Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely poor or meager: Describes something of very low quality, quantity, or value, often to the point of being contemptible or pitiable.
   • Resembling or befitting a beggar: Characterized by the poverty, degradation, or humility associated with a beggar.

Usage

• Describing Amounts or Quality: Used to emphasize the inadequacy or insignificance of something, especially money, wages, or living conditions.
• Describing Appearance or State: Used to describe a state of existence, surroundings, or possessions that are wretchedly poor.

Examples

• Describing an Amount:
  • The company offered a beggarly sum for the valuable antique.
  • He survived on a beggarly wage that barely covered his rent.
• Describing a State or Condition:
  • They lived in beggarly conditions, without proper heating or sanitation.
  • The room was furnished in a beggarly fashion, with only a broken chair and a thin mattress.

Advanced Usage

• "a beggarly existence": A life of extreme poverty and deprivation.
  • After the war, many were reduced to a beggarly existence.
• Used for Emphasis (often derogatory): To express contempt for something considered unacceptably small or mean.
  • His contribution to the project was beggarly at best.

Variants and Related Words

• Beggarly (adv.): In a poor or mean manner. (Archaic or literary)
  • They were beggarly clothed.
• Beggar (n.): A person who lives by asking for money or food.
• Beggared (adj.): Reduced to poverty.

Synonyms

• Meager: Deficient in quantity or quality.
• Paltry: Ridiculously or insultingly small.
• Miserable: Wretchedly poor or unsatisfactory.
• Penurious: Extremely poor; poverty-stricken.
• Contemptible: Deserving scorn; despicable (when referring to the inadequacy).

Antonyms

• Abundant: Existing or available in large quantities.
• Adequate: Satisfactory or acceptable in quality or quantity.
• Generous: Larger or more plentiful than is usual or necessary.
• Opulent: Ostentatiously rich and luxurious.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• (As) poor as a church mouse: Extremely poor. (Similar in describing poverty but less contemptuous in tone than "beggarly").
• Live from hand to mouth: To satisfy only one's immediate needs because of lack of money. (Describes the state, not the contemptible quality).

Adjective

1. (used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt
2. marked by poverty befitting a beggar
   • a beggarly existence in the slums
   • a mean hut