▪ I. beggarly, a.
(ˈbɛgəlɪ)
Also 6 bedgarly, 6–7 beggerly.
[f. beggar + -ly1.]
1. In the condition of a beggar, indigent; befitting a beggar, mean, poverty-stricken.
| 1545 Joye Exp. Dan. vii. (R.) Poore beggerly fryers. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 140 The rest were ragged, old, and beggerly. 1704 Pope Lett. (1736) V. 2 No beggar is so poor but he can keep a cur, and no author is so beggarly but he can keep a critic. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 330 As children multiplied..the household..became more and more beggarly. |
2. fig. Intellectually poor, destitute of meaning or intrinsic value.
| 1526 Tindale Gal. iv. 9 Weake and bedgarly [1611 beggerly] cerimones. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. III. xv. 491 Weak and beggarly Arguments. 1883 Edin. Daily Rev. 6 June 2/7 That most crude and beggarly conception of reform. |
3. Displaying the spirit of a beggar; mean, sordid.
| 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 140 The beggerly and greedy desire. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. 319 Thou art the beggerliest dastardly villain. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. v. 29 He renders me the beggerly thankes. 1640 Bp. Hall Episc. ii. xix. 197 A very poor and beggarly evasion. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. viii. 170 Lapsing into a beggarly habit. |
4. Comb., as beggarly-looking.
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxi, A forked, uncased, bald-pated, beggarly-looking scare-crow. |
▪ II. ˈbeggarly, adv.
[f. as prec. + -ly2.]
After the manner of a beggar or of one who begs; a. indigently, meanly; b. suppliantly, entreatingly.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 223 And both bihynde & eke biforne Clouted was she beggarly. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utopia (1869) 67 The resydewe lyve myserablye, wretchedlye, and beggerlye. 1633 Donne Poems (1650) 122 But he is worst, who (beggerly) doth chaw Others wits fruits. 1850 Mrs. Browning Poems I. 58 Eve, who beggarly entreats your love. |