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# beggar

«beggar» in Mova's school dictionary: **very poor and lives by asking people for money or food** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a beggar, beggars); verb (beggar, beggars, beggared — rare)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A person who is very poor and lives by asking people for money or food. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#m1)

2) (UK, informal, old-fashioned) A person, used kindly or crossly, as in "lucky beggar" or "you little beggar". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#m2)

3) (verb, formal) To make very poor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In stories and fairy tales: a beggar at the palace gate (The Prince and the Pauper). In everyday talk: "beggars can't be choosers" means if you need help you must accept what you get. Phrases: beggars can't be choosers, beggar belief (be impossible to believe).

### examples

- The beggar sat outside the station. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x1)
- The prince swapped clothes with a beggar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x2)
- Beggars can't be choosers, so I ate the cold toast. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x3)
- You lucky beggar, you won again! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x4)
- It beggars belief that he forgot his own birthday party. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x5)
- The king gave a coin to the beggar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x6)
- "Will you play again?" asked the beggar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/#x7)

### note

Spelling: -ar, not -er. Calling a real person a beggar can be unkind; people now say "a homeless person" or "someone asking for money". The informal "lucky beggar" is mild, not rude.

### In the corpora

- [The Rat chirrups, and up climbs the Otter, shaking himself and grumbling «Greedy beggars!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/1/)
- [His first words: «Greedy beggars!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «beggar» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beggar/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.