Definition of "beg" in English

verb

1. (intransitive) To request the help of someone, often in the form of money.

   • He begged on the street corner from passers-by.

2. (transitive) To plead with someone for help, a favor, etc.; to entreat.

   • I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to cause offence.
   • He begged her to go to the prom with him.

3. (transitive) To unwillingly provoke a negative, often violent, reaction.

   • The way you keep eating raw meat, you're just begging to get tapeworms.

4. (transitive or intransitive) To obviously lack or be in need of something.

   • A captivating novel that just begs for a movie adaptation

5. (transitive) In the phrase beg the question: to assume.

6. (transitive, proscribed) In the phrase beg the question: to raise (a question).

7. (transitive, law, obsolete) To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for.

noun

1. The act of begging; an imploring request.

noun

1. (history) Alternative form of bey.

   • Yaqub Beg (c. 1820 – 1877)

noun

1. (knitting) Abbreviation of beginning.