'd; and art thou not asham'd To wrong him with thy importunacy?†   (source)
  • He then told me he was resolved not to differ with me in anything, and that therefore he would importune me no more about it, resolving to acquiesce in whatever I did or said; only begged I should then agree, that whatever it was, it should no more interrupt our quiet and our mutual kindness.†   (source)
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