beggarliness

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noun

The state or characteristic of being or resembling a beggar; destitution.

Scrabble 16
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Meanings

nounbeggarliness (uncountable)
  1. rareuncountableThe state or characteristic of being or resembling a beggar; destitution.

    While the ant had enough in store to last him the famine, the grasshopper was reduced to beggarliness!

    2008 January 16, “Nigeria: Wealth is Not a Measure of Achievement”, in AllAfrica.com
    2 more examples

    Angry duns, beggarliness of income, scarcity of the necessaries and luxuries which dignity of rank demanded, the indifference and slights of one's equals, and the ignoring of one's existence by exalted persons, were all hideous enough to Lord Mount Dunstan.

    1906, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 18, in The Shuttle

    And suddenly the fifty-cent tip previously bestowed upon the servitor seemed, to one unexpectedly fallen heir to the princely fortune then in P. Sybarite's pockets, the very nadir of beggarliness.

    1913, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter 8, in The Day of Days

Origin

From beggarly + -ness.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

beggarliness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beggarliness

MLA

“beggarliness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beggarliness. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beggarliness,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beggarliness.

Source: beggarliness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.