begen - Definition of begen at Define.com Dictionary and Thesaurus (define begen)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Beg \Beg\, noun [Turk. beg, pronounced bay. Cf. {Bey}, {Begum}.] A title of honor in Turkey and in some other parts of the East; a bey.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Beg \Beg\, verb (used with an object) [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}, verb (used with an object)); 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. 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.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Beg \Beg\, verb (used without an object) 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. ||

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

beg

verb

1: 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" [also: {begging}, {begged}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

71 Moby Thesaurus words for "beg": adjure, appeal, appeal to, ask, bear, beget, beseech, besiege, brace, breed, bum, cadge, call for help, call on, call upon, circumvent, clamor for, conjure, crave, cry for, cry on, cry to, demand, ditch, double, elude, entreat, escape, evade, generate, get, get around, get away from, get out of, hit, hit up, impetrate, implore, importune, imprecate, invoke, kneel to, mooch, multiply, nag, obtest, panhandle, pass the hat, petition, plead, plead for, pray, press, procreate, produce, progenerate, propagate, reproduce, request, run to, scrounge, shake, shake off, shuffle out of, sire, skirt, solicit, sue, supplicate, touch, worry

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

BEG {Back End Generator}

BEG, v. To ask for something with an earnestness proportioned to the belief that it will not be given.

Who is that, father?

A mendicant, child, Haggard, morose, and unaffable -- wild! See how he glares through the bars of his cell! With Citizen Mendicant all is not well.

Why did they put him there, father?

Because Obeying his belly he struck at the laws.

His belly?

Oh, well, he was starving, my boy -- A state in which, doubtless, there's little of joy. No bite had he eaten for days, and his cry Was "Bread!" ever "Bread!"

What's the matter with pie?

With little to wear, he had nothing to sell; To beg was unlawful -- improper as well.

Why didn't he work?

He would even have done that, But men said: "Get out!" and the State remarked: "Scat!" I mention these incidents merely to show That the vengeance he took was uncommonly low. Revenge, at the best, is the act of a Siou, But for trifles --

Pray what did bad Mendicant do?

Stole two loaves of bread to replenish his lack And tuck out the belly that clung to his back.

Is that _all_ father dear?

There's little to tell: They sent him to jail, and they'll send him to -- well, The company's better than here we can boast, And there's --

Bread for the needy, dear father?

Um -- toast. Atka Mip

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

Beg That the poor existed among the Hebrews we have abundant evidence (Ex. 23:11; Deut. 15:11), but there is no mention of beggars properly so called in the Old Testament. The poor were provided for by the law of Moses (Lev. 19:10; Deut. 12:12; 14:29). It is predicted of the seed of the wicked that they shall be beggars (Ps. 37:25; 109:10). In the New Testament we find not seldom mention made of beggars (Mark 10:46; Luke 16:20, 21; Acts 3:2), yet there is no mention of such a class as vagrant beggars, so numerous in the East. "Beggarly," in Gal. 4:9, means worthless.