Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who solicits alms for a living.
- n. An impoverished person; a pauper.
- n. Informal A man or a boy.
- v. To make a beggar of; impoverish.
- v. To exceed the limits, resources, or capabilities of: beauty that beggars description.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who begs or asks alms; especially, one who lives by asking alms or makes it his business to beg.
- n. One who is in indigent circumstances; one who has been beggared.
- n. One who asks a favor; one who entreats; a petitioner.
- n. One who assumes in argument what he does not prove.
- n. A fellow; a rogue: used in contempt for a low fellow;
- n. as a term of playful familiarity: as, he is a good-hearted little beggar.
- To make a beggar of; reduce to beggary; impoverish.
- To exhaust the resources of; exceed the means or capacity of; outdo.
Wiktionary
- n. A person who begs.
- n. A person suffering from extreme poverty.
- v. To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
- v. To exhaust the resources of; to outdo.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who begs; one who asks or entreats earnestly, or with humility; a petitioner.
- n. One who makes it his business to ask alms.
- n. One who is dependent upon others for support; -- a contemptuous or sarcastic use.
- n. One who assumes in argument what he does not prove.
- v. To reduce to beggary; to impoverish.
- v. To cause to seem very poor and inadequate.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be beyond the resources of
- v. reduce to beggary
- n. a pauper who lives by begging
Etymologies
- 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; the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”). Others claim it is from Middle English beggere or beggare, from beggen ("to beg") + -are ("-er") (Modern English beg). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French begart, ultimately from Middle Dutch beggaert, one who rattles off prayers. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Scott, while I agree that fixing the underlying problem that produces the beggar is a noble idea, please consider two things:”
“What does it mean when the beggar is more powerful than the one that extends the coin?”
“A beggar is a man who is forced, by fate, to remind us of Christ; he is Christ's brother; he is the bell of the Lord, and rings in life for the purpose of awakening our conscience, of stirring up the satiety of man's flesh.”
“Zoellick said: "History shows there is no future in 'beggar thy neighbour' policies, and in an increasingly inter-connected world, we need not just to be conscious of the negative effects policies can have on others, but we need to act accordingly.”
The Guardian: World Bank calls for co-operation to halt full-scale currency war
“So when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, acknowledged that the language of a recent IMF summit communique was "ineffective", that the time for "real action" had come and that he feared "a race to the bottom" as the major countries began to outdo each other in beggar-my-neighbour currency wars, you should sit up and listen.”
The Guardian: History will see these cuts as one of the great acts of political folly
“Oddly enough, the train beggar managed to control his gnawing hunger for long enough to keep begging.”
“Can't Post | but keep in mind that the more you give the less likely the beggar is to buscar otro remedio (look for another solution), and the more likely others are to emulate his success.”
“The citizen who fears the ill-smelling drunk, the rowdy teenager, or the importuning beggar is not merely expressing his distaste for unseemly behavior; he is also giving voice to a bit of folk wisdom that happens to be a correct generalization — namely, that serious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked.”
“The millionaire as well as the beggar is content with just so much air as he can breathe.”
“This friend whom I have in mind was a Scotchman, named McArthur, and he said, I say, McArthur, last night 1 saw a fellow with the ordinary 'flu, and I gave him the usual dope, and this morning the beggar is pink.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘beggar’.
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Dramatic Nouns
Nouns to be used as descriptions while writing stories
night owl, early bird, hedonist, ascetic, derelict, explorer, radical, pity friend, cupid, truant, caretaker, guardian and 120 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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new words
faulty parallelism, antebellum, lucubrate, retronym, asyndeton, polysyndeton, chiasmus, laconic, dysphemism, zeugma, subpoena, dialectic and 130 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
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Words Typed with the Left Hand Only
devastate, stargazer, beverage, addressed, cataract, beggar, debased, vertebrate, aftertaste, exaggerate, stewardesses, aggregrate
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Diet
scamp, plucky, countenance, toddle, wither, jade, bobbish, obtuse, fatuity, puisne, insipid, palpable and 66 more...
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Constellations Reel
A list of participants in the poem "Constellations reel" by lcmt
exile, beggar, dancer, songbird, passer-by, sightseer, pilgrim, storyteller, minstrel, mariner, wayfarer, stranger and 2 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for beggar.
reesetee Heehee. Nov 15, 2007
oroboros I am unable, yonder beggar cries,
To stand, or move; if he say true, hee lies.
John Donne (Epigrams) Nov 15, 2007