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

And at the same time I fear to importune it too much, because I do not know what might happen then.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

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

“The ‘medium’ again importunes, first, ‘Mr. Seybert,’ and next the ‘spirits,’ to rap; and the importunities are repeated.

From The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters by Davenport, Reuben Briggs

If by any chance he finds me alone, he importunes me to make a tryst with him and save him from death because of a broken heart.

From The Touchstone of Fortune by Major, Charles

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

But Graham’s importuning of Trump seemed to have failed, and the senator was none too happy to be confronted with evidence of it.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 22, 2019

I remember that the aide who came into the room held my hand without asking me, which seemed like a little bit of an importuning gesture.

From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2018

The old man snatched at his shoulder, importuning him still in a language unknown to me.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson