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Insist   Listen
verb
Insist  v. i.  (past & past part. insisted; pres. part. insisting)  
1.
To stand or rest; to find support; with in, on, or upon. (R.)
2.
To take a stand and refuse to give way; to hold to something firmly or determinedly; to be persistent, urgent, or pressing; to persist in demanding; followed by on, upon, or that; as, he insisted on these conditions; he insisted on going at once; he insists that he must have money. "Insisting on the old prerogative." "Without further insisting on the different tempers of Juvenal and Horace."
Synonyms: Insist, Persist. Insist implies some alleged right, as authority or claim. Persist may be from obstinacy alone, and either with or against rights. We insist as against others; we persist in what exclusively relates to ourselves; as, he persisted in that course; he insisted on his friend's adopting it.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Insist" Quotes from Famous Books



... or more definitely formulated theories there has been in some quarters a disposition to insist too strongly on lines of mythical development connected with the plant world, particularly with the death and revival of vegetation. All that we know of the history of mythical material among existing savages and in ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy

... of money, father," replied Watty. "There is the hundred francs that Mr. Seymour gave me lying useless in the desk, and I insist upon your taking the half of it at least, to replenish the byre. But," added he, with a sigh, "without chamois-hunting I do not see how matters are to go with us. Do you know, father, I have been thinking that I might do something to earn ...
— Harper's Young People, December 9, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... Pecson with his clownish grin, "to celebrate the event there's nothing like a banquet in a pansiteria, served by the Chinamen without camisas. I insist, without camisas!" ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... With it there came a second, creating the author an officer of the Papal Order of St. Sylvester. The cardinal archbishop assured the delighted physician that such a double honour of brief and brevet was perhaps unprecedented, and suggested only that in a new edition of his book he should "insist a little more on the relation existing between the narratives of Genesis and the discoveries of modern science, in such fashion as to convince the most incredulous of their perfect agreement." The prelate urged also a more dignified title. ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... contrary, they will be punished for whatever breaches of Naval discipline they have committed. Considering what you gentlemen have admitted, however, I do not believe you would have any standing as witnesses before a court-martial. I therefore advise you all to drop your complaint. Yet if you insist on a complaint, then I will see to it that Midshipman ...
— Dave Darrin's Third Year at Annapolis - Leaders of the Second Class Midshipmen • H. Irving Hancock

... insist on the cession of certain of the Dalmatian islands, in order, as I have already pointed out, to assure herself a defensible eastern frontier, and though she will ask for Zara and possibly for Sebenico on the ground of their preponderantly ...
— The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the AEgean • Edward Alexander Powell

... that the princess was offended that Madame Stahl had seemed to avoid making her acquaintance. Kitty did not insist. ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... would deter me from taking those advantages which Letters enable me to procure for myself. If then I am to write no more (tho' as much out of my Profession as they may please to represent this Work, I suspect their modesty would not insist on a scrutiny of our several applications of this profane profit and their purer gains); if, I say, I am to write no more, let me at least give the Public, who have a better pretence to demand it ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith

... was never in a Lodge but twice, in his life; that he paid no attention to Masonry during the war; that in 1781 he declined being addressed by Masons as a brother Mason, and in 1798 was very particular to insist upon the fact that he had not been in a Lodge, but once or twice in 30 years, and knew nothing ...
— Washington's Masonic Correspondence - As Found among the Washington Papers in the Library of Congress • Julius F. Sachse

... the amendment contend that Congress have the right to insist on the prevention of involuntary servitude in Missouri; and found the right on the ninth section of the first article, which says "the migration or importation of such persons as the States now existing may think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 • Various

... matters with regard to Mr. Solmes and me come out as they will, my brother has succeeded in his views; that is to say, he has, in the first place, got my FATHER to make the cause his own, and to insist upon my compliance as an ...
— Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... Rao, and a slight note of disappointment rang in his voice, when he saw that the excursion, proposed and organized by himself, threatened to come to nothing. "What harm could be done by it? I won't insist any more that the 'incarnation of gods' is a rare sight, and that the Europeans hardly ever have an opportunity of witnessing it; but, besides, the Kangalim in question is no ordinary woman. She leads a holy life; she is a prophetess, and her ...
— From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan • Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky

... I came in the cyclone," Charlie would insist, nestling into the comfortable curve ...
— The Way of the Wind • Zoe Anderson Norris

... honor of settling this little trouble by herself since she is most interested in its suppression to insure the free navigation of the Mississippi River. Let the East stand aside. This is our war. We can end it successfully in two months. Illinois can whip the whole South by herself. We insist on the affair being turned ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... a Spaniard. His amaze The seamen greeted with profuser thanks For his most punctual thought and opportune Courtesy. None the less they must avouch It pained them much to see a cavalier Turned carrier; and, at once, they must insist On easing him of that too ...
— Collected Poems - Volume One (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... her guest. She led Clay to the massive stairway, but stopped at the first tread to call back an order over her shoulder. "Refer the officers to me if they insist on ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine

