Library / English Dictionary

BEGGAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A pauper who lives by begging

Synonyms:

beggar; mendicant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("beggar" is a kind of...):

pauper (a person who is very poor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beggar"):

beggarman (a man who is a beggar)

beggarwoman (a woman who is a beggar)

cadger; mooch; moocher; scrounger (someone who mooches or cadges (tries to get something free))

panhandler (a beggar who approaches strangers asking for money)

sannyasi; sannyasin; sanyasi (a Hindu religious mendicant)

Instance hyponyms:

Lazarus (the diseased beggar in Jesus' parable of the rich man and the beggar)

Derivation:

beggar (reduce to beggary)

beggarly (marked by poverty befitting a beggar)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reduce to beggary

Synonyms:

beggar; pauperise; pauperize

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "beggar" is one way to...):

impoverish (make poor)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

beggar (a pauper who lives by begging)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be beyond the resources of

Example:

This beggars description!

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "beggar" is one way to...):

defy; refuse; resist (elude, especially in a baffling way)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

“Dora, my own dearest!” said I. “I am a beggar!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Out-and-out beggars get taken care of, but poor gentle folks fare badly, because they won't ask, and people don't dare to offer charity.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But the beggar is certainly taking his time.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved, and how she ill-treated all his guests; and he vowed that, willing or unwilling, she should marry the first man, be he prince or beggar, that came to the door.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Then with a red head of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a beggar.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Just as I thought. The beggar came aboard without a cent.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“It is as empty as a beggar's wallet.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jim only had seen where it had fallen, and he would not deign even to point it out to a beggar.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Three men ran together, hand in hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the blind beggar.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)