Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To ask (someone) for something in an urgent or humble manner.
- intransitive verb To ask for (something) in an urgent or humble manner.
- intransitive verb To ask for (food or money, for instance) as a beggar.
- intransitive verb To ask (permission) to do something.
- intransitive verb To evade; dodge.
- intransitive verb To take for granted without proof.
- intransitive verb To ask for something, especially money or food from strangers, in an urgent or humble manner.
- intransitive verb To live as a beggar.
- intransitive verb To make an urgent or humble plea.
- idiom (beg (someone's) pardon) Used to introduce a polite request.
- idiom (beg the question) To assume to be true what one is purporting to prove in an argument.
- idiom (beg the question) To call to mind a question in a discussion; invite or provoke a question.
- idiom (beg to differ) To disagree in a polite manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
bey . - To ask for or supplicate in charity; ask as alms.
- To ask for earnestly; crave.
- To ask as a favor; hence, to beseech; entreat or supplicate with humility or earnestness: as, I begged him to use his influence in favor of my friend.
- Synonyms Ask, Request. Beg, etc. (see
ask ); to pray (for), conjure, petition (for). - To ask alms or charity; practise begging; live by asking alms.
- In the game of all-fours, to ask of the dealer a concession of one point to be added to one's count.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A title of honor in Turkey and in some other parts of the East; a bey.
- intransitive verb To ask alms or charity, especially to ask habitually by the wayside or from house to house; to live by asking alms.
- transitive verb To ask earnestly for; to entreat or supplicate for; to beseech.
- transitive verb To ask for as a charity, esp. to ask for habitually or from house to house.
- transitive verb To make petition to; to entreat.
- transitive verb To take for granted; to assume without proof.
- transitive verb (Old Law) To ask to be appointed guardiln for, or to aso to havo a guardian appointed for.
- transitive verb to take him for a fool.
- transitive verb is an elliptical expression for
I beg leave to . - transitive verb to assume that which was to be proved in a discussion, instead of adducing the proof or sustaining the point by argument.
- transitive verb a figurative phrase to express the absence of demand for something which elsewhere brings a price.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a provincial governor under the
Ottoman Empire , abey - abbreviation knitting
beginning - verb intransitive to request the help of someone, often in the form of money
- verb transitive to
plead with someone for help or for a favor - verb transitive to assume, in the phrase
beg the question - verb proscribed to
raise a question, in the phrasebeg the question
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently
- verb dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted
- verb call upon in supplication; entreat
- verb ask to obtain free
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"I beg, Mr. Fraser, I _beg_ you to center your attention on driving your machine."
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Then, "I beg -- I _beg_ your pardon, Mrs. Munger," he resumed.
Annie Kilburn : a Novel William Dean Howells 1878
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V. ii.490 (453,5) [You cannot beg us] That is, we are not fools, our next relations cannot _beg_ the wardship of our persons and fortunes.
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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"I beg you," he said fervently, "I _beg_ you never to allow yourself to think of it.
Robin Frances Hodgson Burnett 1886
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"I beg you -- I _beg_ you, Miss West, not to say anything more that can distress or disturb her.
Verner's Pride Henry Wood 1850
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We independents won't forget the six years of corruption and do nothing Republican congress or the eight years of incompetance by Bush/Cheney that has put the country in a possition to beg from the Chinese.
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You don't have to be a rocket scientist or even Toyota to know that flying the CEOs in Lear jets to beg is a serious PR blunder -- kinda says "We are totally tone deaf to others" -- which, now that you think about it, is why they needed the bailouts so badly.
What's bad for GM is good for Congress (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009
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But this story about sending them out to beg is new to me.
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From the time he was a puppy, Sam was trained not to beg from the table, and in his life he was never given table scraps.
February 2006 2006
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YOUNGER CLERIMONT: Then all I beg is that ye would enquire for me no more.
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“Beg bounty” queries run the gamut from honest, ethical disclosures that share all the needed information and hint that it might be nice if you were to send them a reward, to borderline extortion demanding payment without even providing enough information to determine the validity of the demand.
Have a domain name? “Beg bounty” hunters may be on their way Ariya Rathi 2021
oroboros commented on the word beg
Beg as in to seek vs. avoid, as in beg the question.
October 24, 2008