beggar
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beggar
- /ˈbɛɡɚ/ US
- /ˈbɛɡə/ UK
Rhymes with -ɛɡə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
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”).
noun beggars · begger
- A person who begs. “[…] 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.
- 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!
- A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel. What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
- 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.
- the last placer in Tycoon
Similar: almsman, almswoman, beggar, cadger, caird, clochard, Lazarus, mendicant, mumper, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger
verb beggars · beggaring · beggared · begger
- To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
- 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.'
