[f. BEG v. + -ING1.]
1. The action or habit of asking earnestly; spec. of asking alms.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 128. Summe by bygging and some by ȝifte.
c. 1410. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., xii. (Gibbs MS.), 30. For beggynge wytoute forthe, bote þere be a meke herte wyt in forthe, is lytyll werth as to perfeccioune.
1602. Return fr. Parnass., IV. ii. (Arb.), 55. There is a statute come out against begging.
1706. trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist. 16th C., II. IV. xviii. 267. Those pressing and indecent Beggings of Alms.
1837. Hare, Guesses (1859), 152. To no kind of begging are people so averse, as to begging pardon; that is when there is any serious ground for doing so.
2. To go (or have been) a begging: a. to go about begging. (Cf. BEGGED.)
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xx. 4. Therfore shal he go abegginge and haue nothinge.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., Wks. 1738, I. 17. Where they have been a begging for it.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 221. I dared not go a-begging of those that knew me.
b. fig. (said of situations, offices, in need of men to fill them; things offered for sale and finding no purchaser; and the like.)
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks., 1867, II. 218. Sin might go a-begging for want of service.
1597. Howson, Serm., 24 Dec., 34. Benefices went a begging as Ministers doe nowe.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. III. i. 117. Land almost went a-begging.
1878. H. Smart, Play or Pay, viii. 160. I’ll not believe a good horse goes begging in the Coverly country.
3. Begging of the question: a taking for granted of the thing to be proved.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 153. Alas, this is such a poore begginge of that in question.
1644. Jessop, Angel of Ephesus, 19. An usuall fallacie, a shamefull begging of the question.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. iv. 87. Reasonings of this description … are but so many beggings of the question.
4. Attrib. and comb., as begging-box, -expedition, -letter, -letter-writer; begging Thursday, ? Maundy Thursday; begging-wise adv., by way of begging, in begging fashion.
1546. Plumpton Corr., 250. Tomorrow begging Thursday, I must of force ride to Tankerslay.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 87. All that faith hath, is by way of receiving and begging-wise.
1651. C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., II. 3. The Author … rid upon a long stick, or in begging shooes, as he did when he was a Friar.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., li. They … entered the Krames, and passed the begging-box.
1867. Times, 7 Oct., 6/5. The Begging Letter Writer has talents which it is impossible not to admire.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. App. 545. This was not the last begging expedition of Gervinus to our shore.
1871. Ruskin, Fors Clav., I. i. 4. My desk is full of begging letters.
