[beg] 
verb, begged, beg⋅ging.| 1. | to ask for as a gift, as charity, or as a favor: to beg alms; to beg forgiveness. |
| 2. | to ask (someone) to give or do something; implore: He begged me for mercy. Sit down, I beg you. |
| 3. | to take for granted without basis or justification: a statement that begs the very point we're disputing. |
| 4. | to fail or refuse to come to grips with; avoid; evade: a report that consistently begs the whole problem. |
| 5. | to ask alms or charity; live by asking alms. |
| 6. | to ask humbly or earnestly: begging for help; begging to differ. |
| 7. | (of a dog) to sit up, as trained, in a posture of entreaty. |
| 8. | beg off, to request or obtain release from an obligation, promise, etc.: He had promised to drive us to the recital but begged off at the last minute. |
| 9. | beg the question, to assume the truth of the very point raised in a question. |
| 10. | go begging, to remain open or available, as a position that is unfilled or an unsold item: The job went begging for lack of qualified applicants. |
| Main Entry: | beg the question |
| Part of Speech: | v |
| Definition: | to assume an answer to an unstated question or premise |
To assume what has still to be proved: “To say that we should help the region's democratic movement begs the question of whether it really is democratic.”
beg the question
Take for granted or assume the truth of the very thing being questioned. For example, Shopping now for a dress to wear to the ceremony is really begging the question
she hasn't been invited yet. This phrase, whose roots are in Aristotle's writings on logic, came into English in the late 1500s. In the 1990s, however, people sometimes used the phrase as a synonym of "ask the question" (as in The article begs the question: "What are we afraid of?").