'To go a-begging' definitions:

Definition of 'To go a-begging'

From: GCIDE

Beg \Beg\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Begged; p. pr. & vb. n. Begging.] [OE. beggen, perh. fr. AS. bedecian (akin to Goth. bedagwa beggar), biddan to ask. (Cf. Bid, v. t.); or cf. beghard, beguin.]
1. To ask earnestly for; to entreat or supplicate for; to beseech. [1913 Webster]
I do beg your good will in this case. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
[Joseph] begged the body of Jesus. --Matt. xxvii. 58. [1913 Webster]
Note: Sometimes implying deferential and respectful, rather than earnest, asking; as, I beg your pardon; I beg leave to disagree with you. [1913 Webster]
2. To ask for as a charity, esp. to ask for habitually or from house to house. [1913 Webster]
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. --Ps. xxxvii. 25. [1913 Webster]
3. To make petition to; to entreat; as, to beg a person to grant a favor. [1913 Webster]
4. To take for granted; to assume without proof. [1913 Webster]
5. (Old Law) To ask to be appointed guardiln for, or to aso to havo a guardian appointed for. [1913 Webster]
Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards. --Harrington. [1913 Webster] Hence:
To beg (one) for a fool, to take him for a fool. [1913 Webster]
I beg to, is an elliptical expression for I beg leave to; as, I beg to inform you.
To beg the question, to assume that which was to be proved in a discussion, instead of adducing the proof or sustaining the point by argument.
To go a-begging, a figurative phrase to express the absence of demand for something which elsewhere brings a price; as, grapes are so plentiful there that they go a-begging. [1913 Webster]
Syn: To Beg, Ask, Request.
Usage: To ask (not in the sense of inquiring) is the generic term which embraces all these words. To request is only a polite mode of asking. To beg, in its original sense, was to ask with earnestness, and implied submission, or at least deference. At present, however, in polite life, beg has dropped its original meaning, and has taken the place of both ask and request, on the ground of its expressing more of deference and respect. Thus, we beg a person's acceptance of a present; we beg him to favor us with his company; a tradesman begs to announce the arrival of new goods, etc. Crabb remarks that, according to present usage, "we can never talk of asking a person's acceptance of a thing, or of asking him to do us a favor." This can be more truly said of usage in England than in America. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'To go a-begging'

