Forms: 3 beggare, 4–5 beggere, 4–7 begger, 4– beggar. [See BEG v. The spelling in -ar has been occasional from 14th c., but the usual form in 15–17th c., as an ordinary agent-noun from BEG, was begger: see 3.]
1. One who asks alms, especially habitually; one who lives by so doing.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 168. Hit is beggares [v.r. beggilde] rihte uorte beren bagge on bac.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1133. Þu wenest I beo a beggere.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xv. 4. Nedi and begger there shal not be among ȝow.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXXV. 13549. And now me bus, as a beggar, my bred for to thigge.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxvii. 262. Beggers that were knowe openly for nedy poure beggers.
c. 1538. Starkey, England, iii. 91. The multytude of Beggarys in our cuntrey.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 34. They will not giue a doit to relieue a lame Begger.
1611. Bible, Luke xvi. 20. A certaine begger named Lazarus.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 423. Near the door … an incredible number of Beggers.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, II. iii. 187. Those who pursue the trade of a common beggar.
1857. Kingsley, Misc., II. 326. The beggars became a regular fourth-estate.
b. Sturdy beggar: an able-bodied man begging without cause, and often with violence.
c. 1538. Starkey, England, 176. Thys grete nombur of sturdy beggarys therby schold utturly be taken away.
1597. Act 39 Eliz., iv. § 1. For the suppressing of rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggers.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 48, ¶ 5. The Heroes appear only like sturdy Beggars.
1860. R. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 2), I. 143. There are some sturdy beggars who wander about the country availing themselves of the name or Beghard to lead an idle life.
c. In many proverbial expressions.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 9. One begger byddeth wo that another by the dore shuld go. Ibid., 39. A beggars scryp is neuer fylled.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 23. Beggers should be no choosers. Ibid., 38. The begger maie syng before the theefe. Ibid., 171. I know him as well as the begger knowth his bag.
1581. Rich, Farew. Mil. Prof. She sware by no beggers she would be so revenged.
1594. 2nd Pt. Contention (1843), 132. Beggers mounted run their horse to death.
1613. Uncasing Machiavil’s Instr. Sonne, 7. Proue the prouerbe often tolde, ‘A carelesse Courtier yong, a Begger olde.’
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. II. i. 61. Who know the way as well as a begger knowes his dish.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 260. When Cerberus and Mr. Profane met, they were presently as great as beggars.
1690. W. Walker, Idiom. Anglo-Lat., 46. Sue a beggar and catch a louse.
1731–8. Swift, Polite Conv., i. 25 (D.). Know him! ay, as well as a Beggar knows his Dish.
1809. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XV. xii. 429. Our own old saying: ‘Set a beggar on horse-back, and he’ll ride to the devil.’
2. transf. One in indigent circumstances.
1340. Ayenb., 36. Vor hire time-ȝettinge hi destrueþ and makeþ beggeres þe knyȝtes.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxxvii. 30. Some man … can geue … prudent councell … and contynueth a begger.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. v. 3. Happí be ye beggars in sprijt.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 48. A begger that was vsd to come so smug vpon the Mart.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. III. xv. (1651), 128. Origanus assigns the same cause why Mercurialists are so poor, and most part beggers.
† 3. One who begs a favor; one who entreats, a suppliant. Obs. (The regular mod. form of this and 4 would be begger, as ‘a begger for mercy.’)
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxiv. (1811), 247. He had spent much and was an ill beggar: the king aunswered … If he be ashamed to begge, we are ashamed to giue.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 22. Wilt thou needes be a begger? Clo. I doe beg your good will in this case.
† 4. One who begs the question. Obs.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’s Parl., 130. O shamelesse begger, that craueth no lesse then the whole controuersie to be giuen him!
1664. Tillotson, Wisdom of being Religious, in Wks. 1696, i. 16 (J.). These shameful beggars of Principles, who give this precarious account of the original of things, assume to themselves to be men of reason.
5. Applied to a mendicant friar or to a Beghard.
c. 1384. Wyclif, De Eccl., Sel. Wks. III. 359. Newe sectis or ordris, boþe possessioneris & beggeris shulden ceese bi Cristis lawe.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7258. But beggers [Fr. Beguins] with these hodes wide, With sleight and pale faces lene.
6. As a term of contempt: a. = Mean or low fellow.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13662. ‘Herd yee þis Iurdan,’ coth þai, ‘þat beggar þat in sin was goten?’
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. 70. If siche a beggere shold My kyngdom thus reyf me.
1867. Miss Broughton, Not Wisely, I. 270. they say I’m a sulky, ill-conditioned sort of beggar.
b. Used familiarly or playfully. (Cf. baggage, dog, rogue, etc.)
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxiii. Sir John left Sir W. Parker … to watch the Spanish beggars.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. You’re uncommon good-hearted little beggars.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xvii. 267. The cheekiest young beggar I have the pleasure to know.
c. In cards, applied to the small cards 2 to 10.
