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Webster 1913 Edition

Beggar

Beg′gar

,
Noun.
[OE.
beggere
, fr.
beg
.]
1.
One who begs; one who asks or entreats earnestly, or with humility; a petitioner.
2.
One who makes it his business to ask alms.
3.
One who is dependent upon others for support; – a contemptuous or sarcastic use.
4.
One who assumes in argument what he does not prove.
Abp. Tillotson.

Beg′gar

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Beggared
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Beggaring
.]
1.
To reduce to beggary; to impoverish;
as, he had
beggared
himself
.
Milton.
2.
To cause to seem very poor and inadequate.
It
beggared
all description.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition

Beggar

BEG'GAR

,
Noun.
[See Beg.] One that lives by asking alms, or makes it his business to beg for charity.
1.
One who supplicates with humility; a petitioner; but in this sense rarely used, as the word has become a term of contempt.
2.
One who assumes in argument what he does not prove.

BEG'GAR

,
Verb.
T.
To reduce to beggary; to impoverish.
1.
To deprive or make destitute; to exhaust; as, to beggar description.

Definition 2024

beggar

beggar

See also: béggar

English

Alternative forms

Noun

beggar ‎(plural beggars)

  1. A person who begs.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      “[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
    • 1983, Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Sophist: The Drama of Original & Image, St. Augustine’s Press, p. 62:
      Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.
  2. A person suffering from extreme poverty.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

beggar ‎(third-person singular simple present beggars, present participle beggaring, simple past and past participle beggared)

  1. (transitive) To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
  2. (transitive) To exhaust the resources of; to outdo.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar ‎(“beggar”), from beggen ‎(“to beg”), equivalent to beg +‎ -ar.

Alternative etymology derives beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert ‎(“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).

Pronunciation

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