... basins. Of course we now know that tides and currents have no effect in the ocean depths, though their scouring effects near shore in shallow waters have locally had a marked effect in changing the relations of land and sea. Lamarck went so far as to insist that the ocean basin owes its existence and its preservation to the scouring action ...
— Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard

... gave this pretext for her visit, her ferret-like eyes were making the tour of the apartment. Besides, she did not insist, speaking immediately afterward of her son Pascal, on hearing the rhythmical noise of the pestle, which had not ceased ...
— Doctor Pascal • Emile Zola

... of enabling her to persuade you that this blaze of sunlight is the darkness of the great cavern whence we obtain our shining stones, that yonder sun is the day-old moon, or that she herself is young and beautiful. Therefore I am in nowise astonished that you insist upon my proofs being complete. I am fully aware that they will have to be so in order to convince you; and I promise you that they shall be. And now, a word of warning. It may be that Bimbane is cognisant of what has passed between us, for I doubt not that she watches your ...
— Through Veld and Forest - An African Story • Harry Collingwood

... cold-blooded girl like this, who has no strong attachment, is out of spirits, and all that sort of thing, then is the time she falls to any resolute wooer. She will yield if we both insist, and we will insist. Only keep your temper, and let nothing tempt you to say an unkind ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade

... their several duties, none quitting the station assigned to them: as for ourselves, we promise to prepare for the engagement at least as well as your previous commanders, and to give no excuse for any one misconducting himself. Should any insist on doing so, he shall meet with the punishment he deserves, while the brave shall be honoured with the ...
— The History of the Peloponnesian War • Thucydides

... of time, writers and thinkers will continue to insist upon the impossibility of such friendships; and to the end of time, men and women will persist in playing with this form of fire. For it is precisely the possibility of fire under the surface which lends its peculiar fascination to an experiment old as the Pyramids, yet eternally fresh as ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... as he read the letter—gratified in spite of his present frame of mind. Of course he would see her;—and of course, as he himself well knew, would take her again into favour. But he must insist on her carrying out her purpose of abandoning the marriage project. If, arising from this abandonment, there should be any coolness on the part of Sir Peregrine, Mr. Furnival would not regret it. Mr. Furnival did not feel quite sure whether ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... the greatest of his commandments. Before we leave this part of our subject let us examine 2 Cor. iii: 7, 9, 11, 15. I have been told that these verses clearly prove the abolition of the 10 commandments. It is admitted by all our opponents, that the change which they so much insist upon, respecting the commandments, took place at the crucifixion of our Lord. It is clear from ii Col: 14 that the hand-writing of ordinances (the law of Moses) was then taken out of our way, and all that was contrary to us, but the 10 commandments were never ...
— The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign - 1847 edition • Joseph Bates

... cheque-book with me. And I know that there are over a hundred thousand pounds in my account. As well as that, you hold securities for two hundred and fifty thousand more—my whole fortune. The money is not yours: it is mine. I draw it all out, and I insist on ...
— The Last Hope • Henry Seton Merriman

... touch of the keys from the fingers, and of whole chords from the wrist; to this I have added the scales in all the keys; but these should not be taught at first, with both hands together. The pupil may gradually acquire the habit of practising them together later; but it is not desirable to insist on this too early, for in playing the scales with both hands together the weakness of the fourth finger is concealed, and the attention distracted from the feeble tones, and the result is an unequal ...
— Piano and Song - How to Teach, How to Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of - Musical Performances • Friedrich Wieck

... isn't superstition, or mesmerism, or deception of some kind, why do you insist on all this mummery of soot and ashes for my friend and me?" King demanded. "Why do you use a temple full of Hindu idols to conceal your science, if it is a natural ...
— Caves of Terror • Talbot Mundy

... agent in perfecting substances is often likened by the alchemists to the conjoining of the male and the female, followed by the production of offspring. They insist on the need of a union of two things, in order to produce something more perfect than either. The agent, they say, must work upon ...
— The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry • M. M. Pattison Muir

... bodies, if necessary, to marry that noble booby. And you would have married him if it had not been for me! I would not permit you to wed him then, because you were in honor bound to Regulas Rothsay. I shall insist on your accepting him now, because poor Rothsay is in his grave, and this will be the best thing to do for you to help you out of harm's way from redskins and rattlesnakes and other reptiles. I don't think much ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... you will tell me, I hope, why you had to make it so hard. When I began to understand that you wouldn't let me talk of the matter to you, it made me more determined than ever. I suppose you didn't realize that I would insist on speaking even if you were quite discouraging. I dare say I couldn't have done it if I had been guilty, as you thought. You walked into my parlor to-day, never thinking I should dare. Well, now ...
— The Woman in Black • Edmund Clerihew Bentley