From: GCIDE

Go \Go\, v. i. [imp. Went (w[e^]nt); p. p. Gone (g[o^]n; 115); p. pr. & vb. n. Going. Went comes from the AS, wendan. See Wend, v. i.] [OE. gan, gon, AS. g[=a]n, akin to D. gaan, G. gehn, gehen, OHG. g[=e]n, g[=a]n, SW. g[*a], Dan. gaae; cf. Gr. kicha`nai to reach, overtake, Skr. h[=a] to go, AS. gangan, and E. gang. The past tense in AS., eode, is from the root i to go, as is also Goth. iddja went. [root]47a. Cf. Gang, v. i., Wend.]
1. To pass from one place to another; to be in motion; to be in a state not motionless or at rest; to proceed; to advance; to make progress; -- used, in various applications, of the movement of both animate and inanimate beings, by whatever means, and also of the movements of the mind; also figuratively applied. [1913 Webster]
2. To move upon the feet, or step by step; to walk; also, to walk step by step, or leisurely. [1913 Webster]
Note: In old writers go is much used as opposed to run, or ride. "Whereso I go or ride." --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
You know that love Will creep in service where it can not go. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Thou must run to him; for thou hast staid so long that going will scarce serve the turn. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
He fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees. --Bunyan. [1913 Webster]
Note: In Chaucer go is used frequently with the pronoun in the objective used reflexively; as, he goeth him home. [1913 Webster]
3. To be passed on fron one to another; to pass; to circulate; hence, with for, to have currency; to be taken, accepted, or regarded. [1913 Webster]
The man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. --1 Sa. xvii. 12. [1913 Webster]
[The money] should go according to its true value. --Locke. [1913 Webster]
4. To proceed or happen in a given manner; to fare; to move on or be carried on; to have course; to come to an issue or result; to succeed; to turn out. [1913 Webster]
How goes the night, boy ? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort of man enough. --Arbuthnot. [1913 Webster]
Whether the cause goes for me or against me, you must pay me the reward. --I Watts. [1913 Webster]
5. To proceed or tend toward a result, consequence, or product; to tend; to conduce; to be an ingredient; to avail; to apply; to contribute; -- often with the infinitive; as, this goes to show. [1913 Webster]
Against right reason all your counsels go. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
To master the foul flend there goeth some complement knowledge of theology. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
6. To apply one's self; to set one's self; to undertake. [1913 Webster]
Seeing himself confronted by so many, like a resolute orator, he went not to denial, but to justify his cruel falsehood. --Sir P. Sidney. [1913 Webster]
Note: Go, in this sense, is often used in the present participle with the auxiliary verb to be, before an infinitive, to express a future of intention, or to denote design; as, I was going to say; I am going to begin harvest. [1913 Webster]
7. To proceed by a mental operation; to pass in mind or by an act of the memory or imagination; -- generally with over or through. [1913 Webster]
By going over all these particulars, you may receive some tolerable satisfaction about this great subject. --South. [1913 Webster]
8. To be with young; to be pregnant; to gestate. [1913 Webster]
The fruit she goes with, I pray for heartily, that it may find Good time, and live. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
9. To move from the person speaking, or from the point whence the action is contemplated; to pass away; to leave; to depart; -- in opposition to stay and come. [1913 Webster]
I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God; . . . only ye shall not go very far away. --Ex. viii. 28. [1913 Webster]
10. To pass away; to depart forever; to be lost or ruined; to perish; to decline; to decease; to die. [1913 Webster]
By Saint George, he's gone! That spear wound hath our master sped. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
11. To reach; to extend; to lead; as, a line goes across the street; his land goes to the river; this road goes to New York. [1913 Webster]
His amorous expressions go no further than virtue may allow. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
12. To have recourse; to resort; as, to go to law. [1913 Webster]
Note: Go is used, in combination with many prepositions and adverbs, to denote motion of the kind indicated by the preposition or adverb, in which, and not in the verb, lies the principal force of the expression; as, to go against to go into, to go out, to go aside, to go astray, etc. [1913 Webster]
Go to, come; move; go away; -- a phrase of exclamation, serious or ironical.
To go a-begging, not to be in demand; to be undesired.
To go about. (a) To set about; to enter upon a scheme of action; to undertake. "They went about to slay him." --Acts ix. 29. [1913 Webster]
They never go about . . . to hide or palliate their vices. --Swift. (b) (Naut.) To tack; to turn the head of a ship; to wear.
To go abraod. (a) To go to a foreign country. (b) To go out of doors. (c) To become public; to be published or disclosed; to be current. [1913 Webster]
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren. --John xxi. 23.
To go against. (a) To march against; to attack. (b) To be in opposition to; to be disagreeable to.
To go ahead. (a) To go in advance. (b) To go on; to make progress; to proceed.
To go and come. See To come and go, under Come.
To go aside. (a) To withdraw; to retire. [1913 Webster]
