"Importune" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... wretched Mary, and to have loved her was crime enough to deserve early death! No sooner had the victim formed a kind thought of me, than the poisoned cup, the axe and block, the dagger, the mine, were ready to punish them for casting away affection on such a wretch as I am!—Importune me not—I will fly no farther—I can die but once, ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott
... England and of Whitelocke's business; whom the Prince persuaded to stay in patience for an answer, and he doubted not but that he would receive satisfaction. Whitelocke said that hitherto he had been very patient, and would continue so, and not importune anybody to speed his answer, being it concerned both nations; and he believed that Sweden would be as well disposed to entertain the amity of England as England had been in the offer of it. But Whitelocke thought ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... [1846].—I am now led more and more to importune the Lord to send me the means, which are requisite in order that I may be able to commence the building. Because (1) it has been for some time past publicly stated in print, that I allow it is ...
— Answers to Prayer - From George Mueller's Narratives • George Mueller
... duty To pregnant sister in prime beauty, Whom well I deeme (e're few months elder) Will take out Hans from pretty Kelder, And to the sweetly fayre Mabella, A match that vies with Arabella; In each respect but the misfortune, Fortune, Fate, I thee importune. ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace
... with alarm at his delaying while flight was still open to him. She could scarce calm herself to answer: "Go hence, Sir Archie! You must tarry no longer to importune me." "There is something I would say to you, Elsalill," said Sir Archie, and his voice became more tender as he spoke. "When first I saw you, my only thought was of tempting and beguiling you. In the beginning I promised you riches in jest, but ...
— The Treasure • Selma Lagerlof
... 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? I cannot tell. Now that I feel nothing, it has stopped, has perhaps gone down again into its darkness, from which who can say whether it will ever rise? Ten times over I must essay the task, must lean down over the ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust
... in general, touching the affection of envy; that of all other affections it is the most importune and continual. For of other affections there is occasion given but now and then; and therefore it was well said, Invidia festos dies non agit:[46] a for it is ever working upon some or other. And it is also noted that love and envy do make a man pine, which other affections do not, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I • Francis W. Halsey
... swine-herd, charged him thus. These to the stranger; whom advise to ask Some dole from ev'ry suitor; bashful fear Ill suits the mendicant by want oppress'd. He spake; Eumaeus went, and where he sat Arriving, in wing'd accents thus began. Telemachus, oh stranger, sends thee these, And counsels thee to importune for more 420 The suitors, one by one; for bashful fear Ill suits the mendicant by want oppress'd. To whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied. Jove, King of all, grant ev'ry good on earth To kind Telemachus, and the complete Accomplishment of all that he desires! He said, ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... your chief to believe lies, and so wicked as to be willing to expose his life to so many dangers? You are a worthless fellow, and he ought to put you to death more cruelly than we do our enemies. I am not astonished that he should so importune us on the assurance of ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain V3 • Samuel de Champlain
... 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 ...
— The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &c. • Daniel Defoe
... the last year presented to Congress several notes, respecting which no answer has been given me. I have reason to believe, however, that it has taken resolutions on many of these notes. Not to importune Congress by reiterations, I pray you to be pleased to inform me of what has passed on this subject, and especially with regard to the ratification of the contract entered into between the King and the United States, for the various loans, which his Majesty has made them, and concerning ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI • Various
... am writing you without date or place, just as I shall write my father, because whatever happens, I insist that you two let me go my way in peace, without trying to find, or hamper, or importune me. My mind is fully made up. Nothing can change it. We have come to the parting of the ...
— The Air Trust • George Allan England
... said Tadeo to the King, with his usual gloomy decision of manner, "it was unnecessary to importune your majesty by such reports, seeing that they are merely lying devices of the evil-disposed. And even were it true that many visits are paid to that palace, its master has right and ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various
... cut up, cut to the heart. displease, annoy, incommode, discompose, trouble, disquiet; faze, feaze^, feeze [U.S.]; disturb, cross, perplex, molest, tease, tire, irk, vex, mortify, wherret^, worry, plague, bother, pester, bore, pother, harass, harry, badger, heckle, bait, beset, infest, persecute, importune. wring, harrow, torment, torture; bullyrag; put to the rack, put to the question; break on the wheel, rack, scarify; cruciate^, crucify; convulse, agonize; barb the dart; plant a dagger in the breast, plant a thorn in one's ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... but Mr. Clifford, who had remained below collecting words from some intelligent natives, was strongly recommended by Ookooma to go back to the boat; he walked up, however, without opposition, to the cave which we had been examining, and they ceased to importune him. A number of little boys who had observed us occasionally pulling flowers and plants, ran about collecting for us, and after presenting what they had gathered, with much politeness, ran away laughing with an arch expression ...