7. Comb. (in which beggar approaches in use to an adj.) General relations: a. appositive, as beggar-body, -boy, -brat, -girl, -maid, -man, -wife, -woman; b. attrib. (of or befitting a beggar, beggarly), as beggar-fear, -pride, -sport, -whine; c. beggar-wise adv.; beggar-patched adj.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 126. Above the dirty *beggar boys in the street.
a. 1631. Drayton, Wks., I. 244 (Jod.). Those *beggar brats wrapped in our rich perfumes.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 189. Or with pale *beggar-feare impeach my hight.
1863. Ellen C. Clayton, Queens of Song, II. 172. She heard a *beggar-girl sing beneath the window of her hotel.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. i. 14. When King Cophetua lou’d the *begger Maid. Ibid. (1605), Lear, IV. i. 32. Is it a *Beggar-man? Oldm. Madman, and beggar too.
1882. R. Stevenson, in Longm. Mag., I. 74. That wooden crowd of kings and genies, sorcerers and beggarmen.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., I. iv. 15. A *Beggar-patch’d coat of severall sorts of old rags.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 277. Here *beggar pride defrauds her daily cheer.
1652. Brome, Jov. Crew, V. Wks. 1873, III. 451. The Gentleman … that would have made *Beggar-sport with us.
1820. Keats, Isabella, xvii. Paled in and vineyarded from *beggar-spies.
1796. Scott, Wild Huntsm., xxvii. To stop my sport Vain were thy cant and *beggar whine.
1623. J. Penkerton, Handf. Hon., IV. i. Wealth despise Which they that doat vpon, liue *beggarwise.
1530. Palsgr., 197/1. *Beggar woman, belistresse.
1594. 1st Pt. Contention (1843), 53. One of them was stolne away by a *begger-woman.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1528. This silken rag, this beggar-woman’s weed.
8. Special combinations: † Beggars’ bolts, stones; † beggar-brach, a female beggar (see BRACH, a female hound); beggar’s brown (colloq.), Scotch snuff; † beggar’s-bush, a bush under which a beggar finds shelter (name of ‘a tree near Huntingdon, formerly a noted rendezvous for beggars’—Brewer), fig. beggary, ruin; beggar’s buttons, the heads of the burdock; † beggar-charge, allowance to a steward for the relief of beggars; beggar’s-haven, a beggar’s shelter, beggary; beggars’-lice, the plant called Clivers, also (in U.S.) applied to certain boraginaceous plants, whose prickly fruit or seeds stick to the clothes; † beggar-niggler, one who toys with a beggar-woman; † beggar’s plush ? cotton velvet, or ? corduroy; † beggar-staff, the staff of a beggar, fig. beggary; beggar’s tape; beggar-tick (in U.S.), a name for the plant Bidens frondosa; † beggar’s velvet, see beggar’s plush; also quot.; beggar-weed (see quot.).
1584. Hudson, Judith, in Sylvester’s Du Bartas (1608), 698. A pack of country clowns … that them to battail bownes With *beggers bolts and levers.
a. 1652. Brome, Jov. Crew, III. Wks. 1873, III. 401. A brace of the handsomest *Beggar-braches that ever grac’d a Ditch or a Hedge-side.
1879. Jamieson, Sc. Dict., *Beggar’s brown … light brown snuff which is made of the stem of tobacco.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier (1871), 6. Walking home by *Beggars Bush for a penance.
a. 1640. Day, Peregr. Schol. (1881), 75. Notwithstanding … Industry … he was forct to take a napp at Beggars Bushe.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 99. We are almost at Beggars-bush, and we cannot tell how to help our selves.
a. 1652. Brome, Jov. Crew, II. Wks. 1873, III. 382. Here’s five and twenty pounds for this Quarters *Beggar-charge.
1532. Dice Play (1850), 22. He must needs sink, and gather the wind into *beggars haven.
1880. [Mary Allan-Olney], New Virginians, I. 133. Look at the weeds … cockle-burrs, Spanish needles, *beggars’-lice.
a. 1652. Brome, Jov. Crew, II. Wks. 1873, III. 392. Do we look like *beggar-nigglers?
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2379/4. A Person … in a dark grey Cloth Coat … Breeches of *Beggars Plush.
1506[?]. Plumpton Corr., 199. We are brought to *begger staffe.
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., Beggarstaff, ‘They brought him to beggarstaff.’
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xviii. 289. Tie it very tight with *beggar’s tape.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, Ess., 202. It was over-run with Roman wormwood and *beggar-ticks, which last stuck to my clothes.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4888/3. A green *Beggars Velvet Frock with Metal Buttons.
1847. Halliwell, Beggar’s velvet, the light particles of down shaken from a feather-bed, and left by a sluttish housemaid to collect under it.
1878. Britten, Plant-n., I. 33. *Beggar-weed, a name applied to several plants by farmers, either because they denote poverty of soil, or because they are such noxious weeds as to beggar the land.
1884. Times, 15 April, 8/2. The ‘beggar weed,’ (unknown in England)…. By the end of August it stands six feet high all over the fields.
