beggar — ► NOUN 1) a person who lives by begging for food or money. 2) informal a person of a specified type: lucky beggar! ► VERB ▪ reduce to poverty. ● beggar belief (or description) Cf. ↑beggar description ● … English terms dictionary
beggar — [n1] person asking for charity asker, borrower, bum, deadbeat, hobo, mendicant, panhandler, rustler, scrounger, supplicant, supplicator, tramp, vagabond; concepts 412,423 beggar [n2] person in financial trouble alms person, bankrupt, dependent,… … New thesaurus
beggar — [beg′ər] n. [ME beggere < OFr begard: see BEG] 1. a person who begs, or asks for charity, esp. one who lives by begging; mendicant 2. a person who is very poor; pauper 3. Chiefly Brit. a person; fellow: often used jokingly or affectionately vt … English World dictionary
Beggar — Beg gar, n. [OE. beggere, fr. beg.] 1. One who begs; one who asks or entreats earnestly, or with humility; a petitioner. [1913 Webster] 2. One who makes it his business to ask alms. [1913 Webster] 3. One who is dependent upon others for support;… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
Beggar — Beg gar, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Beggared}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Beggaring}.] 1. To reduce to beggary; to impoverish; as, he had beggared himself. Milton. [1913 Webster] 2. To cause to seem very poor and inadequate. [1913 Webster] It beggared all… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
beggar — index deplete, parasite Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 … Law dictionary
beggar — I UK [ˈbeɡə(r)] / US [ˈbeɡər] noun [countable] Word forms beggar : singular beggar plural beggars someone who is very poor and lives by asking people for money or food • lucky/lazy/cheeky etc beggar British spoken used in a friendly way for… … English dictionary
beggar — This is unlikely to have its literal meaning of one who begs when used vocatively. ‘Lucky beggar!’ said to a friend simply means lucky person. ‘You little beggar’ addressed to a child is similar to ‘you little horror’ or ‘you little terror’.… … A dictionary of epithets and terms of address
beggar — {{11}}beggar (n.) c.1200, from O.Fr. begart, originally a member of the Beghards, lay brothers of mendicants in the Low Countries, from M.Du. beggaert mendicant, of uncertain origin, with pejorative suffix (see ARD (Cf. ard)). Cf. BEGUINE (Cf.… … Etymology dictionary
beggar — 1 noun (C) 1 someone who lives by asking people for food and money: There s been a huge increase in the number of beggars on London s streets. 2 lucky/lazy/cheeky etc beggar BrE spoken used to describe someone who you think is lucky, lazy etc, in … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
