to beg

Examples

• All

• I'll go now, and I'll just beg of you some forgiveness.

  American Royalty (2022)

• And I'd beg, I'd beg them to let me change schools.

• If there is a reason to beg, then I would beg.

  Death Club (2023)

• And we are being forced to beg for food every year.

  Academic text (2008)

• I practically had to beg for it, since it was midnight and they were closing.

  Fiction book (1994)

• So, my friends, I beg of you, choose wisely.

• Irrespective of reason or country, once on the street, children work or beg to support themselves and their families.

  Academic text (2002)

• Women and children begged on church steps and and roadsides.

• So Aspen begged me to take her to get this.

• I went to the soup kitchen to beg for some food because I was really hungry.

Synonyms

A

to ask for

vsto beg

∞ 1.0

To tell someone you want or need something

is more humble and often involves charity or requests without payment

P

to pray

vsto beg

• Archaic

256 1.6

To beg someone urgently and humbly for something

is mainly used for requests for money or food, often as charity

P

to plead

vsto beg

232 3.9

Ask someone urgently and emotionally for something

is more humble and often for money or food needs

A

to ask for help

vsto beg

98 1.0

To tell someone you need support with a task or problem

is mainly used for money or food needs rather than general assistance

S

to solicit

vsto beg

• Formal

48 6.8

To ask people for something, often in a formal or persistent way

is less formal and more about personal need or charity

B

to beseech

vsto beg

• Formal

47 8.2

To ask someone earnestly for something

is a humble appeal often used for charity or basic needs

I

to implore

vsto beg

• Formal

40 5.3

To ask someone very seriously to do or not do something

is earnest but generally less desperate and more routine

E

to entreat

vsto beg

• Formal

12 8.1

Ask someone in a serious, emotional way to do something

is less urgent and focuses on humble needs like money or food

P

to panhandle

vsto beg

• Informal

7 7.5

To ask people in public for money

is broader and covers all humble requests, not only street appeals

S

to supplicate

vsto beg

• Formal

3 9.6

To beg someone, often in prayer, for help or favor

is more everyday and usually directed to charity or need

A

to ask for change

vsto beg

3 4.4

To request small amounts of money from people on the street

is broader, covering larger needs and food as well as small coins

A

to ask for a discount

vsto beg

1 2.1

To tell a seller you want a lower price

is a humble plea for aid or charity, not price negotiation

B

to beg on one's knees

vsto beg

• Informal

1 7.0

Ask someone for help or forgiveness while kneeling and looking very desperate

is a humble request but not necessarily such dramatic physical act

H

to have one's hand out

vsto beg

• Informal

1 8.8

To ask people for money by showing you need it

is a humble plea for charity rather than an expectation of entitlement

M

to mump

vsto beg

• Archaic

9.9

To beg for food or money

is the general modern term for humble asking, not dialectal

H

to have your hand out

vsto beg

• Informal

8.2

To ask for money or help without trying to earn it

is a single humble request, not repeated expectation without effort

Idioms

B

to beg for one's life

• NSFW

5 7.4

Ask someone very strongly not to kill or hurt you

Phrasal Verbs

B

to beg off

• Informal

4 7.0

To ask to be excused from an activity by giving a reason

B

to beg on one's knees

• Informal

1 7.0

Ask someone for help or forgiveness while kneeling and looking very desperate

Compounds

B

beg button

• Informal

9.1

An action that asks people for help or sympathy

How Desperate

to panhandle

• Informal

7 7.5

to beg

153 1.0

to plead

232 3.9

to solicit

• Formal

48 6.8

to ask

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

Etymology