— Account of a Voyage of Discovery - to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island • Captain Basil Hall
... lights, he proceeded like a man who is intoxicated. As he walked thus with haggard eyes, did he have a distinct perception of what might result to him from his adventure at D——? Did he understand all those mysterious murmurs which warn or importune the spirit at certain moments of life? Did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed the solemn hour of his destiny; that there no longer remained a middle course for him; that if he were not henceforth the best of men, he would be the worst; ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... blaspheme at fortune! I "threw Venus" (Ben, expound!) Never did I need importune Her, of all the Olympian round. Blessings on my benefactress! Cursings suit—for aught I know— Those who twitched her by the back tress, Tugged and thought ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke
... had used his Authority to Suppress them: But he with his Merchants living always ashore, there was no Command; and therefore every Man did what he pleased and encouraged each other in his Villanies. Now Mr. Harthop, who was one of Captain Swan's Merchants, did very much importune him to settle his Resolutions, and declare his Mind to his Men; which at last he consented to do. Therefore he gave warning to all his Men to come Aboard the ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55 • Various
... woman held her peace; but she said in herself, "There is no help but that I search this basket and know what is there." So she egged on her children and enjoined them to ask him of the pannier and importune him with their questions, till he should tell them what was therein. They presently concluded that it contained something to eat and sought every day of their father that he should show them what was therein; and he still ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton
... new-hatched spiders, Come out with the morning to greet our riders. 390 And up they wound till they reached the ditch, Whereat all stopped save one, a witch That I knew, as she hobbled from the group, By her gait directly and her stoop, I, whom Jacynth was used to importune 395 To let that same witch tell us our fortune. The oldest gypsy then above ground; And, sure as the autumn season came round, She paid us a visit for profit or pastime, And every time, as she swore, for ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... Graevenitz, Landhofmeisterin de Wirtemberg.—In view of a great change impending in my dukedom, I command you to depart instantly from my court of Ludwigsburg. You are at liberty to reside at any of the castles you have obtained from me, but I forbid you to venture into my presence or to importune the members either of my government or of my court. You have refused obedience to my commands, delivered by my Finance Minister, Baron Schuetz, and by various high law officials. I now make known to you that such future defiance will be punished as traitorous to me. Here is my warrant ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay
... to be stationed together, "C" and "I" among them, and Miss Loomis returned to Chicago. "I'll never forgive you as long as I live," said Margaret. "I know just why you won't stay, and you needn't have worried yourself,—he's far too proud to importune a woman who ...
— Under Fire • Charles King
... resolved to stay at my house myselfe; and to looke after my charge, trusting in the providence and goodnesse of God.' Prisoners poured in in larger numbers than he could receive and guard in fit places, and he was continually forced to importune for money lest the prisoners should starve. It was then, perhaps, that Evelyn was thrown most in contact with his intimate friend Pepys, for both of them remained steadfast when others had fled. And they had their reward in coming safely through their trial of faithfulness to official duty. 'Now ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn
... and your comfortable news: This ring, the certain sign you met with him: Binds me in duteous love unto your grace; But on my knees I fall, and humbly crave Importune that no more you ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various
... highly persistent feeling, perhaps more so than any other that can be named. Envy is defined as hatred of another for some excellence or success; and Bacon insists (Essay ix.), "Of all other affections envy is the most importune and continual." Dogs are very apt to hate both strange men and strange dogs, especially if they live near at hand, but do not belong to the same family, tribe, or clan; this feeling would thus seem to be innate, and is certainly a most persistent one. It seems ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... second Turk, this affair between the King my Lord and me. Second Turk, I call it, from the misfortunes which, through his Holiness's long delay, have grown out of it, and are now so vast and of so ill example that I know not whether this or the Turk be the worst. Sorry am I to have been compelled to importune your Majesty so often in this matter, for sure I am you do not need my pressing. But I see delay to be so calamitous, my own life is so unquiet and so painful, and the opportunity to make an end now so convenient, that it seems as if God of his goodness had brought his Holiness and ...
— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude
... ecstatic forgetfulness these last long years. Of course there was always the Almighty Power to whom one could pray, and who certainly could grant prayer if He chose. But it seemed to her an impertinence for ordinary insignificant beings to importune this remote and absolute God, so forbidding in His monotonous mystery. She had all the arrogance of intellect despite her remorseless limitations. Had she been granted the gift of creation,—in other words, a spark from the ...
— The Californians • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage[167] of the world. 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. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested: "But these impulses may be from below, not ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... did not cease to importune. As Aurelian had spoken of Portia, I too spoke of her, and refrained not from bringing freshly before his memory the characters of both my parents, and especially the services of my father. The Emperor was noways ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware
... principle, not to be perceived by human senses, nor appreciated by any chemical test. He has but one instinct, which is that he is to go to such and such a place, where he will find two persons whom he is to importune till they consent to undertake him; but whether he is to find these persons among the race of Chowbok or the Erewhonians themselves is not for him ...
— Selections from Previous Works - and Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals • Samuel Butler
... a time, man. I'll tell you what you shall do. 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 ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck
... my thought, my heart, my being's fortune, The search for thee my growth's first conscious date; For nought, for everything, I thee importune; Thou art my all, my ...
— Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... forth his best stringth, and set forth sundrie Theses, which by publick dispute he would defend against all men. Now Poliander y^e other proffessor, and y^e cheefe preachers of y^e citie, desired M^r. Robinson to dispute against him; but he was loath, being a stranger; yet the other did importune him, and tould him y^t such was y^e abilitie and nimblnes of y^e adversarie, that y^e truth would suffer if he did not help them. So as he condescended, & prepared him selfe against the time; and when y^e day came, the Lord did so help him ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford
... glaciem. To hold a woolf by the ears fontibus apros, floribus austrum Softer then the lippe of the ear More tractable then wax Aurem vellere. [Greek: Aeeritrimma]; frippon To picke owt the Ravens eyes. Centones Improbitas musce (an importune that wilbe soone awnswered but straght in hand agayne). Argentangina, sylver mumpes Lupi illum videre priores Dorica musa. To looke a ...
