| 释义 |
▪ I. beggar, n.|ˈbɛgə(r)|
Forms: 3 beggare, 4–5 beggere, 4–7 begger, 4– beggar.
[See beg v. The spelling in -ar has been occasional from 14th c., but the usual form in 15–17th c., as an ordinary agent-noun from beg, was begger: see 3.]
1. a. One who asks alms, especially habitually; one who lives by so doing.
a1225Ancr. R. 168 Hit is beggares [v.r. beggilde] rihte uorte beren bagge on bac. a1300K. Horn 1133 Þu wenest I beo a beggere. 1382Wyclif Deut. xv. 4 Nedi and begger there shal not be among ȝow. c1400Destr. Troy xxxv. 13549 And now me bus, as a beggar, my bred for to thigge. 1480Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxxvii. 262 Beggers that were knowe openly for nedy poure beggers. c1538Starkey England iii. 91 The multytude of Beggarys in our cuntrey. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 34 They will not giue a doit to relieue a lame Begger. 1611Bible Luke xvi. 20 A certaine begger named Lazarus. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. 423 Near the door..an incredible number of Beggers. 1797Godwin Enquirer ii. iii. 187 Those who pursue the trade of a common beggar. 1857Kingsley Misc. II. 326 The beggars became a regular fourth-estate.
b. sturdy beggar: an able-bodied man begging without cause, and often with violence.
c1538Starkey England 176 Thys grete nombur of sturdy beggarys therby schold utturly be taken away. 1597Act 39 Eliz. iv. §1 For the suppressing of rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggers. 1711Steele Spect. No. 48 ⁋5 The Heroes appear only like sturdy Beggars. 1860R. Vaughan Mystics (ed. 2) I. 143 There are some sturdy beggars who wander about the country availing themselves of the name of Beghard to lead an idle life.
c. In many proverbial expressions.
1539Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 9 One begger byddeth wo that another by the dore shuld go. Ibid. 39 A beggars scryp is neuer fylled. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 23 Beggers should be no choosers. Ibid. 38 The begger maie syng before the theefe. Ibid. 171, I know him as well as the begger knowth his bag. 1581Rich Farew. Mil. Prof., She sware by no beggers she would be so revenged. 15942nd Pt. Contention (1843) 132 Beggers mounted run their horse to death. 1613Uncasing Machiavil's Instr. Sonne 7 Proue the prouerbe often tolde, ‘A carelesse Courtier yong, a Begger olde.’ 1617Moryson Itin. iii. ii. i. 61 Who know the way as well as a begger knowes his dish. 1682Bunyan Holy War 260 When Cerberus and Mr. Profane met, they were presently as great as beggars. 1690W. Walker Idiom. Anglo-Lat. 46 Sue a beggar and catch a louse. 1706Swift Polite Conv. i. (D.) Know him? Ay Madam, as well as a beggar knows his dish. 1809Cobbett Pol. Reg. XV. xii. 429 Our own old saying: ‘Set a beggar on horse-back, and he'll ride to the devil.’
2. transf. One in indigent circumstances.
1340Ayenb. 36 Vor hire time-zettinge hi destrueþ and makeþ beggeres þe knyȝtes. 1535Coverdale Ecclus. xxxvii. 30 Some man..can geue.. prudent councell..and contynueth a begger. c1550Cheke Matt. v. 3 Happí be y⊇ beggars in sprijt. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. i. 48 A begger that was vsd to come so smug vpon the Mart. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xv. (1651) 128 Origanus assigns the same cause why Mercurialists are so poor, and most part beggers.
†3. One who begs a favour; one who entreats, a suppliant. Obs. (The regular mod. form of this and 4 would be begger, as ‘a begger for mercy.’)
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. (1811) 247 He had spent much and was an ill beggar: the king aunswered..If he be ashamed to begge, we are ashamed to giue. 1601Shakes. All's Well i. iii. 22 Wilt thou needes be a begger? Clo. I doe beg your good will in this case.
†4. One who begs the question. Obs.
1579Fulke Heskins's Parl. 130 O shamelesse begger, that craueth no lesse then the whole controuersie to be giuen him! a1694Tillotson (J.) These shameful beggars of principles..assume..to be men of reason.
5. Applied to a mendicant friar or to a Beghard.
c1384Wyclif De Eccl. Sel. Wks. III. 359 Newe sectis or ordris, boþe possessioneris & beggeris shulden ceese bi Cristis lawe. c1400Rom. Rose 7258 But beggers [Fr. Beguins] with these hodes wide, With sleight and pale faces lene.
6. As a term of contempt:
a. = Mean or low fellow.
a1300Cursor M. 13662 ‘Herd yee þis lurdan,’ coth þai, ‘þat beggar þat in sin was goten?’ c1460Towneley Myst. 70 If siche a beggere shold My kyngdom thus reyf me. 1869R. Broughton Not Wisely 121 A sulky ill-conditioned sort of beggar.
b. Used familiarly or playfully. (Cf. baggage, dog, rogue, etc.)
