beg
/ˈbɛɡ/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms begs begging begged
- verb (intransitive) To request the help of someone, often in the form of money. “He begged on the street corner from passers-by.”
- verb (transitive) To plead with someone for help, a favor, etc.; to entreat. “I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to cause offence.”
- verb (transitive) To unwillingly provoke a negative, often violent, reaction. “The way you keep eating raw meat, you're just begging to get tapeworms.”
- verb (transitive or intransitive) To obviously lack or be in need of something. “A captivating novel that just begs for a movie adaptation”
- verb (transitive) In the phrase beg the question: to assume.
- verb (transitive, proscribed) In the phrase beg the question: to raise (a question).
- verb (transitive, law, obsolete) To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for.
- noun The act of begging; an imploring request.
- noun (UK, slang, derogatory) A pretentious, attention-seeking, or eccentric person.
- proper noun A surname from Hindi.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
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.
* 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”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A title of honor in Turkey and in some other parts of the East; a bey.
- verb To ask earnestly for; to entreat or supplicate for; to beseech.
- verb To ask for as a charity, esp. to ask for habitually or from house to house.
- verb To ask alms or charity, especially to ask habitually by the wayside or from house to house; to live by asking alms.
Etymology [Turk. beg, pronounced bay. Cf. Bey, Begum.]
Etymology [OE. beggen, perh. fr. AS. bedecian (akin to Goth. bedagwa beggar), biddan to ask. (Cf. Bid, v. t.); or cf. beghard, beguin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “beg”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details