— Bacon is Shake-Speare • Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence
... 28,) with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is confirmed, rather than contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth book of Evagrius, and the complaints of the African Facundus, in his xiith book—de tribus capitulis, "cum videri doctus appetit importune...spontaneis quaestionibus ecclesiam turbat." See Procop. de Bell. Goth. l. ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... can importune a mother who is cut off from her own," said Mary, eager to make up for the jealousy she had excited. "Is this bonnie laddie yours, madam? Ah! I should have known it by ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge
... not startle your nerves and confuse your intellect with a history that, as yet, you could not understand. Do not importune me again; I ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens
... faction, if it should prove so, forbids our attempting it: except one of the consuls would be entreated for our safety, to undertake the guard of us home; then we should most readily adventure. In the mean time, it shall not be fit for us to importune so judicious a senate, who know how much they hurt the innocent, that spare the guilty; and how grateful a sacrifice to the gods is the life of an ingrateful person, We reflect not, in this, on Sejanus, (notwithstanding, ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson
... had rather owe every thing to your affection, and, I may add, to your reason, (for this immoderate desire of wealth, which makes ——— so eager to have you remain, is contrary to your principles of action), I will not importune you.—I will only tell you, that I long to see you—and, being at peace with you, I shall be hurt, rather than made angry, by delays.—Having suffered so much in life, do not be surprised if I sometimes, when left to ...
— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft
... incensing fire pruriently diffusing it selfe through my inward parts and hollow veines: and during the contemplate beholding of hir most rare and excellent beautie, a mellifluous delight and sweete solace constrained me thereunto. Thus disordinately beaten with the importune spur of vnsatiable desire, I found my selfe to be set vpon with the mother of loue, inuironed round about with hir flamigerous sonne, and inuaded with so faire a shape, that I was with these and others so excellent circumstances brought into such ...
— Hypnerotomachia - The Strife of Loue in a Dreame • Francesco Colonna
... overcharged. We too have walked through Monmouth Street; but with little feeling of 'Devotion': probably in part because the contemplative process is so fatally broken in upon by the brood of money-changers who nestle in that Church, and importune the worshipper with merely secular proposals. Whereas Teufelsdroeckh might be in that happy middle state, which leaves to the Clothes-broker no hope either of sale or of purchase, and so be allowed to linger there without molestation.—Something we would have given ...
— Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History • Thomas Carlyle
... for your munificence. The weed [Cigars] is very welcome, and you will have to answer for it if it induces me to importune you with some more columns. Meanwhile I send you the proofs of the second Berlioz article, together with a fresh provision of manuscripts, and with the next proofs ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: - Years of Travel as a Virtuoso" • Franz Liszt; Letters assembled by La Mara and translated
... not worth my salt. Ah, why did you run away? Why did you not pursue me, importune me until I wearied? ... perhaps gladly? There were times when I would have opened my arms had you been the worst scoundrel in the world instead of the dearest lover, the patientest! ...
— The Place of Honeymoons • Harold MacGrath
... do not importune me in a matter wherein the impulses of my heart make me but too ready to ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams
... be sure, the stress of the old thoughts would return; but at least they did not importune her waking hour. The drug gave her a momentary illusion of complete renewal, from which she drew strength to take up her daily work. The strength was more and more needed as the perplexities of her future increased. She knew that ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton
... any one would have me: for, thanks be to God, we have no traffic together. I am of a quite contrary humour to other men, for I always despise it; but when I am sick, instead of recanting, or entering into composition with it, I begin, moreover, to hate and fear it, telling them who importune me to take physic, that at all events they must give me time to recover my strength and health, that I may be the better able to support and encounter the violence and danger of their potions. I let nature work, supposing her to be sufficiently armed with teeth and claws ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... from those lips of thine, That have profan'd their scarlet ornaments And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine, Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents. Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee: Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows, Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example ...
— Shakespeare's Sonnets • William Shakespeare
... which was wont to be most dear to him does commonly after become the most disagreeable; and as it is accounted noble to forget and pass over little injuries, so it is to forget little friendships, that are no better than injuries when they become disparagements, and can only be importune and troublesome instead of being useful, as they were before. All Acts of Oblivion have, of late times, been found to extend rather to loyal and faithful services done than rebellion and treasons committed. For ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various
... malpia. Implacable vengxema. Implant enradiki. Implement ilo. Implicate impliki. Implied neesprimita. Implore petegi. Impolite malgxentila. Impolitic nesagxema. Import enporti. Importance graveco. Important grava. Importunate trudema. Importune trudi, trudigxi. Impose (put on) trudi. Impose on trompi. Impossible neebla. Impost imposto. Impostor trompanto. Impotence neebleco. Impoverish malricxigi. Impracticable nefarebla. Impregnable fortika. Impress impresi. Impress ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... this room, never, mademoiselle, until you give me hope; never will I cease to importune you until your heart relents towards the ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... committees, on purpose to break their measures and silence their clamours against the Church. However, since they could not come to any agreement in a form for divine service, he had a handsome opportunity for a release: for now they could not decently importune him any farther. To part smoothly with them, he assured their agents that, when they came to any unanimous resolve upon the matter before them, they might expect his friendship, and that he should be ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 212, November 19, 1853 • Various
... git LE SAGE, abattu Par le ciseau de la Parque importune; S'il ne fut pas ami de la fortune, Il fut toujours ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... remuneration of thy service in my own prosperity, find myself in the very rudiments of promotion; while thou, before thy time, and contrary to all the laws of reasonable progression, findest thy desire accomplished: other people bribe, solicit, importune, attend levees, entreat, and persevere, without obtaining their suit; and another comes, who, without knowing why or wherefore, finds himself in possession of that office to which so many people laid claim: and here the old saying is aptly introduced, 'A pound of good luck is worth a ton of merit.' ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... looked her in the face; her eyes met mine and dropped, then she stopped and looked round several times after unmistakeable gay women as they passed her, then went on again. Opposite the Adelphi she paused and looked at the theatre for a long time, a gentleman spoke to her, and seemed to importune her, she took no notice of him, and he left her. After walking on for a minute quickly she loitered and looked ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous
... Events, have oftenest something of the ghost in them; and are importune to human nature, longing for the Events themselves; all the more if they have proved abortional Treaties, and become doubly ghost-like or ghastly. Nevertheless the reader is to note well this Treaty of Warsaw, as important to Friedrich and him; and indeed it is perhaps ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XV. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... kept him in play good two months, without getting a step farther, at the end of which time, seeing the work draw to an end and bethinking himself that, an he brought not his amours to an issue in the meantime, he might never have another chance thereof, he began to urge and importune Bruno amain; wherefore, when next the girl came to the mansion, Bruno, having first taken order with her and Filippo of what was to be done, said to Calandrino, 'Harkye, gossip, yonder lady hath promised me a good thousand times to do that which thou wouldst have and yet doth nought ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio
... first advantage Of his gain'd sense, will I re-importune him Unto the making of his testament: And shew him this. [POINTING ...
