beggar

noun
/ˈbɛɡɚ/US/ˈbɛɡə/UK

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from beggaert
  2. derived from begart
  3. derived from beggen — “to beg
  4. inherited from beggere

Definitions

  1. A person who begs.

    • Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.
  2. A person suffering from extreme poverty.

    • I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!
  3. A mean or wretched person

    A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.

    • What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
    • The beggar seems to have known his business. All fine specimens of the best period.
  4. + 4 more definitions
    1. A minced oath for bugger.

      • 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.
    2. the last placer in Tycoon

    3. To make a beggar of someone

      To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.

    4. To exhaust the resources of

      To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.

      • `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.'
      • It was a scene of such beauty it caught all his attention. Some things beggar likeness, he thought.
      • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for beggar. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA