From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbeggarbeg‧gar1 /ˈbeɡə $ -ər/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 SSPOORsomeone who lives by asking people for food and money the beggars on the streets2 → lucky/lazy/cheeky etc beggar3 → beggars can’t be choosers
Examples from the Corpus
beggar• Without clothes, under his first blanket, he could have been the child of a king or a beggar.• A beggar lad showed us the house in a dank, narrow alleyway where Mistress Hopkins lived.• You can give beggars vouchers for food instead of cash.• Rome had probably more than the average number of beggars.• When Eumaeus came back he found the old beggar he had left.• I imagined the beggar from the London streets sitting with the old woman Khadija in my village.• The young beggar took the money wetted his finger and carefully counted the bills-twice.beggarbeggar2 verb [transitive] 1 → beggar description/belief2 POOR literary to make someone very poor Why should he beggar himself for you?→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
beggar• The thought of la belle dame de Bruges coming out with such stuff beggars belief.• In Gravity's Rainbow, conspiracies proliferate to such an extent that they beggar description.• The vast panorama of teeming Life and Creation opened up to us through the teachings of Esotericism beggars human thought.• Floods combined with falling prices to beggar whole communities of farmers. 