— Volpone; Or, The Fox • Ben Jonson
... gravely; "you are the only person who could not disturb me, since my employment was making memorandums for a letter to yourself: with which, however, I did not desire to importune you, but that you have denied me the honour of even a five ...
— Cecilia vol. 2 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)
... listened to with much attention. They are by no means obtrusive; and as their fisheries supply them with a competent, if not an abundant subsistence, although they receive thankfully whatever we choose to give, they do not importune us by begging. Fish is, indeed, their chief food, except roots and casual supplies of antelope, which latter, to those who have only bows and arrows, must be very scanty. This diet may be the direct or the remote cause of the chief disorder which prevails ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks
... truth, that the wealthy are ready to bestow their money, but not to endure personal inconvenience. The following anecdote is told in illustration: A late nobleman was walking in St. James's Street, in a hard frost, when he met an agent, who began to importune his Grace in behalf of some charity which had enjoyed his support. "Put me down for what you please," peevishly exclaimed the Duke; "but don't ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon
... and he would charitably relieve Anthony from some of them, and study for the same profession. His cousin was grieved at this choice, so unfitted to the tastes and pursuits of his gay companion; but finding all remonstrance vain, he ceased to importune him on the subject, hoping that as time advanced, he would, of his own ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie
... trifles." There is more wilfulnesse and wrangling among them, than pertains to a sacred profession. But what person a man undertakes to act, he doth ever therewithal! personate his owne. Allthough they say, that in vertue it selfe, the last scope of our aime is voluptuousnes. It pleaseth me to importune their eares still with this word, which so much offends their hearing. And if it imply any chief pleasure or exceeding contentments, it is rather due to the assistance of vertue, than to any other supply, voluptuousnes being ...
— Literary and Philosophical Essays • Various
... himself compelled to do violence to your heart. Like Ulysses who, hearing the song of the Sirens, cried aloud to his rowers to unbind him, you will break your chains at the call of pleasure; you will importune me with your lamentations, you will reproach me as a tyrant when I have your welfare most at heart; when I am trying to make you happy, I shall incur your hatred. Oh, Emile, I can never bear to be hateful in your eyes; this ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... on the shore, that I may die in such peace as is left to a childless man. Why do you not answer me, Toussaint? Why will you not give us a last chance of peace? I must obey you at the city gate; but I will importune you here. Why will you not do as ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau
... up prayers &c. (worship) 990; whistle for. beg hard, entreat, beseech, plead, supplicate, implore; conjure, adjure; obtest[obs3]; cry to, kneel to, appeal to; invoke, evoke; impetrate[obs3], imprecate, ply, press, urge, beset, importune, dun, tax, clamor for; cry aloud, cry for help; fall on one's knees; throw oneself at the feet of; come down on one's marrowbones. beg from door to door, send the hat round, go a begging; mendicate[obs3], mump[obs3], cadge, beg one's bread. dance attendance on, besiege, knock ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... perezoso, -a sluggish. prfido, -a perfidious, treacherous. perfumado, -a sweet-scented, perfumed. perfume m. perfume, fragrance, sweet odor. pero conj. but, however. perpetuo, -a perpetual, continual. perro m. dog. perseguir pursue, importune, beset. persona f. person; ——s dramatis personae. pesar weigh, consider, be valuable, repent. pesar m. sorrow, trouble, repentance; a su —— in spite of himself. peso m. weight. pie m. foot; alzarse ...
— El Estudiante de Salamanca and Other Selections • George Tyler Northup
... that Mr. Dill needed time to think this over, for he said nothing more for a long while. Charming Billy half turned once or twice to importune his pack-pony in language humorously querulous, but beyond that he kept silence, wondering what freakish impulse drove Alexander P. Dill to Montana "to raise wild cattle for the Eastern markets." The very simplicity of his purpose and the unsophistication ...
— The Long Shadow • B. M. Bower
... if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. 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. On my saying, "What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within?" my friend suggested,—"But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, ...
— Essays, First Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... plainly dressed woman, but she had a manner which removed her entirely from the class of those who merely came to importune. There was absolute certainty in the eyes she fixed with steadiness on the man's face. He took her card, though ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... in my mind not to take it from him, and yet I could find no means to resist his importunity. At last I told him, I would accept of part of his present, and that I esteemed his respect in that as much as the whole, and that I would not have him importune me farther; so I took the ring and watch, with the horse and furniture as before, and made him turn all the rest into money at Leipsic, and not suffering him to wear his livery, made him put himself into a tolerable equipage, and taking a young Leipsicer into my service, ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe
... pleasant proposal to our lady of Cleri, at the great altar, when nobody else was in the church. "Ah! my dear lady, my little mistress, my best friend, my only comforter, I beg you to be my advocate, and to importune God to pardon me the death of my brother, whom I poisoned by the hands of that rascal, the Abbot of St. John. I confess this to you as to my good patroness and mistress; I know it is hard, but it will be the more glorious for you ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 487 - Vol. 17, No. 487. Saturday, April 30, 1831 • Various
... the stairs they were pounced upon by Percival, who had selected that coigne of vantage as least likely to attract his mother's attention, there to lay in wait for the cards of the unwary. He had been strictly forbidden to importune grown young ladies for dances unless they happened to be wall-flowers, and the injunction lay heavy on his soul. "I will ask girls other men ask," he muttered, darkly, "I hate putting up with refuse ...
