# beggar
## English
### Alternative forms

* begger (obsolete)

### 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”).

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈbɛɡɚ/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈbɛɡə/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛɡə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: beg‧gar

### Noun

beggar (plural beggars)
* A person who begs.
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:“ […] 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.
** 1983, Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Sophist: The Drama of Original & Image, St. Augustine’s Press, p. 62:
    Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar.
* A person suffering from extreme poverty.
** 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!
* (colloquial, sometimes endearing) A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.
    What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
* (UK) A minced oath for bugger.

#### Synonyms

* (who begs): mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant, see also Thesaurus:beggar
* (extremely poor person): palliard, pauper, vagabond, see also Thesaurus:pauper

#### Derived terms

* 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
* kill-the-beggar
* like 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

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

beggar (third-person singular simple present beggars, present participle beggaring, simple past and past participle beggared)
* (transitive) To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
* (transitive, figurative) To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.
** 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:`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.'
** 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune, 1st edition, page 109:It was a scene of such beauty it caught all his attention. / Some things beggar likeness, he thought.
** 1996 July 7, Angeline Goreau, “Speed”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:Taking the ontological temperature of today and of the pre-revolutionary 18th century, Mr. Kundera finds that the speed we love has beggared us of pleasure.

#### Synonyms

* ruin

#### Derived terms

* beggar belief
* beggar description
* beggar-my-neighbor
* beggar-my-neighbour
* beggar off
* beggar the question
* beggar thy neighbor
* beggar-thy-neighbor

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* bagger

## Middle English
### Noun

beggar
* Alternative form of beggere