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Beggar vs Wretch - What's the difference?

beggar | wretch |

As nouns the difference between beggar and wretch

is that beggar is while wretch is an unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.

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

    wretch

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1742 , author=Henry Fielding , title=Joseph Andrews , chapter=12 citation , passage=The poor wretch , who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1789 , author=Watkin Tench , title=The Expedition to Botany Bay , chapter=14 citation , passage=The four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony.}}
  • An unpleasant, annoying person.
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1740 , author=Samuel Richardson , title=Pamela , chapter=71 citation , passage=Swear to me but, thou bold wretch ! said she, swear to me, that Pamela Andrews is really and truly thy lawful wife, without sham, without deceit, without double-meaning; and I know what I have to say!}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1823 , author=Walter Scott , title=Saint Ronan's Well , chapter=32 citation , passage=I asked that selfish wretch , Winterblossom, to walk down with me to view her distress, and the heartless beast told me he was afraid of infection!}}
  • (archaic) An exile. (rfex)

    • External links

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