importunities

Noun

importunity (countable and uncountable, plural importunities)

1. (uncountable) Constant and insistent demanding or proposing, especially if regarded as annoying or upsetting; also, the character of such behaviour; (countable) an instance of this.
   • And he [Jesus] ſayde vnto thẽ [them]: which of you ſhall have a frende and ſhall goo to hym att mydnyght⸝ and ſaye vnto hym: frende lende me foure loves for a frende of myne is come out off the waye to me⸝ and I have nothynge to ſett before hĩ [him]⸝ And he within ſhall andſwer and ſaye: Trouble me...1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xj:[5–8], folio xciiij, recto
2. (obsolete, uncountable) The fact of being at an inappropriate or unsuitable time; unseasonableness.
   • Speake not, where there is no audyence: and poure not forth wyſzdome out of tyme, at an importunyte.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Ecclesiasticus...
3. (obsolete, uncountable) Persistence in behaviour; determination, perseverance, stubbornness.
   • I beſech the [thee] with what colours coude more workmanly haue be paynteth and ſet out eyther venymous entycementes and wanton pleaſures of the poyſoned fleſſhe⸝ prouokyng ⁊ temptynge the ſoule to fylthynes of ſynne⸝ or elſe the importunytye of the ſame cryenge and ſtryuyng agaynſt the ſpiryte⸝ or...1533 November 25 (Gregorian calendar), Erasmus of Roterdame, “Of Thre Partes of Man⸝ the Spiryte⸝ the Soule⸝ and the Flesshe”, in [William Tyndale], transl., A Booke Called in Latyn Enchiridion...
4. (obsolete, uncountable) The quality of being annoying or troublesome; difficulty, trouble; (countable) an instance of this.
   • [V]ery often the Importunity and Violence of the Cough vvas to be appeaſed by Elixir Aſthmaticum, Diacodium, &c.1750, John Huxham, “Of the Peripneumony and Pleuro-peripneumony”, in An Essay on Fevers, and Their Various Kinds, as Depending on Different Constitutions of the Blood: […], London: […] S. Austen...