... Oh! might She but live another month, or week, or day! Her merciless Enemy listened to her complaints unmoved: She told her that at first She meant to have spared her life, and that if She had altered her intention, She had to thank the opposition of her Friends. She continued to insist upon her swallowing the poison: She bad her recommend herself to the Almighty's mercy, not to hers, and assured her that in an hour She would be numbered with the Dead. Perceiving that it was vain to implore this ...
— The Monk; a romance • M. G. Lewis

... Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratify Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on an even one-fifth allocation and challenges Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters; talks resume with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed in 2004 as both sides await an ICJ decision on contested oilfields ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... down post-haste and invade Hartledon, was of course only natural; and Lord Hartledon strove not to rebel against it. But she made herself so intensely and disagreeably officious that his patience was sorely tried. Her first act was to insist on a stately funeral. He had given orders for one plain and quiet in every way; but she would have her wish carried out, and raved about the house, abusing him for his meanness and want of respect to his dead wife. For peace' sake, he was fain to give her her way; ...
— Elster's Folly • Mrs. Henry Wood

... wounded man, smiling; "though if I had it, I could not use it. I was going to say I am glad you have taken it. A capital blade, my boy. Here, unbuckle the belt, and take it and the sheath. Yes, I insist. That's right. Keep it, lad, and don't, if we meet again, use it on me. No, no thanks; it is yours by right of capture. Now I want ...
— Crown and Sceptre - A West Country Story • George Manville Fenn

... but racehorses. When the Socialists have their way, may I advise them to keep up Government or communal racing studs and stables? What the betting is to be done in, if there is no money (which is contemplated as I understand), is not obvious. But the people will insist on having races, and what is a race without a bet? However, these considerations wander from the subject in hand. With a fourth of the population thinking about horses, a large proportion must dream about horses. Out of these dreams, perhaps one in one hundred and fifty thousand ...
— Punch Volume 102, May 28, 1892 - or the London Charivari • Various

... at its master's belt. They shuffled into the narrow passage beyond. But there remained the sense of things about them in the dark, things which Thrala continued to insist were harmless and yet which filled Garin ...
— The People of the Crater • Andrew North

... want nothing but you, dear. [She gives him a caress, to which he responds so passionately that she disengages herself]. There! be good now: remember that the doctors are coming this morning. Isnt it extraordinarily kind of them, Louis, to insist on coming? all of them, ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • George Bernard Shaw

... half share and not twenty-five per cent., and I must strongly insist that nobody shall know of my having anything to do with your bank. If I hear any rumours, I shall bet ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... doth particularly insist upon the inability of women, as to their well managing of the worship now under consideration, and therefore it ought not to be presumed upon by them. They are forbidden to teach, yea to speak in the church of God. And why ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... instead of replacing them with galvanized steel, which is of little service for outdoor wear. There are, I believe, only a few firms who now manufacture galvanized iron, but your architect can find them if you insist upon it. ...
— Shelters, Shacks and Shanties • D.C. Beard

... keen, was denuded of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, which she employed as embellishments; her false front and her collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible little bag of black silk on which old women insist on covering their skulls, and it was now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been pushed aside in sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression to the head, such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and nape of the neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,—the ...
— Pierrette • Honore de Balzac

... still maintain and insist that you are not suggestible and wonder if you will ever respond to hypnosis. Furthermore, the assurance I have given you up to this point doesn't seem to convince you. If you have tried diligently to achieve self-hypnosis, you ...
— A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis • Melvin Powers

... Frau Weil did not insist any longer. She knew her husband, knew his strictness in such matters, and also knew that the more she would plead with him the more fixed his purpose would become; but her forehead became rumpled with unpleasant thoughts, and she sat down ...
— A Little Garrison - A Realistic Novel of German Army Life of To-day • Fritz von der Kyrburg

... are wise, you may well know what ought to be concluded respecting him." But the kadi and the other Saracens insisted that he should declare his own opinion concerning Mahomet. "You may all see," said he, "what must be my opinion; and as you insist that I should speak out plainly, I must declare that your Mahomet is the son of perdition, and is in hell with his father the devil. And not him only, but all who have held his law, which is entirely ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... obvious, with the bare scaffolding of life: whenever we find an author interested in the circle of prime necessity we may be sure that he himself stands outside it. Thus the shepherd when he sang did not insist upon the conditions amid which his uneventful life was passed. It was left to a later, perhaps a wiser and a sadder, generation to gaze with fruitless and often only half sincere longing at the shepherd-boy asleep under the shadow of the thorn, lulled by the low monotonous rustle ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... have a real antipathy to the equal freedom of women. I believe they are afraid, not lest women should be unwilling to marry, for I do not think that any one in reality has that apprehension; but lest they should insist that marriage should be on equal conditions; lest all women of spirit and capacity should prefer doing almost anything else, not in their own eyes degrading, rather than marry, when marrying is giving themselves a master, and a master ...
— The Subjection of Women • John Stuart Mill

... mean to rent, to buy, or to build, the problem of where and what and how is before us. As folk of wholesome desires, we insist first of all upon good taste, comfort, and healthfulness in our habitats; and since we may agree upon the best way to attain these essentials without ignoring our personal preferences in details, we may profitably ...
— The Complete Home • Various

... the Americans, Altorius reluctantly allows his preservers to depart for their plane—unconscious that the priestly party is planning rebellion against his authority because he did not insist ...
— Astounding Stories, March, 1931 • Various

... evening, in reply to mine of same date, asking the condition on which I will accept the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say, that peace being my great desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon —namely, That the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms again against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged. I will meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you may name for the same purpose, at any point ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... Charteris: what's been going on here? I insist on knowing. Grace has not gone to bed: I have seen and spoken with her. What ...
— The Philanderer • George Bernard Shaw

... become well acquainted with him, and later even expressed dislike for his work. (See Lockhart, Vol. V, p. 408.) In 1825 he wrote to W.S. Rose, "I will subscribe for Dante with all pleasure, on condition you do not insist on my reading him." (Fam. ...
— Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature • Margaret Ball

... effect of immigration on our life is not as simple as the advocates of restriction insist. It is probable that the struggle of the working classes to improve their conditions is rendered more difficult by the incoming tide of unskilled labor. It is probable too that wages are kept down ...
— Modern American Prose Selections • Various

... from thence, on what point you are most to insist in preaching, and what chiefly to recommend in confessions. This knowledge will make, that nothing shall be new to you, nothing shall surprise or amaze you; it will furnish you with the address of conducting souls, and even with authority over ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... nations: "When I was at Ferney in 1764," Boswell relates, "I mentioned our design (of going to the Hebrides) to Voltaire. He looked at me as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, 'You do not insist on my accompanying you!' 'No, sir.' 'Then I am very willing you should go.'" In this remote, and, in the circles of London, almost unknown region, Flora Macdonald was born ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... Afterwards, when she became a saleslady in the Bagatelle, that flamboyant department store in Faber Street, she earned four dollars and a half a week. Two of these were supposed to go into the common fund, but there were clothes to buy; Lise loved finery, and Hannah had not every week the heart to insist. Even when, on an occasional Saturday night the girl somewhat consciously and defiantly flung down the money on the dining-room table she pretended not to notice it. But Janet, who was earning six dollars as a stenographer ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... feel at all certain of her ability to manage the double team on hilly country roads. Priscilla's father kept a horse, it was true, but he was a rather spirited animal, and neither Priscilla nor her mother ever attempted to drive him. "They'll all insist on my driving," thought Peggy, as she turned her face toward Dolittle Cottage. "And what if I should drive into a gully and spill them out? I've half a mind to go back and see if Mr. Cole can possibly ...
— Peggy Raymond's Vacation - or Friendly Terrace Transplanted • Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith

... of, that King Louis did not die; that he lay at death's door for precisely one week (8th-15th August), symptoms mending on the 15th. In the interim,—Grand-Almoner Fitz-James (Uncle of our Conte di Spinelli) insisting that a certain Cardinal, who had got the Sacraments in hand, should insist; and endless ministerial intrigue being busy,—moribund Louis had, when it came to the Sacramental point, been obliged to dismiss his Chateauroux. Poor Chateauroux; an unfortunate female; yet, one almost thinks, the best man among them: dismissed at Metz here, and like to ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XV. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... insist on it against your will, sir, but I do think my claim is just. Why, you'll soon come to realize the justice of it ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... him. When they reflected upon the mildness and magnanimity of Scipio Africanus they wondered yet more, for Scipio, after vanquishing the terrible and unconquered Hannibal in Libya, did not drive him into exile, or insist upon his countrymen delivering him up. He actually met him on friendly terms before the battle, and when he made a treaty with him after his victory he did not bear himself unseemly or insult his ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long

... stored long, especially where there is no dry storehouse. Therefore, crops can only be gathered just before the arrival of a steamer, making these last days very busy ones everywhere. It is fortunate for the planters that the native labourers are not yet organized and do not insist on an eight-hour day. As it was, Mr. Ch. had to leave more than half his crop to rot in the fields, a heavy rain ...
— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... these circumstances re-opened negotiations with his adversary. He was prepared to concede something more than he had proposed originally, and he had reason to believe that the Parthian monarch, having found the Roman resistance so stubborn, would be content to insist on less. The event justified his expectations. Artabanus relinquished his demand for the cession of Mesopotamia, and accepted a pecuniary compensation for his wrongs. Besides restoring the captives and the booty ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia • George Rawlinson

