Beggarly
['begəlɪ] or ['bɛɡɚli]
Definition
(adj.) (used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt .
(adj.) marked by poverty befitting a beggar; 'a beggarly existence in the slums'; 'a mean hut' .
Typist: Marcus--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) In the condition of, or like, a beggar; suitable for a beggar; extremely indigent; poverty-stricken; mean; poor; contemptible.
(a.) Produced or occasioned by beggary.
(adv.) In an indigent, mean, or despicable manner; in the manner of a beggar.
Typist: Natalie
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Destitute, indigent, needy, poor.[2]. Sorry, mean, abject, base, low, paltry, shabby, vile, scurvy, miserable, contemptible, despicable, pitiful, pitiable, servile, slavish, grovelling, base-minded, low-minded, mean-spirited.
Checker: Mitchell
Examples
- Her family--her beggarly family--turned their backs on her for marrying an honest man, who had made his own place and won his own fortune. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- We can only offer you a beggarly five hundred to start with. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Spain and Portugal, the countries which possess the mines, are, after Poland, perhaps the two most beggarly countries in Europe. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- An abbot and a dozen beggarly friars is all we have. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Poland, where the feudal system still continues to take place, is at this day as beggarly a country as it was before the discovery of America. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I am a plain British merchant I am, and could buy the beggarly hounds over and over. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- And being uneducated he will have many slavish desires, some beggarly, some knavish, breeding in his soul. Plato. The Republic.
- The foreigner came here poor, beggarly, cringing, and subservient, ready to doff his cap to the meanest native of the household. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- In every country where they take place, the tenants are poor and beggarly, pretty much according to the degree in which they take place. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I cannot tell; Aunt Reed says if I have any, they must be a beggarly set: I should not like to go a begging. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- And all because she will not find a beggarly sum which she could get by turning her diamonds into paste. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The poverty of the lower ranks of people in China far surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in Europe. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Have they alleviated the poverty, have they promoted the industry, of those two beggarly countries? Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Checker: Mitchell