beggar

• begger (obsolete)

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”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛɡɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛɡə/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛɡə(ɹ)

beggar (plural beggars)

1. A person who begs.
   • 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, p. 62:

     Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.

2. A person suffering from extreme poverty.
   • 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!

3. (colloquial, sometimes endearing) A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.

   What does that silly beggar think he's doing?

4. (UK) A minced oath for bugger.

• (who begs): mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant, see also Thesaurus:beggar
• (extremely poor person): palliard, pauper, vagabond, see also Thesaurus:pauper

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, 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, Frank Herbert, Dune, 1st edition, page 109:

     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, →ISSN:

     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.

• ruin

• bagger

beggar

1. Alternative form of beggere