... read Shakespeare and Jonson in the first editions. He read Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, His Divine Weekes and Workes; and perhaps thence conceived the first vague idea of a poem on a kindred subject. It is necessary to insist on his English masters, because, although the greater part of his time and study was devoted to the classics, the instrument that he was to use was learned in a native school. His metre, his magnificent ...
— Milton • Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh

... as secretary to Mrs. Gosnold proved, when inaugurated the second morning after her arrival, to be at once light and interesting. Her employer was conservative enough in an unmannerly age to insist on answering all personal correspondence with her own hand; what passed between her and her few intimates was known to herself alone. But she carried on, in addition, an animated correspondence with numberless frauds—antique dealers, charities, professional poor relations, ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance

... no doubt, at my coming to see you," said he, cheerfully and carelessly, "so soon after you were kind enough to call on me. But it is only about a trifle; I assure you, my dear Madame Potecki, it is only about a trifle, and I must therefore insist on your not allowing ...
— Sunrise • William Black

... service area of a primary transmitter" in the case of a television broadcast station, comprises the area in which such station is entitled to insist upon its signal being retransmitted by a cable system pursuant to the rules, regulation, and authorizations of the Federal Communications Commission in effect on April 15, 1976, or in the case of a television ...
— Copyright Law of the United States of America: - contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. • Library of Congress Copyright Office

... and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the Remonstrant preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to perdition. They warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. Grotius exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the Five Points were not inconsistent with salvation nor with the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... me?" he thundered, amazed at the girl's temerity. "All I do is try to think up ways of makin' yuh happy, an' now yuh insist on havin' this scoundrel make love to yuh, whether I want it or not. Answer me this, Julie, are ...
— The Free Range • Francis William Sullivan

... Sufficient appearances will never be wanting to those who have a mind to deceive themselves. It is a fallacy in constant use with those who would level all things, and confound right with wrong, to insist upon the inconveniences which are attached to every choice, without taking into consideration the different weight and consequence of those inconveniences. The question is not concerning absolute discontent or perfect satisfaction in Government, neither of which can be pure and unmixed at ...
— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke

... lance; give satisfaction; appeal to arms; &c (warfare) 722. lay about one; break the peace. compete with, cope with, vie with, race with; outvie^, emulate, rival; run a race; contend for &c, stipulate for, stickle for; insist upon, make a point of. Adj. contending &c v.; together by the ears, at loggerheads. at war. at issue. competitive, rival; belligerent; contentious, combative, bellicose, unpeaceful^; warlike &c 722; quarrelsome &c 901; pugnacious; pugilistic, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... and showed his white teeth at the awkward motion of the American lady, but he did not insist that ...
— Rafael in Italy - A Geographical Reader • Etta Blaisdell McDonald

... confined in some way, and covered by a cap. A large clean apron and a holder should be worn while at work. Never allow the pupils to use a handkerchief or their aprons in place of a holder. Untidy habits must not be allowed in the class-room. Set an example of perfect order and neatness, and insist upon pupils following that example. Teach the pupils that cooking may be done without soiling either hands or clothes. The pupils should do all the work of the class-room, except scrubbing the floor. Everything must be ...
— Public School Domestic Science • Mrs. J. Hoodless

... Table Round In dreams were jousting once again, Sir, The wit of man conceived a plan To marry willow-wood and cane, Sir. Thereat the Stung became the Stinger; Thereat arrived the Century-Bringer! Mere muscle yielded to the wrist Poised lightly over clenching fist. Observe the phrase. I here insist Mere muscle yielded ...
— More Cricket Songs • Norman Gale

... insist upon my telling, Miss Sally. If you had insisted, I should have had to tell." He paused a second, drawing an inference from an expression of Sally's face, then ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... to school after that, a breeze springs up between the Beetles and the Fifth; and supposing the Fifth insist ...
— The Hero of Garside School • J. Harwood Panting

... so important a change in our traditional methods of dealing with the Admiralty and the War Office, I may yet be permitted to express my own conviction that the evils that you indicate are real evils, and that the imperfections in our existing system, on which you insist, might under certain not impossible contingencies seriously imperil ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2 • Stephen Gwynn

... must insist upon it," returned the other. "You will find that it will be insisted upon at the inquest, and if you do not wish to subject yourself to much unnecessary unpleasantness, you had better make clear to us to-day the cause of that special quarrel which ...
— The Filigree Ball • Anna Katharine Green

... their armed resistance to Federal authority, precisely as we appropriate their corn and cattle. And when once confiscated, why should they not be employed in whatever manner will make them most serviceable to us? But you insist that they shall not be armed. You might with equal show of reason contend that the mules which we have taken from the Rebels may be rightfully used in ambulances, but must not be ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various

