• (RP, GA) IPA: /bɛɡ/

beg (begs, present participle begging; past and past participle begged)

1. (intransitive) To request#Verb|request the help#Noun|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#Noun|favor, etc.; to entreat.

   Synonyms: supplicate

   I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to cause offence.

   He begged her to go to the prom with him.

   • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     I do beg your good will in this case.

   • Bible, Matthew 27:58

     [Joseph] begged the body of Jesus.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5

     But that same day came Sam Tewkesbury to the Why Not? about nightfall, and begged a glass of rum, being, as he said, 'all of a shake' [...]

3. (transitive) In the phrase beg the question: to assume.
4. (transitive, proscribed) In the phrase beg the question: to raise#Verb|raise (a question#Noun|question).

   Antonyms: set aside

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

   • Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards.

• French: mendier, quêter, quémander
• German: betteln
• Italian: mendicare, elemosinare
• Portuguese: mendigar
• Russian: проси́ть
• Spanish: mendigar, pordiosear

• French: implorer, supplier
• German: anflehen, bitten
• Italian: implorare, pregare
• Portuguese: suplicar, implorar
• Russian: умоля́ть
• Spanish: suplicar, rogar

beg (plural begs)

1. The act of begging; an imploring request.

beg (plural begs)

1. A provincial#Adjective|provincial governor under the Ottoman Empire; a bey.

1. (knitting) Abbreviation of beginning#Noun|beginning.
   • 2005, DRG Dynamic Resource, House of White Birches, Big Book of Knit Hats & Scarves for Everyone (page 34)

     Knit with MC until work measures 3 inches from beg.