He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. --Luke. ix. 10. (b) To go from what is right; to err. --Num. v. 29.
To go back on. (a) To retrace (one's path or footsteps). (b) To abandon; to turn against; to betray. [Slang, U. S.]
To go below (Naut), to go below deck.
To go between, to interpose or mediate between; to be a secret agent between parties; in a bad sense, to pander.
To go beyond. See under Beyond.
To go by, to pass away unnoticed; to omit.
To go by the board (Naut.), to fall or be carried overboard; as, the mast went by the board.
To go down. (a) To descend. (b) To go below the horizon; as, the sun has gone down. (c) To sink; to founder; -- said of ships, etc. (d) To be swallowed; -- used literally or figuratively. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
Nothing so ridiculous, . . . but it goes down whole with him for truth. --L' Estrange.
To go far. (a) To go to a distance. (b) To have much weight or influence.
To go for. (a) To go in quest of. (b) To represent; to pass for. (c) To favor; to advocate. (d) To attack; to assault. [Low] (e) To sell for; to be parted with for (a price).
To go for nothing, to be parted with for no compensation or result; to have no value, efficacy, or influence; to count for nothing.
To go forth. (a) To depart from a place. (b) To be divulged or made generally known; to emanate. [1913 Webster]
The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. --Micah iv. 2.
To go hard with, to trouble, pain, or endanger.
To go in, to engage in; to take part. [Colloq.]
To go in and out, to do the business of life; to live; to have free access. --John x. 9.
To go in for. [Colloq.] (a) To go for; to favor or advocate (a candidate, a measure, etc.). (b) To seek to acquire or attain to (wealth, honor, preferment, etc.) (c) To complete for (a reward, election, etc.). (d) To make the object of one's labors, studies, etc. [1913 Webster]
He was as ready to go in for statistics as for anything else. --Dickens.
To go in to or To go in unto. (a) To enter the presence of. --Esther iv. 16. (b) To have sexual intercourse with. [Script.]
To go into. (a) To speak of, investigate, or discuss (a question, subject, etc.). (b) To participate in (a war, a business, etc.).
To go large. (Naut) See under Large.
To go off. (a) To go away; to depart. [1913 Webster]
The leaders . . . will not go off until they hear you. --Shak. (b) To cease; to intermit; as, this sickness went off. (c) To die. --Shak. (d) To explode or be discharged; -- said of gunpowder, of a gun, a mine, etc. (e) To find a purchaser; to be sold or disposed of. (f) To pass off; to take place; to be accomplished. [1913 Webster]
The wedding went off much as such affairs do. --Mrs. Caskell.
To go on. (a) To proceed; to advance further; to continue; as, to go on reading. (b) To be put or drawn on; to fit over; as, the coat will not go on.
To go all fours, to correspond exactly, point for point. [1913 Webster]
It is not easy to make a simile go on all fours. --Macaulay.
To go out. (a) To issue forth from a place. (b) To go abroad; to make an excursion or expedition. [1913 Webster]
There are other men fitter to go out than I. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
What went ye out for to see ? --Matt. xi. 7,
8, 9. (c) To become diffused, divulged, or spread abroad, as news, fame etc. (d) To expire; to die; to cease; to come to an end; as, the light has gone out. [1913 Webster]
Life itself goes out at thy displeasure. --Addison.
To go over. (a) To traverse; to cross, as a river, boundary, etc.; to change sides. [1913 Webster]
I must not go over Jordan. --Deut. iv. 22. [1913 Webster]
Let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan. --Deut. iii. 25. [1913 Webster]
Ishmael . . . departed to go over to the Ammonites. --Jer. xli. 10. (b) To read, or study; to examine; to review; as, to go over one's accounts. [1913 Webster]
If we go over the laws of Christianity, we shall find that . . . they enjoin the same thing. --Tillotson. (c) To transcend; to surpass. (d) To be postponed; as, the bill went over for the session. (e) (Chem.) To be converted (into a specified substance or material); as, monoclinic sulphur goes over into orthorhombic, by standing; sucrose goes over into dextrose and levulose.
To go through. (a) To accomplish; as, to go through a work. (b) To suffer; to endure to the end; as, to go through a surgical operation or a tedious illness. (c) To spend completely; to exhaust, as a fortune. (d) To strip or despoil (one) of his property. [Slang] (e) To botch or bungle a business. [Scot.]
To go through with, to perform, as a calculation, to the end; to complete.
To go to ground. (a) To escape into a hole; -- said of a hunted fox. (b) To fall in battle.
To go to naught (Colloq.), to prove abortive, or unavailling.
To go under. (a) To set; -- said of the sun. (b) To be known or recognized by (a name, title, etc.). (c) To be overwhelmed, submerged, or defeated; to perish; to succumb.
To go up, to come to nothing; to prove abortive; to fail. [Slang]
To go upon, to act upon, as a foundation or hypothesis.
To go with. (a) To accompany. (b) To coincide or agree with. (c) To suit; to harmonize with.
To go well with, To go ill with, To go hard with, to affect (one) in such manner.
To go without, to be, or to remain, destitute of.
To go wrong. (a) To take a wrong road or direction; to wander or stray. (b) To depart from virtue. (c) To happen unfortunately; to unexpectedly cause a mishap or failure. (d) To miss success; to fail.
To let go, to allow to depart; to quit one's hold; to release. [1913 Webster]