insist
verb/ɪnˈsɪst/
Etymology Partly from Middle French insister, from Latin īnsistere; and partly from a back-formation from insistence. Compare typologically from the same PIE root Bulgarian настоявам (nastojavam), Russian наста́ивать (nastáivatʹ).
1
To hold up a claim emphatically.
With on or upon With (that + indicative) or intransitive
- The defendant insisted on his innocence.
- I insist that my secretary dresses nicely.
2 more examples
- But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- 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.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
2
Sometimes To demand continually that something happen or be done; to reiterate a demand despite requests to abandon it.
With on or upon With (that + subjunctive) or intransitive
- The Prime Minister insisted on his Chancellor's resignation.
- The Prime Minister insisted that his Chancellor resign.
3 more examples
- I insist that my secretary dress nicely.
- I know I promised to pay you back tomorrow, but it's not very convenient for me. Can we put it off to Friday? —I'm afraid I have to insist on what we agreed.
- And it had been a close-run thing for many of the nearest - perhaps too close. Councillor Renee Spector, a senior member of Birmingham City Council planning committee, told the local press that the accident might force "a rethink" about the way it considered future applications. "There is a case for a buffer zone, but the problem is that land is at such a premium it is difficult to insist on a large distance between houses and railway lines," she said.2026 March 18, Greg Morse, “1996 crash driving freight reforms”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 51:
3
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences Obsolete To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
- Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.1709, Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis: