beg

• IPA^(key): /bɛɡ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

From Middle English beggen, assimilation from Old English *becgan, *bedcan, *bedican, syncopated variants of Old English bedecian (“to beg”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *bedagô (“petitioner; requestor; beggar”), from *bedą, *bedō (“prayer; request”). Related to North Frisian bēdagi (“to pray”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍅𐌰 (bidagwa, “beggar”), Old English biddan (“to ask”). More at bid, bead.

beg (third-person singular simple present begs, present participle begging, simple past and past participle begged)

1. (intransitive) to request the help of someone, often in the form of money

   He begged on the street corner from passers-by.

2. (transitive) to plead with someone for help, a favor, etc.; to entreat

   I beg your pardon. I didn't mean to cause offence.

   He begged her to go to the prom with him.

   • Shakespeare

     I do beg your good will in this case.

   • Bible, Matthew xxvii. 58

     [Joseph] begged the body of Jesus.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5

     But that same day came Sam Tewkesbury to the Why Not? about nightfall, and begged a glass of rum, being, as he said, 'all of a shake' […]

3. (transitive) to assume, in the phrase beg the question
4. (proscribed) to raise a question, in the phrase beg the question
5. (law, obsolete) To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for.
   • Harrington

     Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (raise a question): set aside

• beg the question
• go begging
• beg to differ

• beggar

From Ottoman Turkish بك‎ (beg).

beg (plural begs)

1. a provincial governor under the Ottoman Empire, a bey

beg

1. (knitting) beginning
   • 2005, DRG Dynamic Resource, House of White Birches, Big Book of Knit Hats & Scarves for Everyone (page 34)

     Knit with MC until work measures 3 inches from beg.

• GBE, GEB, Gbe, Geb, bge

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish بك‎ (beg).

• IPA^(key): /bɛx/
• Hyphenation: beg

beg m (plural begs)

1. (historical) Alternative form of bei.

Borrowed from English bag.

beg (Jawi spelling بيݢ)

1. bag

From Old Irish bec, from Proto-Celtic *bikkos (“small”).

beg (plural beggey, comparative loo, superlative sloo)

1. small

• “bec” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

borrowed from Ottoman Turkish بك‎ (“ruler”)

• IPA^(key): /bêɡ/

bȅg m (Cyrillic spelling бе̏г)

1. (regional) master, lord

• bekstvo
• bežanje
• prebeg

• “beg” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Related to Serbo-Croatian bijeg

• IPA^(key): /ˈbéːk/
• Tonal orthography: bẹ̑g

bég m inan (genitive béga, nominative plural bégi)

1. run
2. getaway
3. escape
4. withdrawal
5. (phrase) flight

   Planiti v beg ― To take flight

From Turkish bey.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbéːk/
• Tonal orthography: bẹ̑g

bég m anim (genitive béga, nominative plural bégi)

1. bey (Turkish governor)

Borrowed from English beg.

beg (plural begs)

1. request, an action of begging

From Chinese 白 (bái).

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /peːk˧/
• Tone numbers: beg⁸
• Hyphenation: beg

beg (old orthography beg, Sawndip forms 白)

1. (bound) white

beg (old orthography beg, Sawndip forms 白)

1. in vain; for nothing
2. for free; free of charge