beggar
See also: béggar
English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar.
Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, 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
[edit]- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɛɡɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɛɡə/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛɡə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: beg‧gar
Noun
[edit]beggar (plural beggars)
- A person who begs.
- Synonyms: mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant; see also Thesaurus:beggar
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- “ […] 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, page 62:
- Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.
- A person suffering from extreme poverty.
- Synonyms: palliard, pauper, vagabond; see also Thesaurus:pauper
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!
- (colloquial, sometimes endearing) A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.
- Synonyms: hellraiser, rascal, scapegrace; see also Thesaurus:troublemaker, Thesaurus:villain
- What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
- 1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados:
- The beggar seems to have known his business. All fine specimens of the best period.
- (UK) A minced oath for bugger.
- 2025 February, Rick Lane, “Review: Planet Coaster 2”, in PC Gamer (US)[1], number 392, archived from the original on 8 September 2026, page 69; published online 1 November 2024:
- Moreover, the pathing tool, which always has the potential to be a fussy little beggar, is especially uncooperative in career mode where there is a lot of bespoke geometry.
- (card games) the last placer in Tycoon
- Antonym: tycoon
Derived terms
[edit]Terms derived from beggar (noun)
- Bedlam beggar
- beggardom
- beggarer
- beggaress
- beggarhood
- beggarism
- beggarize
- beggarlike
- beggarliness
- beggarly
- beggarman
- beggars can't be choosers
- beggar's-lice
- beggarsome
- beggartick
- beggar-ticks
- beggarware
- beggarweed
- beggarwise
- beggarwoman
- beggary
- buckle-beggar
- couple-beggar
- cyberbeggar
- e-beggar
- embeggar
- if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
- kill-the-beggar
- play silly beggars
- put the beggar on the gentleman
- scare-beggar
- set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil
- sturdy beggar
- swamp beggar-ticks
Translations
[edit]person who begs — see also freeloader
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person suffering poverty
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colloquial: A mean or wretched person
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
[edit]beggar (third-person singular simple present beggars, present participle beggaring, simple past and past participle beggared)
- (transitive) To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
- Synonyms: destitute, pauperize, ruin; see also Thesaurus:impoverish
- (transitive, figurative) To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- `Now,' answered Ayesha, with proud humility - `now when my lord doth speak thus royally and give with so free a hand, it cannot become me to lag behind in words, and be beggared of my generosity.'
- 1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book I: Dune”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 100:
- It was a scene of such beauty it caught all his attention.
Some things beggar likeness, he thought.
- 1996 July 7, Angeline Goreau, “Speed”, in The New York Times[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 January 2023:
- Taking the ontological temperature of today and of the pre-revolutionary 18th century, Mr. Kundera finds that the speed we love has beggared us of pleasure.
Derived terms
[edit]Terms derived from beggar (verb)
Translations
[edit]to make a beggar of someone
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to exhaust the resources of
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Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]beggar
- alternative form of beggere
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -ar
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛɡə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɛɡə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English colloquialisms
- English endearing terms
- English terms with usage examples
- British English
- en:Card games
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English agent nouns
- en:People
- en:Poverty
- en:Tycoon
- Middle English variant lemmas