Beg (?), n. [Turk. beg, pronounced
bay. Cf. Bey, Begum.] A title of honor in Turkey
and in some other parts of the East; a bey.
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.
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.
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. 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, v. i. 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.