What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Importune vs Insist - What's the difference?

importune | insist |

As verbs the difference between importune and insist

is that importune is while insist is to hold up a claim emphatically.

importune

English

Verb

(importun)
  • To bother, trouble, irritate.
  • * , II.17:
    • To deliberate, be it but in slight matters, doth importune me.
  • To harass with persistent requests.
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 1
    • You were kneel'd to, and importun'd otherwise / By all of us;.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Their ministers and residents here have perpetually importuned the court with unreasonable demands.
  • To approach to offer one's services as a prostitute, or otherwise make improper proposals.
  • (obsolete) To import; to signify.
  • * Spenser
    • It importunes death.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Grievous, severe, exacting.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vi:
    • And therewithall he fiercely at him flew, / And with importune outrage him assayld [...].
  • (obsolete) inopportune; unseasonable
  • (obsolete) troublesome; vexatious; persistent
  • * Spenser
    • And their importune fates all satisfied.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Of all other affections it [envy] is the most importune and continual.

    Related terms

    * importunate ----

    insist

    English

    Alternative forms

    * ensist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hold up a claim emphatically.
    • (I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To demand continually that something happen or be done.
  • To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
  • * 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis
    • Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs