beggar
Syllables: beg·garUK/ˈbɛɡə//ˈbɛɡɚ/
beggar noun: a person who begs.
Noun
beggar (plural beggars)
- 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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.1983, Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Sophist: The Drama of Original & Image, St. Augustine’s Press, page 62
- Synonyms:
- mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant
- 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!1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
- A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.
- What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
- The beggar seems to have known his business. All fine specimens of the best period.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
- Synonyms:
- hellraiser, rascal, scapegrace, agitator, bad boy, bad news, bear, bhoy, blackguard, booger
- A minced oath for bugger.
- Moreover, the pathing tool, which always has the potential to be a fussy little beggar, is especially uncooperative in career mode where there is a lot of bespoke geometry.2025 February, Rick Lane, “Review: Planet Coaster 2”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, page 69; published online 1 November 2024
- the last placer in Tycoon
- Antonyms:
- tycoon
Verb
beggar (third-person singular simple present beggars, present participle beggaring, simple past and past participle beggared)
- To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
- Synonyms:
- destitute, pauperize, ruin, depauperate, depauperize, embeggar, empoverish, immiserate, impoor, impoverish
- To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.
- `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.'1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- It was a scene of such beauty it caught all his attention.
Some things beggar likeness, he thought.1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book I: Dune”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 100
beggar meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
beggar in Hindi
- person who begs
- याचक yācak, भिक्षुक bhikṣuk, भिखमंगा bhikhmaṅgā, भिखारी bhikhārī, भिखारिन bhikhārin
beggar in Tamil
- person who begs
- பிச்சைக்காரன் piccaikkāraṉ, பிச்சைக்காரர் piccaikkārar
- person suffering poverty
- ஏழை ēḻai
beggar in Marathi
- person who begs
- भिकारी bhikārī
beggar in Urdu
- person who begs
- بِھکاری bhikārī, بِھکھاری bhikhārī, یاچَک yācak, بِھکْشُک bhikśuk
More languagesFewer languages
- beggar in Bengali
- ভিক্ষুক bhikkhuk, ফকির phokir
- beggar in Telugu
- బిచ్చగాడు biccagāḍu, బిచ్చగత్తె biccagatte
- beggar in Malayalam
- ഭിക്ഷക്കാരൻ bhikṣakkāraṉ, യാചകൻ yācakaṉ
- beggar in Kannada
- ತಿರಿಕ, ಎರೆವ, ತಿರುಕ, ತಿರುಕುಳಿ
- beggar in Punjabi
- ਮੰਗਤਾ maṅgtā, ਮੰਗਤੀ maṅgtī
- beggar in Gujarati
- ફકીર phakīr, યાચક yācak
- beggar in Odia
- ଭିକାରି bhikāri
- beggar in Sanskrit
- दरिद्र dáridra
- beggar in Nepali
- भिखारी, भिखारू
- beggar in Tagalog
- pulubi, tanglo
- beggar in Arabic
- سَائِل sāʔil, فَقِير faqīr
- beggar in Malay
- pengemis
- beggar in Indonesian
- pengemis
- beggar in Thai
- ขอทาน kɔ̌ɔ-taan, ยาจก yaa-jòk
- beggar in Vietnamese
- ăn xin, ăn mày, bị gậy
- beggar in Myanmar
- သူတောင်းစား sutaung:ca:
Examples of beggar in a sentence
- The beggar asked for change, but the haughty woman only looked at him askance.
- The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.
- The old beggar kept a verminous mongrel dog for a pet.
Synonyms of beggar
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of beggar
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | beggars |
| alternative form (obsolete) | begger |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | beggars |
| present participle | beggaring |
| past participle | beggared |
| past | beggared |
Origin of beggar
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”).
Words formed from beggar
- Bedlam beggar
- beggardom
- beggarer
- beggaress
- beggarhood
- beggarism
- beggarlike
- beggarliness
- beggarly
- beggarman
- beggars can't be choosers
- beggar's-lice
- beggarsome
- beggartick
- beggar-ticks
- beggarware
- beggarweed
- beggarwise
- beggarwoman
- beggary
- buckle-beggar
- couple-beggar
- cyberbeggar
- e-beggar
- if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
- kill-the-beggar
- play silly beggars
- put the beggar on the gentleman
- scare-beggar
- set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil
- sturdy beggar
- swamp beggar-ticks
- beggar belief
- beggar description
- beggar-my-neighbor
- beggar-my-neighbour
- beggar off
- beggar the question
- beggar thy neighbor
- beggar-thy-neighbor
Phrases with beggar
Words that rhyme with beggar
Questions about beggar
- What does beggar mean?
- Beggar means a person who begs.
- What is beggar in Hindi?
- Beggar in Hindi is याचक (yācak), भिक्षुक (bhikṣuk), भिखमंगा (bhikhmaṅgā). See Beggar meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is beggar?
- Beggar can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce beggar?
- Beggar is pronounced /ˈbɛɡɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of beggar?
- The plural of beggar is beggars.
Words near beggar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: beggar (page history and authors); beggar (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ફકીર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଭିକାରି (Odia) (page history and authors); दरिद्र (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); beggar (Nepali, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-beggar.ogg.
Cite this entry: “beggar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beggar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.