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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
insistent
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
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▪ The knock came again, harder, more insistent.
▪ But he only became more insistent and began fumbling and pushing at us.
▪ Celtic's pressure, though, was more insistent than incisive and the visitors defended comfortably enough.
▪ Of course after that they were more insistent and unmanageable than ever.
▪ Before the quick rush of protectiveness was swamped by the passionate need growing more insistent the longer he stayed.
▪ The throbbing grew louder, more insistent.
▪ There was no doubt that they had regained their appetites and one was more insistent in its demands for assuagement than the rest.
▪ Although the entire council has supported that position, Evans, Harris and Yocum have been more insistent on its definite closure.
so
▪ Why so insistent that we leave tonight?
▪ There was something so insistent in his voice that I dared not refuse, even though I was exhausted.
▪ The sun was so bright, so insistent, it robbed the grass of colour.
very
▪ They're very insistent on this.
▪ John was very insistent that he did things because he hated me.
▪ You were very insistent about going back for him.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the insistent pressure of fear
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Insistent

Insistent \In*sist"ent\, a. [L. insistens, -entis, p. pr. of insistere.]

  1. Standing or resting on something; as, an insistent wall.
    --Sir H. Wotton.

  2. Insisting; persistent; persevering.

  3. (Zo["o]l.) See Incumbent.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
insistent

1620s, "standing on something," from Latin insistentem (nominative insistens), present participle of insistere (see insist). Meaning "dwelling firmly on something asserted" is from 1868. Related: Insistently.

Wiktionary
insistent

a. 1 (context obsolete English) stand or resting on something. 2 urgent in dwelling upon anything; persistent in urging or maintaining. 3 extort attention or notice; coercively stare or prominent; vivid; intense. 4 (context ornithology English) Standing on end: specifically said of the hind toe of a bird when its base is inserted so high on the shank that only its tip touches the ground: correlated with incumbent.

WordNet
insistent
  1. adj. persistently continual; "the bluejay's insistent cry" [syn: repetitive]

  2. demanding attention; "clamant needs"; "a crying need"; "regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous"- H.L.Mencken; "insistent hunger"; "an instant need" [syn: clamant, crying, exigent, instant]

Usage examples of "insistent".

I needed to know in Vo Astur, and the invitations from the Ducal Palace were becoming more and more insistent, so I thanked the priests for their hospitality and left town before daybreak the following morning.

The birth was due at any time now, and Betta was insistent about wanting to use the name Amanda if it was a girl.

Only dimly aware of anything beyond the sharp needles of pleasure that bombarded her senses with every hard pull of his mouth on the tender tip, Aliya responded mindlessly to his insistent tug on the back of her knees, drawing up first one and then the other.

He had hated the insistent compulsions from Carida, but now he was left alone with his own thoughts--noto one else inside his skull to taunt him, or to guide him.

Once by an excited coastguardsman of my acquaintance and once by a lieutenant, a calmer man but equally insistent that I should come.

His ringed cockhead now pressed bluntly at her anus, its pressure slow, steady, insistent.

South - vague, but always insistent rumors that the addiction to such drugs as morphine and cocaine was becoming a veritable curse to the colored race in certain regions.

And the lights continued to signal the same letter over and over, as if for insistent emphasis, and that third letter of the futhark is the rune called thorn.

The distressed, insistent voice of the orderly hummed through the communicator.

Portolis was insistent, maintaining that any lesser action would leave him meanspirited in his own eyes.

The complaints of the Newfoundlanders became more frequent, more insistent, and more emphatic.

Hitler had been so insistent that Kolff inspect Nordhausen that he deemed it prudent to fly directly to that extraordinary site, and within two and a half hours they were landing at a secret airstrip on the southern rim of the Harz Mountains.

For long we saw nothing of the beings whose sounds were so abundant and insistent.

And the more he thought about it, the more insistent grew the claims of little Bourcelles, and the more that portentous Scheme for Disabled Thingumabobs faded into dimness.

The shrilling of the syrinx and the insistent thudding of the tympanon seem louder now.