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Beggar vs Penniless - What's the difference?

beggar | penniless |

As a noun beggar

is .

As an adjective penniless is

not having a penny; utterly impoverished; extremely poor.

beggar

English

(wikipedia beggar)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A person who begs.
  • * , chapter=13
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}
  • * 1983 , Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Sophist: The Drama of Original & Image , St. Augustine’s Press, p. 62:
    • Odysseus has returned to his home disguised as a beggar .
  • A person suffering from extreme poverty.
  • * 1883 , :
    • I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar , sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!

    Synonyms

    * (who begs) mendicant, panhandler, schnorrer, spanger, truant * (extremely poor person) palliard, pauper, vagabond

    Derived terms

    * beggarly * beggarliness * beggar's-lice * beggar-tick * beggarweed * beggary * beggars can't be choosers

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.
  • To exhaust the resources of; to outdo.

    • Synonyms

    * ruin

    Derived terms

    * beggar-my-neighbor * beggar thy neighbor * beggar belief * beggar description

    Anagrams

    * English agent nouns

    penniless

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Not having a penny; utterly impoverished; extremely poor.
  • * 1889 , (Horatio Alger), Driven From Home , ch. 10:
    • A dollar and a quarter seems a small sum, but if you are absolutely penniless it might as well be a thousand.
  • *, chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless , she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also