▪ I. begging, vbl. n.
(ˈbɛgɪŋ)
[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 tr. 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 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-bowl, begging-box, begging-expedition, begging-letter, begging-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 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. 1668 Dryden Evening's Love (1671) iii. i. 32, I must be fain to take up their Questions in a cleft-Cane, or a Begging-box, as they do Charity in Prisons. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. li, They..entered the Krames, and passed the begging-box. 1846 Times 12 Feb. 6/6 (heading) Begging-letter writers. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley III. xiv. 299 He sent out begging-letters far and wide. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. xii. 117 He was a begging-letter writer. 1867 Times 7 Oct., 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. 1894 Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. (1895) 35 Let the begging-bowl be placed outside the shrine. |
▪ II. begging, ppl. a.
(ˈbɛgɪŋ)
[f. beg v. + -ing2.]
That begs, mendicant; spec. in begging friar.
| 1583 Exec. for Treason (1675) 32 Forced to go up and down in the streets..like a begging Fryer. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 198 A ciuile begging sect. 1725 Pope Odyss. xvii. 657 With the begging kind Shame suits but ill. 1766 Entick London IV. 80 An order of begging friars. |