importune

In the Book of Samuel, Israelites importune its eponymous judge to “Give us a king to rule over us, like all the other nations.”

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024

“The needs are too great. And if we pass a strong package with strong bipartisan support, it will importune the House somehow or other to act, despite the morass they are in.”

From Washington Times ● Oct. 16, 2023

They aren’t here to importune men for anything.

From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2019

And too many of the works are so large, and importune the visitor so aggressively, that one feels hectored by hectares of art.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2015

She seemed to be tired of my questions: and, indeed, what claim had I to importune her?

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

In the novel, the Mongoose importunes Ashok to remarry; it is actually Ms. Uma, a former lover whom Ashok reconnects with after his separation from Pinky, who appears to suggest that Balram be replaced.

From Slate ● Jan. 22, 2021

The High Line, incidentally, provides an ideal platform for public art that importunes without annoying—unlike most of its kind today, which tends to fail as civic symbolism or as art, if not both.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2014

When Aaron ignores him, Teddy importunes Lea in a grocery store and invites himself to her husband’s 40th-birthday bash.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2013

At length, disarm'd, He calls his friends, that save him, his worst foes, And importunes the skies for swift perdition.

From The Revenge A Tragedy by Edward Young

My heart overflows with hatred; the presence of my best friend weighs me down; the memory of a pure and noble love importunes and troubles me, and then—it is cowardly and unworthy.

From Mysteries of Paris, V3 by Eugène Sue

The son must endure the gall of being mocked and seeing his mother importuned by greedy suitors who feast nightly on the family’s stores.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Instead of writing “The verbiage from the campaigners importuned the dispossession of their statesmen,” write “The protestors demanded the resignations of their congressional representatives.”

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

He had importuned a doctor in Atlanta to play messenger boy for him.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2019

That, they believe, will maximise the number of congressmen being importuned by victims to repeal the offending law, says John Weekes, a former Canadian ambassador to the WTO who now practises trade law.

From Economist ● Jun. 18, 2015

“Rob, this is Helen at Base Camp,” Wilton importuned, sounding as if she was on the brink of tears.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

PolitiFact is Exhibit A. NewsGuard’s James Warren once sent us an importuning query objecting to something in an op-ed we had published.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

It had to be around here someplace, but Michael R. Jackson could not readily locate his Pulitzer Prize certificate when an importuning visitor asked for a look.

From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

And they have never stopped importuning the federal government—sometimes to pass restrictive immigration laws or to enforce more aggressively, other times to facilitate immigration or to keep federal agents out of their jurisdictions.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2020

When the issue of men convicted of importuning was raised in Parliament before the Turing law passed, former Home Office minister Sam Gyimah said they were not eligible.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2019

Zooey watched her for a full minute or so, then said, not precisely kindly, but without importuning, “Franny. What about it? Shall I try to get Buddy on the phone?”

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger