beg Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb call upon in supplication; entreat
    pray; implore.
    • I beg you to stop!
  2. verb make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently
    tap; solicit.
    • Henry IV solicited the Pope for a divorce
    • My neighbor keeps soliciting money for different charities
  3. verb ask to obtain free
    • beg money and food
  4. verb dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted
    • beg the question
    • beg the point in the discussion

WordNet

Beg noun
Etymology
Turk. beg, pronounced bay. Cf. Bey, Begum.
Definitions
  1. A title of honor in Turkey and in some other parts of the East; a bey.
Beg transitive verb
Etymology
OE. beggen, perh. fr. AS. bedecian (akin to Goth. bedagwa beggar), biddan to ask. (Cf. Bid, v. t.); or cf. beghard, beguin.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Begged present participle & verbal noun Begging
Definitions
  1. To ask earnestly for; to entreat or supplicate for; to beseech.
    I do beg your good will in this case. Shak.
    [Joseph] begged the body of Jesus. Matt. xxvii. 58.
    Sometimes implying deferential and respectful, rather than earnest, asking; as, I beg your pardon; I beg leave to disagree with you.
  2. To ask for as a charity, esp. to ask for habitually or from house to house.
    Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Ps. xxxvii. 25.
  3. To make petition to; to entreat; as, to beg a person to grant a favor.
  4. To take for granted; to assume without proof.
  5. (Old Law) To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for.
    Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards. Harrington.
    Syn. -- To Beg, Ask, Request.  To ask (not in the sense of inquiring) is the generic term which embraces all these words. To request is only a polite mode of asking. To beg, in its original sense, was to ask with earnestness, and implied submission, or at least deference. At present, however, in polite life, beg has dropped its original meaning, and has taken the place of both ask and request, on the ground of its expressing more of deference and respect. Thus, we beg a person's acceptance of a present; we beg him to favor us with his company; a tradesman begs to announce the arrival of new goods, etc. Crabb remarks that, according to present usage, "we can never talk of asking a person's acceptance of a thing, or of asking him to do us a favor." This can be more truly said of usage in England than in America.
Beg intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To ask alms or charity, especially to ask habitually by the wayside or from house to house; to live by asking alms.
    I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed. Luke xvi. 3.

Webster 1913