Synonyms for beg
Definitions
- v. 1
To request the help of someone, often in the form of money.
He begged on the street corner from passers-by.
- v. 2
To plead with someone for help, a favor, etc.; to entreat.
He begged her to go to the prom with him.
- v. 3
To unwillingly provoke a negative, often violent, reaction.
The way you keep eating raw meat, you're just begging to get tapeworms.
Related words
- Word family
- begware beggar
- Phrases
- beg off beg button beg to differ
- Other spellings
- bek bey
Forms
- Past participle
- begged
e.g. begged → implored, pled, entreated, beseeched…
Choose the right word
Entreat implies a special earnestness of asking, and beseech, a still added and more humble intensity; beseech was formerly often used as a polite intensive for beg or pray; as, I beseech you to tell me.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- pray Let's pray to God, and He will answer our prayers.
- plead Tom is likely to plead guilty to all three charges.
- implore "I implore you not to do this, Jack," she cried.
- entreat I entreat you to go and see him.
By length
- 3 letters
- ask1, tap1, sue1, bum1
- 4 letters
- pray1, urge1
- 5 letters
- plead1, crave1, mooch, cadge1
- 6 letters
- invoke2, adjure, obtest
- 7 letters
- request2, conjure2, solicit3, implore2, beseech2, entreat
- 8 letters
- petition3, scrounge1
- 9 letters
- importune
- 10 letters
- supplicate
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (invoke2 = 2 syllables).