i Register
In some senses, beggary is marked as obsolete. Watch for register when choosing this word.
beggary
/ˈbɛɡəɹi/
noun 3adj 1
Collocations
2VERB + BEGGARY
lives, state
PREP.
in, with
Definitions
noun
1
The state of a beggar; indigence, extreme poverty.
Happily some haplesse man hath conscience, And for his conscience lives in beggary.
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary.
2
The fact or action of begging.
[…] the landlady […] ushered them into a large garret where twenty or thirty people of all ages and both sexes lay and dozed away the day, choosing the evening and night for their trades of beggary, thieving, or prostitution.
[…] perhaps he would abandon beggary when there was no poor fool about to beg from.
3
Beggarly appearance.
[…] she looked back to the freedom and the beggary of the old studio in Soho with so much regret, that everybody, herself included, fancied she was consumed with grief for her father.
adj
1
beggarly
beggary counterfeits
early 1600s, Beaumont and Fletcher (attributed), The Nice Valour, Act V, Scene 3, in The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, 1750, Volume 10, p. 359, This is Love’s beggary right, that now is ours, When Ladies love, and cannot shew their Powers.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
noun — a solicitation for money or food (especially in the street b
- begging
- mendicancy
noun — the state of being a beggar or mendicant
- mendicancy
- mendicity
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
501
Happily some haplesse man hath conscience, And for his conscience lives in beggary.
Wiktionary02
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary.
Wiktionary03
1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son and T. Cadell, Volume I, Book I, Chapter 9, p. 128, […] she does not come hither as a beggar, however well the state of beggary may accord with he
Wiktionary04
beggary counterfeits
Wiktionary05
early 1600s, Beaumont and Fletcher (attributed), The Nice Valour, Act V, Scene 3, in The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, 1750, Volume 10, p.
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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