Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IM-PORT'ANCE, n. [Fr.; Sp. importancia; It. importanza; from import.]

1. Weight; consequence; a bearing on some interest; that quality of any thing by which it may affect a measure, interest or result. The education of youth is of great importance to a free government. A religious education is of infinite importance to every human being.
2. Weight or consequence in the scale of being. Thy own importance know, / Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Pope.
3. Weight or consequence in self-estimation. He believes himself a man of importance.
4. Thing implied; matter; subject; importunity. [In these senses, obsolete.] Shak.