... one thing for it, Mother Night: as they are children, we must give them such a fright that they will not dare to insist on opening the great door at the back of the hall, behind which the Birds of the Moon live and generally the Blue Bird too. The secrets of the other caverns will be sure to scare them. The hope of our safety lies in the terror which you ...
— The Blue Bird for Children - The Wonderful Adventures of Tyltyl and Mytyl in Search of Happiness • Georgette Leblanc

... does not insist upon his little wife learning lessons whether she is willing or not?" Elsie said inquiringly, ...
— Elsie's New Relations • Martha Finley

... other Italian city, is embarrassed by the natural enmities between the populace and the nobility. The nobility wish to command. The populace, aware of their numerical supremacy, are disinclined to obey, and insist upon ruling the city. Clashes between the two keep the city in a constant uproar and will eventually extinguish its greatness. The populace when in power drive the nobility from the city. When they lose out the banished nobles return and the populace ...
— Chit-Chat; Nirvana; The Searchlight • Mathew Joseph Holt

... not often that I trouble the readers of the "Atlantic Monthly." I should not trouble them now, but for the importunities of my wife, who "feels to insist" that a duty to society is unfulfilled, till I have told why I had to have a double, and how he undid me. She is sure, she says, that intelligent persons cannot understand that pressure upon public servants ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23, September, 1859 • Various

... aware of that,' said Miss Grandison, 'or I should not have spoken with so much frankness. For my own part, I think we are very wise to insist upon having our own way, for an ill-assorted marriage must be a most melancholy business.' Miss Grandison spoke with an air almost of levity, which was rather ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli

... revolting; and despite the sometimes offensive caricature in which the one indulged, despite the seeming cynicism of the other their influence must be pronounced healthy. Thackeray did not, like Dickens, use his pen against particular glaring abuses of the time, nor insist on the special virtues that bloom amid the poor and lowly; but he attacked valiantly the crying sins of society in all time—the mammon-worship and the mercilessness, the false pretences and the fraud—and never failed to ...
— Great Britain and Her Queen • Anne E. Keeling

... taking hold of the rod. "I insist on your telling me all about Bub and the money, since I was accused of having it. Bub ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various

... manufacture certain articles are innumerable; and, as the intendants had not time to superintend the application of all these regulations, there were inspectors general of manufactures, who visited in the provinces to insist on their fulfilment. ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee

... to Mr. Tompkins "of Birmingham," and I should not be surprised if it were a considerable exaggeration of what really happened. But it is true enough to life in this, that it is a common practice, a necessity with doctors in poor neighbourhoods to insist inexorably upon ...
— New Worlds For Old - A Plain Account of Modern Socialism • Herbert George Wells

... The lady that keeps my boarding-house is calling to me to insist. You remember Dorothy, don't you, Dorothy Browne? She says unless you have lost your figure you can wear my clothes all right. All you need here is a bathing suit for daytime and ...
— The Man in Lower Ten • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... less engaged the attention of the whole christian world, and the greater portion of those who believe in a crucified Saviour say that this change took place, and is dated from his resurrection. Some say subsequently, while a minority insist upon it that there is no proof for the change. Now to obtain the truth and nothing but the truth on this important subject, I propose to present, or quote from standard authors on both sides of the question, and try the whole by the standard of divine truth. 1st. ...
— The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Commandment • Joseph Bates

... ways also it is necessary to insist not only on the fact of an extreme Protestantism, but on that of the Protestantism of a garrison; a world where that religious force both grew and festered all the more for being at once isolated and protected. All the influences surrounding Bernard Shaw in boyhood were not only ...
— George Bernard Shaw • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... Cardinal Ruffo would have been a supporter of imposing some form of disciplinary restraint on Emma Hamilton. He did strongly insist on the treaty being honourably adhered to, but his view was overruled, and he retired ...
— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman

... learn, Mrs Proudie, that you have the power to insist either on my going from hence or on my ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... he with fierceness, "do you not desire to be left? have you any regard for me? or for any thing upon earth but yourself! cease these vain clamours, and come, I insist upon ...
— Cecilia vol. 2 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)

... continued to insist, "there will be compensations. I know it just as well.... You have so much talent, it's perfectly wonderful, and it's only a question of time your having the success you deserve. I, of course, am not educated up to your paintings, but even I am beginning to ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall

... patience to 'follow my LEVER,' the result would be a Jack Hinton Junior, with a smack of Soapey Sponge in it." The short stories are all, more or less, good, and would be still better but for a certain cocksureness about them which savours of the man in a country house who will insist on telling you a series of good stories about himself, one after the other, until the guests in the smoking-room, in sheer despair of ever getting their turn of talking about themselves, or of turning on the tap of their ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, March 21, 1891 • Various

... to do with him. Mr Carbury had not taken them unawares. Notice had been given that the priest was to be there, and the bishop had declared that he would be very happy to meet the priest. But Mrs Yeld had had her misgivings. She never ventured to insist on her opinion after the bishop had expressed his; but she had an idea that right was right, and wrong wrong,—and that Roman Catholics were wrong, and therefore ought to be put down. And she thought also that if there were no priests there would be no Roman Catholics. ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... Java. I had the advantage of being shown their beauties by the curator himself, a most learned man, and what is by no means a synonymous term, a very interesting one, too. Holding the position he did, it is hardly necessary to insist on his nationality; his accent was still as marked as though he had only left his native Aberdeen a week before. He showed me a tall, graceful tree growing close to the entrance, with smooth, whitish bark, and a family resemblance to a beech. This was the ill-famed ...
— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton

... he laughed as he answered, "I will act as your friend, as it is called, with all my heart, and go and see these young donkeys. If they insist on fighting, it shall be with cutlasses or boat stretchers. Do they think sailors are accustomed to handle their little pop-guns, and practise to commit murder with a steady hand? But seriously, my dear Morton, ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston

... impair their usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as to make it the interest of those institutions to strengthen and improve their condition for the security and welfare of the community at large. They have no right to insist on a connection with the Federal Government, nor on the use of the public money for their own benefit. The object of the measure under consideration is to avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this kind. It proposes to place the General Government, ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren • Martin van Buren

... good to the common people, and which clergymen of genius and learning ought to do from a principle of duty, when it is suited to their congregations; a practice, for which they will be praised by men of sense[1349]. To insist against drunkenness as a crime, because it debases reason, the noblest faculty of man, would be of no service to the common people: but to tell them that they may die in a fit of drunkenness, and shew them ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell

... with eagerness such an overture. But, sir, but! There is more, I think, in your visit to-night than meets the eye. You demand that I shall become my party's candidate for the governorship. I answer it is not now possible. You insist that I shall busy myself with improvements here at Roselands, and to that end you offer to reinforce my purse. I answer that Roselands does very well, and that I am not in need of money. You preach to me patriotism and refer ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston

... things without murmurings and disputings" (Phil. ii. 14), that Christians are required by the law of God to do all things absolutely, as, from the clause under consideration, that God has decreed and executes whatsoever comes to pass. But, if our brethren insist upon so understanding the apostle, we shall hold them to their interpretation. We shall not allow them to contradict it whenever the exigencies of the argument ...
— The Calvinistic Doctrine of Predestination Examined and Refuted • Francis Hodgson

... stoutly against impeachment, trial, punishment, any manner of exciting ordeal, and commanded his brave heart to bear it. But to be quietly allowed to go his way was intolerable, and, being accused of nothing, he was rushing back to England to insist on being accused of something. A chief of any kind in a small dependency is a person of overwhelming greatness and importance in his own sphere. Every eye there is literally on him. He diffuses even a sort of impression as if he were a good deal too large for his sphere, ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various

... would be pleased to deliver him from that miserable state of confinement in which he lived; since, through the mercy of God, he had regained his senses; adding that his relations, in order to enjoy part of his estate, kept him still there, and, in spite of the clearest evidence, would insist upon his being mad as ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... and then, still more, it had its imaginary; and the subterranean activities were busy! The witnesses, contemporaneous and other, assign three reasons, or considerations and quasi-reasons, which the Tobacco-Parliament and Friedrich Wilhelm's lively fancy could insist upon ...
— History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 7 • Thomas Carlyle

... you do not wish to solve it," was the cold reply; "for you cannot deny that all the qualities upon which I insist are to be found combined in the person ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... brother, and pointed him out as he rode down the line in the Marshal's staff. The young officer indicated presently broke away and galloped up to her, bending over his horse's neck to join the conversation. Emilia Belloni's name was mentioned. He stared, and appeared to insist upon ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... those you asked for, but pressing in every man that I could find; you allowed me while we were on friendly soil only to take those whom I could persuade to follow me, and now that I am in hostile territory you insist that they must all return; you do not leave it to their own choice. [30] Yesterday I felt that I owed both you and them a debt of gratitude, but to-day you drive me to forget your share, you make me wish to repay those, and those only, who followed me. [31] Not that ...
— Cyropaedia - The Education Of Cyrus • Xenophon

... instructed them;— this is called cruelty. To require from them, suddenly, the full tale of work, without having given them warning;— this is called oppression. To issue orders as if without urgency, at first, and, when the time comes, to insist on them with severity;— this is called injury. And, generally, in the ...
— The Chinese Classics—Volume 1: Confucian Analects • James Legge

... of looking like a Chinese mandarin, a splendid, elegant Chinese, you would be exactly like an ugly old Indian who had scalped somebody—indeed, it would not be nice," said Laura, very earnestly, so afraid was she that the elf would insist upon having one of Kathie's beautiful braids. "But if you would get us some lovely yellow flax, Kathie would plait it, and we would fasten it on for you, and then you would find my staff for me, and we would be your ...
— The Princess Idleways - A Fairy Story • Mrs. W. J. Hays

... eye, "What was the use of my claiming more cows than I had money to pay the fee for?" But times have improved with Tevula since then, and he is now in a position to claim the poor defendant's whole herd, though he generously says he will not insist on his refunding those cows which do not resemble the original heifers, and are not, as they were, dun and red and white. This sounded magnanimous, and met with grunts of approval until the blear-eyed defendant remarked, hopelessly, "They are all of those colors," which changed the sympathies of ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various

... These dreary folk, echoes of the dead past and importunate and self-elected pall-bearers for the present and future, proxy-livers of life and vicarious sensualists that they are in a eunuch sort of way, insist, since their own selves, environments, and narrow agitations of the quick are mediocre and commonplace, that no man or woman can rise above the ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... elaborate apology for divorce, a scathing denunciation of celibacy, and a general licentiousness of tone. The later writings of Montesquieu are free from indecency. But it is noticeable of him, perhaps the most high-minded of the Philosophers, and of the rest of them, that while they constantly insist on the importance of virtue, they hardly rank chastity among the virtues.[Footnote: See the story of a Guebir who marries his sister, Montesq., i. 226, Letter lxvii. The point appears to be that the laws forbidding marriage in ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell

... arms? And what's the reception we get here? Now, gentlemen, what I propose is this: let's protest. Let's get up a what-d'you-call-it to the thing they call a government. We'll state our case to the thing, gentlemen; and we'll insist on it and be very firm; that's what we'll do, don't you know. Are we to live amongst these miserable monkeys and give them the benefit of our—our—yes, gentlemen, our capital and energies, and get nothing in return? No, no; we must let ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson

... Legislatures, although such matters may not be specially mentioned." In effect, therefore, the difference between the Irish Bill and the Canadian Act is one of expression and not of substance, and, although the Bill is more accurate in its form, it would scarcely be worth while to insist on legislating by exception instead of by enumeration if, by the substitution of the latter form for the former, any ...
— Handbook of Home Rule (1887) • W. E. Gladstone et al.

... Giuseppe we struck cinders which the soldiers were shoveling, making a narrow road for the refugees. Our wagon driver begged off from completing his contract to take us to San Giuseppe. We had not the heart to insist, so the rest of the journey to the railway at Palma, eight miles, was made laboriously on foot for three ...
— The San Francisco Calamity • Various

... faithfully adapted to the deliberate wishes of the people, as to supersede and overshadow the Assembly, with its perilous tumult and its prolonged sterility. He had proposed some such measure early in May, when it was rejected, and he did not insist. But now the policy unwisely postponed was clearly opportune. Secret advice came from liberal public men, urging the danger of the crisis, and the certainty that the Assembly would soon hurry to extremes. Mirabeau himself deplored its action, and Malouet ...
— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... weapons to keep him from falling back into the old Castle Doubting where he lived till you let him out. Dispute your mother's hateful dogma, that love is to be taken for granted without daily proof between lovers; cry down latent caloric in the market; insist that the mere fact of being a wife is not enough,—that the words spoken once, years ago, are not enough,—that love needs new leaves every summer of life, as much as your elm-trees, and new branches to grow broader and wider, and new flowers at the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various

... our friend knew how much more awful most babies are, and we wished the usually charming Puck had chosen some other moment to disgrace herself and us. But no, there she sat, her two small fists crushed over her mouth—for we insist that when the babes feel obliged to cry, they shall smother the sound thereof as much as may be—and the visitor retired, feeling, doubtless, thankful the awful child was not hers. But Puck's griefs are of short duration. Ten minutes ...
— Lotus Buds • Amy Carmichael

... tangled as ever. Method is the soul of housekeeping, Enna. You will never succeed without order. I fear you are too easy and indulgent; although I have never kept a house, I know exactly how it should be done. A place for every thing—every thing in its place, as your grandpapa used to say. If you insist upon your servants doing every thing at a certain hour, and in a certain way, your affairs will go on ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... that I have to say to you as manageress of Woman Free. It's this. You know that in spite of all we could do we've had to hunt about for more capital. We've found some, but we've had to submit to very severe conditions. The most important is that they insist upon a stringent cutting down of expenses. Instead of coming out every week, Woman Free will be a fortnightly in future, and we've been obliged to consent to reducing the salaries ...
— Woman on Her Own, False Gods & The Red Robe - Three Plays By Brieux • Eugene Brieux



Words linked to "Insist" :   posit, pray, importune, stand firm, maintain, take a firm stand, beg, postulate



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