IMPERTINENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Impertinent

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/ɪmpˈərtənənt/ Listen

adjective

Impertinent adj.

Not pertinent; not pertaining to the matter in hand; having no bearing on the subject; not to the point; irrelevant; inapplicable. "Things that are impertinent to us." "How impertinent that grief was which served no end!"

Contrary to, or offending against, the rules of propriety or good breeding; guilty of, or prone to, rude, unbecoming, or uncivil words or actions; as, an impertient coxcomb; an impertient remark.

Trifing; inattentive; frivolous.

Synonyms: Rude; officious; intrusive; saucy; unmannerly; meddlesome; disrespectful; impudent; insolent. Impertinent, Officious, Rude. A person is officious who obtrudes his offices or assistance where they are not needed; he is impertinent when he intermeddles in things with which he has no concern. The former shows a lack of tact, the latter a lack of breeding, or, more commonly, a spirit of sheer impudence. A person is rude when he violates the proprieties of social life either from ignorance or wantonness. "An impertinent man will ask questions for the mere gratification of curiosity; a rude man will burst into the room of another, or push against his person, inviolant of all decorum; one who is officious is quite as unfortunate as he is troublesome; when he strives to serve, he has the misfortune to annoy." See Impudence, and Insolent.

noun

Impertinent n. An impertinent person. (R.)

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Etymology of 'Impertinent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Impertinent" Quotes from Famous Books

... in no impertinent tone, but in the low voice of one who "shall whisper out of the dust." He had not yet recovered from the first impression of his awakening, that the world in which he now stood was ...

— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... to have made but little use of the life of Dr. King, prefixed to his works, in three vols. 1776; to which it may not be impertinent to refer the reader. His talent for humour ought to be praised in the highest terms. In that, at least, he yielded to none of ...

— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson

... viciously the prairie-dogs for standing on their tails and chipchip-chipping at them as they went by. And though the Silent One did not swear, he carried rocks in his pockets, and threw them with venomous precision at every "dog" that showed his impertinent nose out of a burrow within range. For Pink, he vented his spleen on the ...

— Rowdy of the Cross L • B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower

... repayment of former favours? He had a motive for forgetting them: he denied all knowledge of his friends and comrades, and wished men only to see, to think, and to speak of him as emperor. He regarded his old friend as an impertinent meddler. ...

— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... may doubt and cavil; I took it simply from the Bible, in the words that God's wisdom teacheth, and thus I argued: "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: I am a sinner; I want to be saved: he will save me." There is no presumption in taking God at his word: not to do so is very impertinent: I did it, ...

— Personal Recollections • Charlotte Elizabeth

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