Word

obtrude \uhb-TROOD; ob-\,

Meaning

transitive verb:

1. To thrust out; to push out.

2. To force or impose (one's self, remarks, opinions, etc.) on others with undue insistence or without solicitation.

intransitive verb: To thrust upon a group or upon attention; to intrude.

Examples

Moreover, crime is something which the citizen is happy to forget when it does not obtrude itself into public consciousness.

--"Voting On Crime," [1]Irish Times, May 30, 1997

For the next few months, Polidori continued to obtrude himself on Byron's attention in every possible way -- popping into every conversation, sulking when he was ignored, challenging Percy Bysshe Shelley to a duel, attacking an apothecary and getting arrested, "accidentally" banging his employer on the knee with an oar and saying he wasn't sorry -- until finally Byron dismissed him.

--Angeline Goreau, "Physician, Behave Thyself," [2]New York Times, September 3, 1989

He was, in his relationships with his few close friends, a considerate, delightful, sensitive, helpful, unpretentious person who did not obtrude his social and political views, nor make agreeing with them a condition of steadfast friendship.

--Alden Whitman, "Daring Lindbergh Attained the Unattainable With Historic Flight Across Atlantic," [3]New York Times, August 27, 1974

And, as is common in books sewn together from previously published essays, certain redundancies obtrude.

--Maxine Kumin, "First, Perfect Fear; Then, Universal Love," [4]New York Times, October 17, 1993

Extra

Obtrude is from Latin obtrudere, "to thrust upon, to force," from ob, "in front of, before" + trudere, "to push, to thrust."

Paragraph

It is a pity that in spite of claiming to understand that independence is the right of a human, we still end up obtruding for our benefits.