beggar
Plural: beggars
Noun
- a pauper who lives by begging
- A person who begs.
- A person suffering from extreme poverty.
- A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.
- A minced oath for bugger.
Verb
Verb Forms: beggared, beggaring, beggars
- To reduce to poverty; to impoverish.
- be beyond the resources of
- "This beggars description!"
- reduce to beggary
- To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
- To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.
Examples
- A rack full of vowels can BEGGAR a player’s score for several turns.
- What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar.
Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).
Synonyms
mendicant, pauperise, pauperize, Lazarus, almsman, almswoman, beggar, cadger, caird, clochard, mumper, palliard, panhandler, pauper, ruin, schnorrer, spanger, truant, vagabond
Scrabble Score: 10
beggar: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordbeggar: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
beggar: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary