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.
Idioms
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.
Origin: before 900; Middle English beggen, by assimilation from Old English *bedican, syncopated variant of bedecian to beg; compare Gothic bidagwa beggar. See bead
Related forms
half-beg·ging, adjective
un·begged, adjective
Synonyms 2. entreat, pray, beseech, petition. Beg and request are used in certain conventional formulas, in the sense of ask.Beg, once a part of many formal expressions used in letter writing, debate, etc., is now used chiefly in such courteous formulas as I beg your pardon; The Committee begs to report, etc. Request, more impersonal and now more formal, is used in giving courteous orders (You are requested to report) and in commercial formulas like to request payment.
early 13c., perhaps from O.E. bedecian "to beg," from P.Gmc. *beth-; or possibly from Anglo-Fr. begger, from O.Fr. begart (see beggar). The O.E. word for "beg" was wædlian, from wædl "poverty." Of trained dogs, 1816. As a courteous mode of asking (beg pardon,
etc.), first attested c.1600. To beg the question translates L. petitio principii, and means "to assume something that hasn't been proven as a basis of one's argument," thus "asking" one's opponent to give something unearned, though more of the nature of taking it for granted without warrant.