beg

/ˈbɛɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈbeɡ/

beg verb: to request the help of someone, often in the form of money. Also the alternative form of bey.

Verb

beg (third-person singular simple present begs, present participle begging, simple past and past participle begged)

(intransitive) To request the help of someone, often in the form of money.
- He begged on the street corner from passers-by.
(transitive) To plead with someone for help, a favor, etc.; to entreat.
- I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to cause offence.
- He begged her to go to the prom with him.
Synonyms:

supplicate
(transitive) To unwillingly provoke a negative, often violent, reaction.
- The way you keep eating raw meat, you're just begging to get tapeworms.
(intransitive, transitive) To obviously lack or be in need of something.
- A captivating novel that just begs for a movie adaptation
- The colors in this cell are as dull as its architects must have been. An endless expanse of drab-green textured walls, contrasting with the gray concrete floor. It begs redecoration.1985 April 13, Philip Brasfield, “Echoes Inside of What's Outside”, in Gay Community News, page 4
(transitive) In the phrase beg the question: to assume.
(proscribed, transitive) In the phrase beg the question: to raise (a question).

Antonyms:

set aside
(obsolete, transitive) To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for.
- Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards.a. 1612, John Harington, Epigrams

Noun

beg (plural begs)

The act of begging; an imploring request.
- “Lord,” I prayed, “it's a long time since I came to You for anything besides a quick beg for help. And it seems every time I come to You I'm asking something bigger, more impossible. But I'm here again. […]2008, Cathy Gohlke, William Henry is a Fine Name/I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires Set
(UK, derogatory, slang) A pretentious, attention-seeking, or eccentric person.
- Girls told me about not wanting to be seen by boys as "too much", "too loud", "weird", "annoying", a "pick me", or "a beg" (someone looking for attention). They told me how boys can be loud and funny, but that girls had better not.2026 April 13, Catherine Carr, "The surprising reality of how teenage girls still define themselves" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62je1g000eo (BBC News)

Proper noun capitalized: Beg

Beg (plural Begs)

A surname from Hindi.

Also used as

beg is also the alternative form of bey.

beg is also the abbreviation of beginning.

beg meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

beg in Hindi

to request the help of someone, often in the form of money: भीख माँगना bhīkh māṅgnā
title — see also bey: बेग beg

beg in Tamil

to request the help of someone, often in the form of money: கெஞ்சு keñcu
to plead with someone for help: கெஞ்சு keñcu

beg in Bengali

title — see also bey: বেগ beg

More languagesFewer languages

beg in Telugu: యాచించు yāciñcu
beg in Malayalam: യാചിക്കുക yācikkuka, തെണ്ടുക teṇṭuka
beg in Kannada: ಭಿಕ್ಷೆ ಬೇಡಲು
beg in Tagalog: magpalimos
beg in Arabic: اِسْتَجْدَى istajdā, تَسَوَّلَ tasawwala, رَجَا rajā, بيك bēg
beg in Indonesian: mengemis, minta-minta, minta, mohon
beg in Persian: بیگ beyg
beg in Thai: ขอทาน kɔ̌ɔ-taan, ขอร้อง kɔ̌ɔ-rɔ́ɔng
beg in Vietnamese: ăn xin, khẩn cầu

Examples of beg in a sentence

The harried mother had a cloud of children orbiting her, begging for sweets.
Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighbourhood begging for food.
He grinned a cruel sneer when I begged him to stop.

All 40 example sentences with beg

Synonyms of beg

Antonyms

set aside

Forms of beg

Verb
third-person singular present	begs
present participle	begging
past participle	begged
past	begged
Noun
plural	begs
Proper noun
plural	Begs

Past tense of beg: begged

Origin of beg

Inherited from Middle English beggen, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old English *becgian, *bedcian, syncopated forms of bedecian (“to beg”), itself of obscure origin. Possibly from Proto-West Germanic *bedukōn, a frequentative verb derived from Proto-West Germanic *bedu (“plea, petition, prayer”, whence English bead). Alternatively from Proto-West Germanic *bedagō (“petitioner, requester, beggar”), an agent noun from the same source. Compare North Frisian bēdagi (“to pray”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍅𐌰 (bidagwa, “beggar”). All ultimately from the root of English bid, which see for more. An alternative theory considers the verb a backformation from beggar and derives the latter from Old French begart (“kind of lay brother”).

From Proto-Turkic *bēg.

Various origins: * As an Islamic (Indian subcontinent as Hindi बेग (beg)) and sometimes Serbo-Croatian surname, from the Turkish title beg, an older form of bey. See Bey; also compare Baig. * Borrowed from Slovene Beg, from beg (“escape, getaway”).

Words formed from beg

Phrases with beg

Words that rhyme with beg

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beg

What does beg mean?: Beg means to request the help of someone, often in the form of money.
What is beg in Hindi?: Beg in Hindi is भीख माँगना (bhīkh māṅgnā), बेग (beg). See Beg meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is beg?: Beg can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce beg?: Beg is pronounced /ˈbɛɡ/.
What is the past tense of beg?: The past tense of beg is begged.

Words near beg in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: beg (page history and authors); Beg (page history and authors); beg (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-beg.ogg.

Cite this entry: “beg.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beg. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.