Beggar
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 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."
- 2 a pauper who lives by begging wordnet
- 3 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!"
- 4 A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel. colloquial, endearing, sometimes
"What does that silly beggar think he's doing?"
- 5 A minced oath for bugger. UK
Show 1 more definition
- 6 the last placer in Tycoon
- 1 To make a beggar of someone; impoverish. transitive
- 2 reduce to beggary wordnet
- 3 To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond. figuratively, transitive
"`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.'"
- 4 be beyond the resources of wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"He is rich yet he lives like a beggar."
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”).