— Princess • Mary Greenway McClelland
... and domestic futilities. The poem is a great poetic Mansion, with many chambers, and he will lead us sooner or later to its inner shrine; but on the way there are "closets to search and alcoves to importune,"— ...
— Robert Browning • C. H. Herford
... young daughters to me daily to importune me to choose a sweetheart for my son or for any other officer who happened to be at our headquarters. I know that one young officer was offered $100,000 to marry the daughter of one of the richest men in the town of Molo, ...
— An Ohio Woman in the Philippines • Emily Bronson Conger
... And door succeeds door; I try the fresh fortune— Range the wide house from the wing to the center. Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter. Spend my whole day in the quest,—who cares? But 'tis twilight, you see,—with such suites to explore, Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune! ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various
... still make answer to thy friends that importune thee to marry, adhuc intempestivum, 'tis yet unseasonable, and ever ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... in the shape of a mystic triangle. However, I would have none of these, though the king most earnestly impressed upon my mind that my choice was wholly unrestricted. At last, seeing my unconquerable repugnance, he ceased to importune me. ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville
... the young man followed her, and pressed her arm with little respect, but in a manner that expressed his imperious admiration. She hastened her steps. Seeing that she wished to escape an importune declaration, he became the more ardent; being determined to win a first favor from this woman, he risked all and said, ...
— The Chouans • Honore de Balzac
... I will speak but once; by the same power You make my blood a stranger unto yours, You may command me dead, and so much love A stranger may importune, pray you do; If this request appear too much to grant, Adopt me of some other Family, By your unquestion'd word; else I shall live Like sinfull issues that are left in streets By their regardless Mothers, and no name ...
— A King, and No King • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... of Irish linen. He moved eagerly forward, but the girl made a gesture and gave him a look which checked him suddenly. She said, coldly, "I am here, as I promised. I believed your assertions, I yielded to your importune lies, and said I would name the day. I name the 1st of April —eight in the ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... and his fellow-accomplices of the law were plotting to get the wretched woman placed in some private asylum. Bloomingdale and Flushing asylums were full, and as she continued to follow her whilom lover and importune him to visit her, he found it politic and convenient to renew his attentions and to feign a revival of his passion. In a certain sense, he was to be pitied. Love of this kind begins as a gift; but a woman ...
— Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations • William Howe
... by HEINEMANN (six bob), The book relates the ceaseless battle Which they must wage whose steady job Is valeting a mob of cattle; And yet they pant to get a ship, For jobs the owners they importune At—mark you this!—one pound the trip! I wouldn't do it for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 12, 1916 • Various
... German Empire. Linnaeus, studying botany, was so poor as to be obliged to mend his shoes with folded paper and often to beg his meals of his friends. Columbus, the discoverer of America, had to besiege and importune in turn the states of Genoa, Portugal, Venice, France, England, and Spain, before he could get the control of three small vessels and 120 men. Hugh Miller, who became one of the first geological writers of his time, was apprenticed to a stonemason, and while working ...
— Life and Conduct • J. Cameron Lees
... repenting; First wed, and, if you find that life a fetter, Die when you please; the sooner, sir, the better. My wealth would get me love ere I could ask it: Oh! there's a strange temptation in the casket. All these young sharpers would my grace importune, And make me thundering votes of lives ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... diximus?—Manent illa omnia, iacet ista causa: veracis suos esse sensus dicit.—Igitur semper auctorem habes eum, qui magno suo periculo causam agat! Eo enim rem demittit Epicurus, si unus sensus semel in vita mentitus sit, nulli umquam esse credendum. 80. Hoc est verum esse, confidere suis testibus et importune insistere! Itaque Timagoras Epicureus negat sibi umquam, cum oculum torsisset, duas ex lucerna flammulas esse visas: opinionis enim esse mendacium, non oculorum. Quasi quaeratur quid sit, non quid videatur. Sed hic quidem maiorum similis: tu vero, qui visa sensibus alia vera dicas esse, alia falsa, ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... propose and support another candidate with the whole weight of his interest. The threat was galling. It was insinuated first to the aunt; and, when Hector was informed of it, he affected to vapour and treat it with defiance; but, on better consideration, he and the aunt thought proper to importune Olivia, hoping they should oblige her to comply. Threats and intreaties alike were vain. Her resolution was not to be shaken; and the Earl more openly declared that, if she should think proper to persist, he would beggar himself rather than Hector ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... me thus? Nay hear! he never ceas'd to importune That I would tell my father, I would wed; So press'd, and urg'd, that ...
— The Comedies of Terence • Publius Terentius Afer
... and have had little to do in anything but the management of my own affairs: or, if I have, it has been upon condition to do it at my own leisure and after my own method; committed to my trust by such as had a confidence in me, who did not importune me, and who knew my humour; for good horsemen will make shift to get service out of ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... spy, Have you a friend so fond as I? Have you a fault, to mankind known, Not hidden unto eyes your own? When airy castles you importune, Down falling, by the breath of Fortune, Did I e'er doubt you should inherit, If Fortune's wheel devolved on merit? It was not so; for Fortune's frown Still perseveres to hold you down. Then let ...
