Word.ws English Dictionary

go a-begging

go a-begging is the alternative form of go begging.

Meaning of go begging

Verb

go begging (third-person singular simple present goes begging, present participle going begging, simple past went begging, past participle gone begging)

  1. (idiomatic) To be available but wasted, unused, or not actualized.
    • "Principles without leaders go begging," he replied.1904, David Graham Phillips, chapter 18, in The Cost

Forms of go a-begging

third-person singular presentgoes a-begging
present participlegoing a-begging
pastwent a-begging
past participlegone a-begging

Questions about go a-begging

What is go a-begging the alternative form of?
Go a-begging is the alternative form of go begging.

Words near go a-begging in the dictionary

  1. go a bundle on
  2. go a cropper
  3. go a long way
  4. go a mucker
  5. go a raker
  6. go a-begging
  7. go about
  8. go about one's business
  9. go about one's day
  10. go about to
  11. go after

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go a-begging (page history and authors); go begging (page history and authors). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-go a-begging.ogg.

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