beg for one's life

Verb

beg for one's life (third-person singular simple present begs for one's life, present participle begging for one's life, simple past and past participle begged for one's life)

1. (idiomatic) To plead or make a desperate attempt to continue with what one has been doing.
   • They got hearing after hearing. They begged for their lives; they pled for their millions invested in a "legitimate industry"; they told of the thousands of men who would be thrown out of employment if this bill should go through, and of the thousands of slaughtering machines owned by Jersey men...1912 April, “Glorious News From Jersey”, in Shields' Magazine, volume 14, number 4, page 131
   • If we have to draw on the resources of our communities, going about asking for parts of people's salaries and things of that kind, to meet emergency relief, and they tell us they cannot give any more for our program, it means that we must close our doors. In a way we are begging for our lives...1932, National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A., page 232
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see beg, life.
   • But he abandoned all dignity when he begged for his life.1907, Sir Clements Robert Markham, King Edward VI, His Life and Character, page 207