begging bowl
1
7.5
- noun
- /ˈbɛɡɪŋ boʊl/
:
tazón de limosna
- Begging bowls for everyone!
- around with a begging bowl
Examples
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You could wander around and have a begging bowl as, as ascetics often did, not just in ancient Greece, but in India and China and places like that.
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Of course, we do not send our old folks out with begging bowls to wander the streets of Manhattan and Minneapolis.
Academic text (2004) -
No one goes out with their begging bowls asking, "Where's mine?".
Blog text (12) -
I suppose old Mother Trentham will have her begging bowl out while she's here.
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The final stage is that of the wandering beggar, who has no home at all and heads into the world alone, with nothing but a begging bowl, dependent on strangers for everything.
Academic text (2004) -
But, as the incoming president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, he does not intend to bring out his begging bowl to plead for more government cash for council adult care departments.
Academic text (2010) -
Levendis: On Friday, the 11th of October, he lay in his own filth on the sidewalk outside the British Embassy in Rangoon, holding a begging bowl.
Fiction book (1992) -
Buddhist monks wandered through the city with their begging bowls, collecting alms from passersby.
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The charity event featured a begging bowl to encourage guests to donate to those in need.
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During the street fair, performers used a begging bowl to gather tips from the audience.
Synonyms
26
6.7
A shallow dish passed around in church to collect money
7
3.2
A shallow dish people pass around in church to collect money
How Ornate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning—a bowl used to collect charity—is directly and compositionally derived from 'begging' (requesting charity) + 'bowl' (a dish). This is a straightforward, literal combination that matches similar concepts (alms/collection bowl) in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.
Etymology
Begging bowl comes from the simple image of a person holding a bowl while begging for food or money. People put money or food into the bowl, so the phrase means 'a bowl used to collect donations'.