beggar
Americannoun
-
beggars
plural
verb (used with object)
-
beggars,
present (3rd person singular)
-
beggared,
past participle, past
-
beggaring
present participle
-
to reduce to utter poverty; impoverish.
The family had been beggared by the war.
-
to cause one's resources of or ability for (description, comparison, etc.) to seem poor or inadequate.
The costume beggars description.
noun
-
a person who begs, esp one who lives by begging
-
a person who has no money or resources; pauper
-
ironic fellow
lucky beggar!
verb
-
to be beyond the resources of (esp in the phrase to beggar description )
-
to impoverish; reduce to begging
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
beggarsimple
-
beggarssimple
-
have beggaredperfect
-
has beggaredperfect
-
am beggaringprogressive
-
are beggaringprogressive
-
is beggaringprogressive
-
have been beggaringperfect progressive
-
has been beggaringperfect progressive
Past
-
beggaredsimple
-
had beggaredperfect
-
was beggaringprogressive
-
were beggaringprogressive
-
had been beggaringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of beggar
First recorded in 1175–1225, beggar is from the Middle English word beggare, beggere. See beg 1, -er 1, -ar 3
Explanation
A beggar is a poor person who asks others, or begs, for money or food. Another word for a beggar is a "panhandler," although both terms are vaguely offensive. No one wants to be a beggar. Many people who are beggars are also homeless and haven't been able to find jobs. Sometimes people use the word in an informal, pitying way: "Poor little beggar, he works so hard!" Another informal term is "to beggar belief," as when something is so incredible that you find it hard to believe. Another expression is “beggars can’t be choosers” which means you get what you get and you don’t get upset.
Vocabulary lists containing beggar
Broke-abulary: Synonyms for "Poor"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whether buying a Porsche 911, paying bills or giving money to a beggar at a stoplight, the payment is made the same way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
"It's just garbage... the clothes you can't even wear, you wouldn't even give to a beggar," Akoth said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2025
“But here, you see a beggar and you think to yourself, ‘He’s working for them,’” he added, referring to Pakistan’s powerful intelligence services.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2024
But over the following years, purported sightings of Majorana multiplied: as a beggar in Naples, a monk in Calabria, and a vagabond in South America.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 20, 2023
“When the beggar had eaten it all, he was still hungry, so they gave him their own dinner.”
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has called on the Conservatives to ditch him as a candidate, saying the selection "beggars belief".
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Perhaps a few would have fancied more goals against Haiti, but beggars cannot be choosers after a 36-year wait for a win on the biggest stage of all.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
The novel illuminates the makeshift community cultivated among the beggars, who maintain their own hierarchy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
"Common people, business owners — even beggars — are now fed up. Justice has been sent into exile."
From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026
The prosperous merchants and busy tradesmen had disappeared, and in their place were coarse women and menacing men, bands of noisy, grimy children and scores of beggars.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
A worse sin, even, than Amin’s expulsion in 1972 of every last Ugandan Asian, an act that was wildly popular with black Ugandans but which beggared Uganda almost overnight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
But the soaring price of shipping beggared that strategy.
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
If you thought the scot-free museum heist beggared belief, then you underestimate Elektra and her imagination.
From Salon ● May 2, 2021
The whirlwind plot increasingly beggared belief; there were CBeebies-levels of expository dialogue; the melodrama was unintentionally hilarious.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2021
Harren had beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands alike to ornament his dream.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
"It's beggaring the entire Forest Service budget," Safford said.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2022
But beggaring the workers who trusted promises made by their employers, their unions and their government is not the answer.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2018
It would have restricted development on grouse habitat, potentially beggaring states such as Wyoming which collects three-fifths of its revenues from energy companies.
From Economist ● May 3, 2018
Ervin was wounded twice during his 18 months in France, then earned a postwar degree from Harvard Law School, forever beggaring his self-description as "just a country lawyer."
From Time Magazine Archive
I cannot risk the beggaring of my wife and children.'
From A Life's Secret A Novel by Mrs. Henry Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
