1. A solicitation for money or food (especially in the street by an apparently penniless person)
   "Begging was prohibited in certain areas of the city";
   - beggary, mendicancy

1. Call upon in supplication; entreat
   "I beg you to stop!";
   - implore, pray
    
2. Request money, food, etc. from someone without any payment
   "beg money and food"
    
3. Ask for something
   "Henry IV begged the Pope for a divorce";
   - solicit
    
4. Dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted
   "beg the question"; "beg the point in the discussion"

Derived forms: beggings

See also: excuse

Type of: ask for, bespeak, call for, circumnavigate, circumvent, dodge, duck [informal], elude, evade, finesse, fudge, hedge, parry, plead, put off, request, sidestep, skirt, solicitation

Encyclopedia: Begging, Essex