Advertisement
Advertisement
beg the question
- 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.”
Idioms and Phrases
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?” ).Example Sentences
This begs the question, how can more housing units be freed up for buyers?
The recent mishaps do beg the question, what is set piece coach Carlos Fernandes, who accompanied Amorim from Sporting, actually doing?
Which begs the question, what makes some people respond to childhood trauma with violence, while others do not?
This begs the question though of why firms don't just make more.
It begs the question - why does this keep happening?
Advertisement
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse