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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Begged

Beg \Beg\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Begged; p. pr. & vb. n. Begging.] [OE. beggen, perh. fr. AS. bedecian (akin to Goth. bedagwa beggar), biddan to ask. (Cf. Bid, v. t.); or cf. beghard, beguin.]

  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.

    Note: 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 guardiln for, or to aso to havo a guardian appointed for.

    Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards.
    --Harrington. [1913 Webster] Hence:

    To beg (one) for a fool, to take him for a fool.

    I beg to, is an elliptical expression for I beg leave to; as, I beg to inform you.

    To beg the question, to assume that which was to be proved in a discussion, instead of adducing the proof or sustaining the point by argument.

    To go a-begging, a figurative phrase to express the absence of demand for something which elsewhere brings a price; as, grapes are so plentiful there that they go a-begging.

    Syn: To Beg, Ask, Request.

    Usage: 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.

Wiktionary
begged

vb. (en-pastbeg)

WordNet
beg
  1. v. call upon in supplication; entreat; "I beg you to stop!" [syn: implore, pray]

  2. make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently; "Henry IV solicited the Pope for a divorce"; "My neighbor keeps soliciting money for different charities" [syn: solicit, tap]

  3. ask to obtain free; "beg money and food"

  4. [also: begging, begged]

begged

See beg

Usage examples of "begged".

I thanked him for doing Margarita the honour of accepting a cup of coffee from her hands, and begged him to take one with me, saying I would breakfast with him next morning.

She begged me to go into her sitting-room while she dressed, and we then went down and dined with the wretched secretary, who adored her, whom she did not love, and who must have borne small love to me, seeing how high I stood in her graces.

She begged me to console her mother and make her listen to reason, as she had not gone off with an adventurer but with a man of rank, her equal.

The minister begged me to excuse his not answering my letter, but he had good reasons for not doing so.

The poor girl was astonished, kissed my hand, and begged me to say nothing to her mistress.

I escorted my niece into her room, and begged her to go to bed without troubling about me, and so saying I took up the paper and began to read it.

Before the game began the two counts paid their losses of the day before to the general in bank notes, which he begged me to change.

Having recovered my calm, I bethought myself that I was guilty and begged her forgiveness.

The exorcist, standing by the bed, took out his pocket ritual and the stole which he put round his neck, then a reliquary, which he placed on the bosom of the sleeping girl, and with the air of a saint he begged all of us to fall on our knees and to pray, so that God should let him know whether the patient was possessed or only labouring under a natural disease.

He then begged and begged my pardon a thousand times, and went on assuring me that I must lay to my rigour the odium of the step he had taken, the only excuse for it being in the fervent love I had kindled in his heart, and which made him miserable.

I sat down close by her, and telling me that she had long desired to make my acquaintance, she begged me to relate the history of the locks of hair sheared by her venerable uncle.

The good people kindly scolded her, begged my forgiveness in her favour, and Lucie left the room to attend to her other duties.

In my note to Nanette, I only begged her to give my letter to her friend, adding that I would see them again the day after the morrow, and that I trusted to her to find an opportunity for delivering me the answer.

As soon as I found myself in possession of the deed for Madame Orio, I hastened to pay a visit to the mistress of embroidery, in order to find an opportunity of acquainting Nanette with my success, and in a short note which I prepared, I informed her that in two days I would call to give the brevet to Madame Orio, and I begged her earnestly not to forget her promise to contrive a private interview with my dear Angela.

I very soon begged him to go away for fear the prefect should be awake, for in such a case we should have found ourselves in a very unpleasant dilemma, and most likely would have been accused of some abominable offence.