1833Marryat P. Simple xxxiii, Sir John left Sir W. Parker..to watch the Spanish beggars. 1857Hughes Tom Brown 1, You're uncommon good-hearted little beggars. 1873Black Pr. Thule xvii. 267 The cheekiest young beggar I have the pleasure to know.
c. In Cards, applied to the small cards 2 to 10.
d. A person who is remarkably adept at or keen on a particular pursuit, subject, etc. Const. for or with inf. colloq.
1859Chambers's Jrnl. 29 Jan. 77/1 He was..what Mr. Leech's miner denominated the conciliating curate, ‘a beggar to argue’, a stiffish one to tackle upon any mortal subject. 1949Partridge Dict. Slang (ed. 3) 987/2 A beggar for work, a constant hard worker: coll.: late C. 19–20.
7. Comb. (in which beggar approaches in use to an adj.) General relations:
a. appositive, as beggar-beard, beggar-body, beggar-boy, beggar-brat, beggar-child, beggar-clan, beggar-girl, beggar-king, beggar-maid, beggar-man, beggar-wife, beggar-woman;
b. attrib. (of or befitting a beggar, beggarly), as beggar-fear, beggar-pride, beggar-sport, beggar-whine;
c. beggar-wise adv.; beggar-patched adj.
1955J. R. R. Tolkien Return of King 354 Here's your fee, *beggar-beard.
1765Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 126 Above the dirty *beggar boys in the street.
a1631Drayton Wks. I. 244 (Jod.) Those *beggar brats wrapped in our rich perfumes.
1938L. MacNeice Earth Compels 54 The shapes of mist like hooded *beggar-children.
a1821Keats The Poet, Poorest of the *beggar-clan.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 189 Or with pale *beggar-feare impeach my hight.
1863E. C. Clayton Queens of Song II. 172 She heard a *beggar-girl sing beneath the window of her hotel.
1938Yeats New Poems 32 Some boast of *beggar-kings.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. i. 14 When King Cophetua lou'd the *begger Maid.
1605― Lear iv. i. 32 Is it a *Beggar⁓man? Oldm. Madman, and beggar too. 1882R. Stevenson in Longm. Mag. I. 74 That wooden crowd of kings and genies, sorcerers and beggarmen.
1658A. Fox tr. Wurtz' Surg. i. iv. 15 A *Beggar-patch'd coat of severall sorts of old rags.
1764Goldsm. Trav. 277 Here *beggar pride defrauds her daily cheer.
1652Brome Jov. Crew v. Wks. 1873 III. 451 The Gentleman..that would have made *Beggar-sport with us.
1820Keats Isabella xvii, Paled in and vineyarded from *beggar-spies.
1796Scott Wild Huntsm. xxvii, To stop my sport Vain were thy cant and *beggar whine.
1623J. Penkerton Handf. Hon. iv. i, Wealth despise Which they that doat vpon, liue *beggar-wise.
1530Palsgr. 197/1 *Beggar woman, belistresse. 15941st Pt. Contention (1843) 53 One of them was stolne away by a begger-woman. 1859Tennyson Enid 1528 This silken rag, this beggar-woman's weed.
8. Special combinations: † beggars' bolts, stones; † beggar-brach, a female beggar (see brach, a female hound); beggar's brown (colloq.), Scotch snuff; † beggar's-bush, a bush under which a beggar finds shelter (name of ‘a tree near Huntingdon, formerly a noted rendezvous for beggars’—Brewer), fig. beggary, ruin; beggar's buttons, the heads of the burdock; † beggar-charge, allowance to a steward for the relief of beggars; beggar's-haven, a beggar's shelter, beggary; beggars'-lice, the plant called Clivers, also (in U.S.) applied to certain boraginaceous plants, whose prickly fruit or seeds stick to the clothes; † beggar-niggler, one who toys with a beggar-woman; † beggar's plush? cotton velvet, or ? corduroy; † beggar-staff, the staff of a beggar, fig. beggary; beggar's tape; beggar-tick (in U.S.), a name for the plant Bidens frondosa; † beggar's velvet, see beggar's plush; also quot.; beggar-weed (see quot.).
1584Hudson Judith in Sylvester Du Bartas (1608) 698 A pack of country clowns..that them to battail bownes With *beggers bolts and levers.
a1652Brome Jov. Crew iii. Wks. 1873 III. 401 A brace of the handsomest *Beggar-braches that ever grac'd a Ditch or a Hedge-side.
1879Jamieson Sc. Dict., *Beggar's brown..light brown snuff which is made of the stem of tobacco.
1592Greene Upst. Courtier (1871) 6 Walking home by *Beggars Bush for a penance.
a1640Day Peregr. Schol. (1881) 75 Notwithstanding..Industry..he was forct to take a napp at *Beggars Bushe.
1677A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 99 We are almost at *Beggars-bush, and we cannot tell how to help our selves.
a1652Brome Jov. Crew ii. Wks. 1873 III. 382 Here's five and twenty pounds for this Quarters *Beggar-charge.
1532Dice Play (1850) 22 He must needs sink, and gather the wind into *beggars haven.