— Fables of John Gay - (Somewhat Altered) • John Gay
... la haute fortune, D'un roi trop indolent souverain absolu, Surcharge de travaux dont le soin L'importune. Bruhl, quitte des grandeurs L'embarras superflu. Au sein de ton opulence Je vois le Dieu des ennuis, Et dans ta magnificence Le repos fait ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach
... find out anything, or try to learn anything until the not knowing it has come to be a nuisance to you for some time. Then you will remember it, but not otherwise. Let knowledge importune you before you will hear it. Our schools and universities go ...
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler
... awhile, helping the progress of the acquaintance by bits of elucidation and compliment, then, when the thing was under way, withdrew so adroitly that she was not missed. A young man, coming up to importune Leslie for a promised dance, was allowed to carry her off; Miss Madison, assured by the capitano that he could dance the American waltz, trusted herself, though a little doubtfully, to his arms; and Charlie was ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall
... this frendly fayer society, I, a poore desolate virgin, so much bownd, Should putt you off with delatory trifles When you importune answer, t'would appeare In mee strange incivility: I am yours And, beeinge so, therefore ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen
... they ramble unconfin'd, No politics disturb their mind; They eat their meals, and take their sport, 25 Nor know who's in or out at court; They never to the levee go To treat as dearest friend, a foe; They never importune his grace, Nor ever cringe to men in place; 30 Nor undertake a dirty job, Nor draw the quill to write for B—b. Fraught with invective they ne'er go To folks at Pater-Noster-Row; No judges, fiddlers, dancing-masters, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith
... be done—nothing? Men of his stamp do not, as a general thing, see very deep even into those who are nearest to them; but to-night he saw his daughter's nature more fully perhaps than ever before. No use to importune her to act against her instincts—not a bit of use! And yet—how to sit and watch it all—watch his own passion with its ecstasy and its heart-burnings re-enacted with her—perhaps for many years? And the old vulgar saying passed through his ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... flattery? O'er plains they ramble unconfin'd. No politics disturb the mind; They eat their meals, and take their sport, Nor know who's in or out at court; They never to the levee go To treat as dearest friend, a foe; They never importune his Grace, Nor ever cringe to men in place; Nor undertake a dirty job, Nor draw the quill to write for Bob: Fraught with invective they ne'er go To folks at Pater-Noster Row: No judges, fiddlers, dancing-masters, No pickpockets, or poetasters, Are known to honest quadrupeds, No single brute ...
— English Satires • Various
... importune her daughter, and with tearful resignation said she would not attempt to influence her decision, that her happy settlement in life was the only anxiety that ...
— File No. 113 • Emile Gaboriau
... "Amanda, do not importune me further, I conjure you. Enough for you to know your guardian loves you, cherishes you even as if you were his child. Let us arise from table since our meal seems done;—what is it that alarms you?" Ah! And at that moment the report of a gun, the crashing ...
— The Advocate • Charles Heavysege
... a bundle of notes from the hiding-place in which I had deposited them. "Do you know," continued comte Jean, "I really think we shall find money enough here." He began to count them: and when he had finished he said, "My dear sister, neither your husband nor myself wish to importune you, or put you to any inconvenience, therefore you shall merely oblige him with the loan of these 50,000 livres to extricate him from his present peril; they shall be faithfully and quickly restored to you, and a note ...
— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon
... conclude, my grandam, he is dead. The king mine uncle is to blame for this: God will revenge it; whom I will importune With earnest prayers all to ...
— The Life and Death of King Richard III • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
... Jupiter seated on high looked down upon the world, he was incensed at the faults committed by mankind. "Let us," he said, "have some other occupants in the regions of the universe in place of these present inhabitants who importune and weary me. Go you to Hades, Mercury, and bring hither the cruellest of the furies. This time, O race that I have too tenderly nurtured, you ...
— The Original Fables of La Fontaine - Rendered into English Prose by Fredk. Colin Tilney • Jean de la Fontaine
... Paulding, "are never common beggars—never those who solicit in the street or importune from house to house. They try always to help themselves, and ask for aid only when in great extremity. They rarely force themselves on your attention; they suffer and die often in dumb despair. We find them in these dreary and desolate ...
— Cast Adrift • T. S. Arthur
... one has little patience with the foreign jugglers who annoy and importune travelers to witness performances of snake-charming, sleight of hand, and deceptive tricks generally, to the sound of a fife and drum, but we witnessed one exhibition at Yokohama in the open air, which was remarkable, not for any mystery about it, but as showing to what ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou
... constructed their lines and batteries they never ceased to importune the Europeans for assistance, and as it became clearer that the persons in possession of Shanghai were a mob rather than a power, the desire increased among the foreigners generally to put an end to what was an intolerable position. On this occasion the French took an initiative which ...
— China • Demetrius Charles Boulger
... I here importune death] [Theobald had regularized the versification and had added two words] Mr. Theobald's emendation is received by the succeeding editors; but it seems not necessary that a dialogue so distressful should be nicely regular. I have ...
— Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies • Samuel Johnson
... to answer, when the door opened, and the officer in waiting announced the Duke of Clarence. "Ha!" said Edward, "George comes to importune me for leave to depart to the government of Ireland, and I have to make him weet that I think my Lord Worcester a safer viceroy of ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... your mind is disturbed; but I hope that I may be able to be a trustworthy guide for you through life. You have been unwilling to accept me, and I will not importune you; but I must tell you that everything I ...
