Crossword clues for importunity
importunity
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Importunity \Im`por*tu"ni*ty\, n.; pl. Importunities. [L. importunitas unsuitableness, rudeness: cf. F. importunit['e].] The quality of being importunate; pressing or pertinacious solicitation; urgent request; incessant or frequent application; troublesome pertinacity.
O'ercome with importunity and tears.
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "persistence, insistence; over-eagerness," from Middle French importunité (14c.), from Latin importunitatem (nominative importunitas) "unsuitableness; unmannerliness, incivility," from importunus "unfit, troublesome" (see importune).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) unseasonableness; an unsuitable or inappropriate time. 2 A constant and insistent demanding.
WordNet
Usage examples of "importunity".
Queen of England, my august mistress, has sent me to you, with the Earl of Kent and Sir Robert Beale, here present, to make known to you that after having honourably proceeded in the inquiry into the deed of which you are accused and found guilty, an inquiry which has already been submitted to your Grace by Lord Buckhurst, and having delayed as long as it was in her power the execution of the sentence, she can no longer withstand the importunity of her subjects, who press her to carry it out, so great and loving is their fear for her.
Thereupon lo, the King descended from his throne, and stripped to the loins, flinging away his glittering crown and his robes, and abased himself to the dust with loud cries and importunities and howls, and penitential ejaculations and sobbings.
Notwithstanding these repeated declarations, Ferdinand, who was well enough acquainted with the mind of man to know that such importunity is seldom or never disagreeable, redoubled his instances, together with his expressions of sympathy and esteem, until the stranger was prevailed upon to gratify his curiosity and benevolence.
Lytol wouldn't have noticed either Jaxom's importunities or Talina's entrance.
Justin yielded to the importunities of the Turks, who offered an alliance against the common enemy.
His own intelligence may indeed have easily anticipated that, when Ivanhoe sunk down, and seemed abandoned by all the world, it was the importunity of Rebecca which prevailed on her father to have the gallant young warrior transported from the lists to the house which, for the time, the Jews inhabited in the suburbs of Ashby.
And the lady being distressed by his importunity, and that, refuse as she might all that he asked of her, he none the less continued to love her and press his suit upon her, bethought her how she might rid herself of him by requiring of him an extraordinary and, as she deemed, impossible feat.
The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians, prevented the hasty departure from the scene of action.
Rex, though goodnatured, took very little interest in the Ultimas, but Mrs Midgeholme was obsessed by the fear that he would one day lose patience with their importunities and maul them hideously.
And then I thought of Lily and wondered how her days passed, and if my brother Geoffrey persecuted her to marry him, and whether or no she would resist his importunities and her father's.