1880New Virginians I. 133 Look at the weeds..cockle-burrs, Spanish needles, *beggars'-lice.
a1652Brome Jov. Crew ii. Wks. 1873 III. 392 Do we look like *beggar-nigglers?
1688Lond. Gaz. No. 2379/4 A Person..in a dark grey Cloth Coat..Breeches of *Beggars Plush.
1506Plumpton Corr. 199 We are brought to *begger staffe.
1864Atkinson Whitby Gloss., Beggarstaff, ‘They brought him to *beggarstaff.’
1796H. Glasse Cookery xviii. 289 Tie it very tight with *beggar's tape.
1854Thoreau Walden, Ess. 202 It was over-run with Roman worm⁓wood and *beggar-ticks, which last stuck to my clothes.
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4888/3 A green *Beggars Velvet Frock with Metal Buttons.
1847Halliwell, *Beggar's velvet, the light particles of down shaken from a feather-bed, and left by a sluttish housemaid to collect under it.
1878Britten Plant-n. i. 33 *Beggar-weed, a name applied to several plants by farmers, either because they denote poverty of soil, or because they are such noxious weeds as to beggar the land.
1884Times 15 Apr. 8 The ‘*beggar weed’ (unknown in England)..stands 6 feet high all over the fields.
Add:[6.] [b.] (Later examples.) Also euphemistically for bugger n.1 2 b (prob. from at least the early 20th cent.).
1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life (1944) i. 62 He came down on his hand, poor beggar; it's swelled like a boxing-glove. 1904Kipling Traffics & Discov. 343 'E said he was born at the back o' Vancouver Island, and all the time the beggar was a balmy Barnado Orphan! 1942E. Langley Pea-Pickers (1958) ii. ii. 93 At last, the poor little beggars did their dialogue to a thunder of well-fed applause. 1978Fortune 4 Dec. 100 The passenger's up there in the air flying at 500 miles an hour—his butt is on the plane for five hours... Then he comes down, and the plane starts taxiing in from the runway, and look: the beggars are already standing up, ready to jump off. 1980F. Weldon Puffball 239 The surgeon found the head: used forceps. He sweated. ‘Little beggar,’ he said. ‘You seem to like it in there.’
▸ beggar's purse n. Cookery a pancake or sheet of pastry gathered into a shape resembling a purse or miniature sack around a savoury or sweet filling.
1981N.Y. Times 21 Aug. c22/2 One irresistible conceit..is a serving of four *beggar's purses—tiny pouches formed of crepes tied with chives, holding excellent caviar and a dab of creme fraiche. 1991Food & Wine Aug. 16/1 Nor could you ask for more delicious appetizers than..the beggar's purse of chicken, bean sprouts and bell pepper with mustard-chive sauce. 2002D. Cicero et al. Galaxy Global Eatery Hemp Cookbk. Contents p. xxxviii, Beggar's purse with strawberry compote & chocolate sauce.
▪ II. beggar, v.|ˈbɛgə(r)|
6–7 begger.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans.
a. To make a beggar of, exhaust the means of, reduce to beggary; to impoverish.
1528Roy Sat. 845 Oure master shalbe beggered Of all his ryche possession. 1592Greene Upst. Courtier in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 232 These lawiers..beggering their clients..purchase to themselues whole lordships. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. iv. 145 [Conscience] beggars any man that keepes it. 1650Fuller Pisgah iv. i. 5 Excess will begger wealth it-self. 1709Steele Tatler No. 25 ⁋8 He would beggar him by the exorbitant Bills which came from Oxford. 1864Bright Distrib. Land, Sp. (1876) 455 The Cornlaw..beggared hundreds and thousands of the people.
b. fig.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. iv. 61 Beggering the Opponent to maintain such a fruitful generation of absurdities. 1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 152 It sometimes beggers it [the ground] for ever after. 1735Bolingbroke Parties 19 (T.) To beggar them out of their sturdiness.
2. To exhaust the resources of, go beyond, outdo; as in to beggar description, beggar compare, etc.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 203 For her owne person It beggerd all discription. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 363 A place which beggars all description. 1815Scribbleomania 15 Hunger's a sauce, sir, that beggars compare. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 297 It beggars one's feelings to attempt to find words whereby to express them.
3. Comb. beggar-my-neighbour: a simple game at cards often played by children. Also fig.
1734Poor Robin's Almanack C 6 The Lawyers play at beggar my Neighbour. 1777Brand Pop. Antiq. (1849) II. 396 Birkie, a childish game at cards: in England..called Beggar-my-neighbour. 1843Southey Doctor cxlii. (D.) I cannot call to mind anything which is estimated so much below its deserts as the game of Beggar-my-neighbour. 1874Helps Soc. Press. xxiv. 355, I believe he would throw some spirit and some hope into ‘Beggar my Neighbour.’ 1930Times Educ. Suppl. 20 Dec. 511/2 The..argument..that the scale for Middlesex should be nearer to that for London..was merely playing ‘beggar-my-neighbour’. 1958Spectator 1 Aug. 174/3 The continuous concentration on national selfishnesses and beggar-my-neighbour is distasteful. |