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Beggar
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
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- 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
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”).
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”).
See also for "beggar"
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Unscramble this word: beggar