— Garman and Worse - A Norwegian Novel • Alexander Lange Kielland
... other. Sigh out a story of her cruel deeds, With interrupted accents of despair; A monument that whosoever reads, May justly praise and blame my loveless Fair; Say her disdain hath dried up my blood, And starved you, in succours still denying; Press to her eyes, importune me some good, Waken her sleeping pity with your crying: Knock at her hard heart, beg till you have moved her, And tell th'unkind how dearly I ...
— Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles - Delia - Diana • Samuel Daniel and Henry Constable
... Combray's papers more than ten drafts of petitions addressed to the Emperor's brothers, to Josephine, and even to foreign princes. But each of them had much to ask for himself, and all were afraid to importune the master. The latter was now in Germany, cutting his way to Vienna, and poor Mme. Acquet would have had slight place in his thoughts in spite of the illusions of her friends, had he ever even heard her name. In April the little Acquets returned ...
— The House of the Combrays • G. le Notre
... to receive, make us grateful, Eternal Father. This day we should go hungry except for Thy bounty. Without presuming to importune Thee, may we ask Thee to remember all who awake hungry ...
— The Dark Star • Robert W. Chambers
... edition of 1000 copies, and in a few days he saw reason to beg me to allow him to print 1500 copies. It will appear at the beginning of next month; and he already ventures to promise me that it will be sold before the end of the year, and that he shall be obliged to importune me a third time. The volume—a handsome quarto—costs a guinea in boards; it has sold, as my publisher expresses it, like a sixpenny pamphlet on the ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various
... did this kind wife of an ungrateful husband beg the life of Angelo; and she said: 'Gentle my liege, O good my lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part! Lend me your knees, and all my life to come I will lend you all my life, to do you service!' The duke said: 'Against all sense you importune her. Should Isabel kneel down to beg for mercy, her brother's ghost would break his paved bed, and take her hence in horror.' Still Mariana said: 'Isabel, sweet Isabel, do but kneel by me, hold up your hand, say nothing! I will speak all. They say, best ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb
... meanness, had failed to discharge. This gift the two brethren courteously and gratefully declined. Since James's accession to the English Throne there had been a great outcry against the Scots on account of the beggarly rabble who crossed the Tweed and came to Court to importune the King for 'auld debts' due to them by his Majesty; and Melville and his colleague were resolved that they would furnish the English people with another and a truer version of the character of their countrymen by leaving London poorer than when they came ...
— Andrew Melville - Famous Scots Series • William Morison
... proportion as he ceased to importune her, she grew kinder to him. She talked to him about his pictures, and the progress he was making. He showed her sketches of pictures that he intended to paint, but the word love was ...
— Marion Arleigh's Penance - Everyday Life Library No. 5 • Charlotte M. Braeme
... hopes, made him ready to ride to the Ford Adventurous. He had clad himself from basnet to shoes in steel, and mounted on a strong destrier, went his road to essay the Passage of the Thorn. Whilst he took his path the maiden took hers. She went furtively to the orchard, that she might importune God to bring her friend again, safe and sound to his own house. She seated herself on the roots of a tree, and with sighs and tears ...
— French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France • Marie de France
... person in the house? To this interrogation the stranger replied, without lifting up his head, "Overwhelmed as I am with Count Melvil's generosity, together with a consciousness of my own unworthiness, it ill becomes a wretch like me to importune him for further favour; yet I could not bear the thought of withdrawing, perhaps for ever, from the presence of my benefactor, without soliciting his permission to see his face in mercy, to acknowledge ...
— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett
... yours, I know, to draw at will Upon Futurity a bill, And Plutus to importune:— Discount the bill—take half yourself Give me the balance of the pelf. And both ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 341, Saturday, November 15, 1828. • Various
... England. The ladies at Otaheite, after they had pretty well stripped their lovers of shirts, found a method of clothing themselves with their own cloth. It was their custom to go on shore every morning, and to return on board in the evening, generally clad in rags. This furnished a pretence to importune the lover for better clothes; and when he had no more of his own, he was to dress them in new cloth of the country, which they always left ashore; and appearing again in rags, they must again be clothed. So that the same suit might pass through twenty different hands, ...
— A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1 • James Cook
... their fortunes: those who had conducted themselves like petty tyrants in their provinces, and on the frontiers, were now no more than governors: favours, according to the king's pleasure, were sometimes conferred on merit, and sometimes for services done the state; but to importune, or to menace the court, was no longer the ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton
... started post-haste for the capital. He found no signs either of poor Renee or of Banin, who had also disappeared. The Cure was nearly heart-broken. Each day, they told me, added a year to his appearance. He did not cease to importune the police chiefs and to haunt the public places for a glimpse of his niece's face. But the summer came, and no Renee. The Cure began to cough and grow weak. But one day in August the Director, good Prosper, called him down to the reception-room ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 6 • Various
... Father Once more to the Sheikh a-running, Catches at his Garment, crying— "Sheikh, my only Hope and Helper! One more Prayer! that God who laid Will take that Trouble from my Head!" But the Sheikh replied: "Remember How that very Day I warn'd you Better not importune Allah; Unto whom remains no other Prayer, unless to pray for Pardon. When from this World we are summon'd On to bind the pack of Travel Son or Daughter ill shall help us; Slaves we are and unencumber'd Best may do ...
— Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Salaman and Absal • Omar Khayyam and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... persons high in rank and station in life, without saying a word about overseers, churchwardens, and parishioners, the signatures of whom might be obtained at all times; but, established as my practice is, I would scorn to importune those gentlemen, and impertinently to place their names before the public in a position which every sensible man must declare to be that of extreme negligence, ignorance, or ...
— Observations on the Causes, Symptoms, and Nature of Scrofula or King's Evil, Scurvy, and Cancer • John Kent
... importation into their mowing lots, but there is a glory to the cone-flower beside which the glitter of a gold coin fades into paltry nothingness. Having been instructed in the decorative usefulness of all this genus by European landscape gardeners, we Americans now importune the Department of Agriculture for seeds through members of Congress, even Representatives of States that have passed stringent laws against the dissemination of "weeds." Inasmuch as each black-eyed Susan puts into daily operation the business methods of the white daisy, ...
— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al
... knows not, even risking life itself. Others more bold submit to an examination by the surgeon, which proves so painful at the time and causes so much subsequent suffering that they are now really content not to importune any more ...
— Intestinal Ills • Alcinous Burton Jamison
... and intent upon his sacrifices 29 continued to importune the gods of an empire that had already ceased to be his. First there came a rumour that some one or other of the senators was being hurried to the camp, then that it was Otho. Immediately people who had met Otho came flocking in from all quarters of Rome; some in their terror exaggerated ...
— Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II • Caius Cornelius Tacitus
... and with more clamorous prayer, I importune ye! Mock me no more with shadows! This sable mantle—tell, dread voice! ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... imposed upon him. Luther was well aware, as he himself told John, that matters of importance might easily be delayed at court, 'through the overwhelming press of business;' and that princely households had much to do, and it was necessary to importune them perseveringly. He knew his prince—that with the best will possible, he was not energetic enough with those about him; and among the latter he suspected that many were indifferent and selfish with regard to matters ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin
... dumb I shrink once more within my shell, Where unobtrusive pleasures dwell; True, I shall here by Fortune be forgot Her favors with my verse agree not well; To importune the gods beseems ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... best: Go down, and, lo! my poor shall minister, Out of their poverty, to thee; shall learn Compassion by thy frailty; and shall oft Turn back, when speeding home from work, to help Thee, weak and crippled, home. My little ones, Thou shalt importune for their slender mite, And pray, and move them that they give it up For love of Me.'" The curate answered him, "Art thou content, O great one from afar! If I may ask, and not offend?" He said, "I am. Behold! I stand not ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Jean Ingelow
... withdrawal from the society of those who in former days used to be called "the great"? At least he discovered this, that if he did wish to withdraw from their society, nothing in the world was easier. They did not importune him. He was free to go his own way. Perhaps this also wounded him; perhaps it was to revenge himself that he sought to increase his popularity with the crowd; at night he sang with a sort of bravado to bring ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... tout a l'heure; il faut ajouter maintenant: tout n'est que relation. Verite importune pour l'homme qui, dans le fatal courant ou il est plonge, voudrait trouver un point fixe s'arreter un instant, se faire illusion sur la vanite des choses! Verite feconde pour la science qui lui doit une intelligence nouvelle de la realite, une intuition infiniment plus ...
— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar
... Get on your cloake, & hast you to Lord Timon, Importune him for my Moneyes, be not ceast With slight deniall; nor then silenc'd, when Commend me to your Master, and the Cap Playes in the right hand, thus: but tell him, My Vses cry to me; I must serue my turne Out of mine owne, his dayes and times are past, And my reliances on ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... [sic—KTH]) were formerly, plural terminations; as, 'Manners makyth man.' William of Wykeham's motto. 'After long advisement, they taketh upon them to try the matter.' Stapleton's Translation of Bede. 'Doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune.' Bacon." The use of eth as a plural termination of verbs, was evidently earlier than the use of en for the same purpose. Even the latter is utterly obsolete, and the former can scarcely have been English. The Anglo-Saxon verb lufian, ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... out from some mysterious fold of her dress half a dozen sparkling stones which she is anxious to dispose of. Even the water carrier, with his huge red earthen jar strapped to his head and back, if he sees a favorable opportunity, will importune the stranger regarding these fiery little stones. These irresponsible itinerants have some ingenious way of filling up the cracks in an opal successfully for the time being; but, after a few days, the defect will ...
— Aztec Land • Maturin M. Ballou
... before such a combination of qualities. Then he began to talk. He has an air, that brigand; he can cock his head so as to deceive a bailiff; he can wear a certain nobility of countenance; and with it all he can importune like a beggar. He has a horrid and plausible fluency; he is deaf to denials; he drugs you with words and robs you before you recover consciousness. He had got the length of quoting my own verses to me, and I felt myself going, when ...
— The Second Class Passenger • Perceval Gibbon
... apace, All do reward expect of faith and duty; Now either thou must prove th' unkindest one, And as thou fairest art must cruelest be, Or else with pity yield unto their moan, Their moan that ever will importune thee. Ah, thou must be unkind, and give denial, And I, poor I, must ...
— Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles - Idea, by Michael Drayton; Fidessa, by Bartholomew Griffin; Chloris, by William Smith • Michael Drayton, Bartholomew Griffin, and William Smith
... true delicacy of spirit, which should have led him to remember they were his guests from necessity, and that to push a suit under such circumstances was not only indelicate but positively insulting. And yet he did so; true, he did not actually importune Miss Huntington, but his attentions and services were all rendered under that guise and aspect which rendered ...
— The Sea-Witch - or, The African Quadroon A Story of the Slave Coast • Maturin Murray
... otherwise known as the village of Brookville, do ask, beg, entreat, supplicate and plead the f'rgiveness of the Party of the Second Part, otherwise known as Miss Lydia Orr Bolton. And we also hereby request, petition, implore an' importune Miss Lydia Orr Bolton, otherwise known as the Party of the Second Part, to return to Brookville and make it her permanent place of residence, promising on our part, at all times hereafter, to save, defend, keep ...
— An Alabaster Box • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Florence Morse Kingsley |
