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You accost a stranger when you move towards them and speak in an unpleasant or threatening way.
Affluence is the state of having a lot of money and many possessions, granting one a high economic standard of living.
When you bequeath something, you hand it down to someone in a will or pass it on from one generation to the next.
When something is bestowed upon you—usually something valuable—you are given or presented it.
When you are granted a boon, you are given a special gift or favor that is of great benefit to you.
When there is a dearth of something, there is a scarcity or lack of it.
Deprivation is a state during which people lack something, especially adequate food and shelter; deprivation can also describe something being taken away from someone.
Desiderata are a wish list of things that are considered highly desirable or necessary to have.
Someone who is destitute lives in extreme poverty and thus lacks the basic necessities of life.
Someone who is impecunious has very little money, especially over a long period of time.
If you describe someone as importunate, you think that they are annoying and unreasonable because they keep trying to get something from you.
Impoverished soil has been exhausted or drained of its nutrients.
An indigent person is very poor.
Largess is the generous act of giving money or presents to a large number of people.
If someone exhibits magnanimity towards another, they show them kindness and noble generosity, especially after defeating them in battle or after having been treated badly by them.
A munificent person is extremely generous, especially with money.
A paucity of something is not enough of it.
Pecuniary means relating to or concerning money.
Penury is the state of being extremely poor.
Philanthropy is unselfish support in the form of donating money, work, or gifts to positive social purposes; philanthropy is also overall love for humans in general.
If you say that you’ve received a pittance, you mean that you received a small amount of something—and you know that you deserved more.
If you suffer privation, you live without many of the basic things required for a comfortable life.
When you proffer something to someone, you offer it up or hold it out to them to take.
A supplicant is someone who humbly and respectfully asks for something from another who is powerful enough to grant the request.
If someone acts in an unobtrusive way, their actions are not easily noticed and do not stand out in any way.
If you say someone’s behavior is unseemly, you disapprove of it because it is not in good taste or not suitable for a particular situation.
Noun
mendicant
MEN-di-kuhnt
Context
As the bard was traveling through the ancient city of Bactria, she saw a surprisingly large number of mendicants who were begging for money. She also saw what appeared to be servants giving those mendicants—people who seek charity—what looked like food fit for a king and several gold pieces each. The bard later learned that most of these mendicants— or those who ask for handouts on a daily basis—traveled from city to city in the hope of gleaning leftovers from great feasts and monetary generosity from monarchs who were in the mood of giving. These traveling mendicants lived hand to mouth by pleading for food during cycles of feast days but also stirred up some resentment among Bactria’s residential beggars who relied on the monarch’s limited generosity.
Quiz:Try again!
What is a mendicant?
He is someone who spends his days wandering the streets.
Can'tMend A mendicantcan'tmend his financial life, and so he has to beg for money.
Examples
[Moondog] also tells Schwartz that he’s comfortable being thought of as a beggar. The radio broadcaster Walter Winchell “calls me a mendicant, but . . . I don’t feel self-conscious or apologetic about begging for a living.
—
The New Yorker
But even as [Washington's subway system] Metro continues along as a public sector mendicant, begging for alms year after year from state and local authorities, it would stand to benefit enormously from the sort of independent oversight to which federal government agencies are subject in the form of an inspector general.
—
The Washington Post
In 1911, the [Chicago police department] had issued its own edict "prohibiting blind mendicants, legless unfortunates and other seekers of alms from exhibiting their misfortunes to the public view," but after World War I ended in 1918, no new ugly laws were passed. Instead, plans were made to help manage veterans' physical and mental care.
—
Chicago Tribune
Legend has it that one day he went out from the palace and for the first time saw poverty, sickness, and death. Overwhelmed by these realities, he renounced his worldly position and became a wandering mendicant, seeking the meaning of life. After years of fasting, begging, and traveling, he sat down under a _bodhi_ tree and sank into a deep meditation lasting 49 days. At last he achieved enlightenment, and Siddhartha became a buddha.
—
The New York Times
A mendicant is in “defective” or “wanting” circumstances.
Word Constellation
Click for an interactive map of this word
Related Words
accost ·
dearth* ·
deprivation+ ·
desiderata* ·
destitute+ ·
impecunious+ ·
importunate ·
impoverished+ ·
indigent+ ·
paucity ·
penury+ ·
privation+ ·
supplicant ·
unseemly ·
affluence+ ·
bequeath ·
bestow ·
boon ·
largess ·
magnanimity ·
munificent ·
pecuniary* ·
philanthropy ·
pittance ·
proffer ·
unobtrusive ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
mendicant
adj
→
begging; living on charity
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.
