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4A: Tramps getting something to eat in pubs (7)
The answer is 'beggars'
b egg ars
But surely a tramp is not the same as a beggar?
I've checked in Chambers.....
Or is this allowed as "poetic licence"?!
Any opinions?

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/tramp

My old Chambers Crossword Dictionary gives tramp as a synonym under beggar (but not vice versa)

I guess it was bound to turn up somewhere! but It's interesting that it doesn't occur in any of the "reputable" reference works - such as Chambers, Concise Oxford and Anne Bradford's dictionaries, nor is it in either of my Thesauruses!
I still hold that a tramp is not necessarily a beggar, nor a beggar necessarily a tramp!

I don't have that book, Ixion - just the (ill-fated ) 13th Edition of Chambers!

Hi everyone,

Have not been on Forum recently due to connection problems.

Elle, I agree with you, a tramp is not necessarily a beggar. This is (for what it's worth) how I see the difference :

A tramp has chosen the life of a vagrant but in no way does it mean that he cannot survive without asking money of other people. He might simply have decided to renounce the comforts of a routine life that has become too much for him, too stressful, he needs to break with society as we know it.

A beggar is a fellow who is reduced to ask, (beg) money from other people to survive, to eat, to have a fag, (or a bottle of wine?).

Now, a beggar may well have been a tramp to start with, but circumstances transformed him into a beggar.
On the other hand, I doubt a beggar can become a tramp/vagrant. He has become too dependant on external help.

Hope you understand what I am trying to say !!! :))

Hi all
I think "tramp" derived from post 1926 crash America, when penniless men (mostly) had to stay in "charitable" hostels. However these had a rule that people could not stay on succesive nights, so they were forced to "tramp" to another hostel each day.

They featured quite a lot in O.Henry stories.

Hi Pigale!
Glad to see that your connection is holding up (for now at any rate!)
I am glad that you see what I was getting at re tramp v beggar! you have put it very well. I was surprised this morning that there wasn't a larger response to my comments!

Hi, Chris!
Thank you for that tit bit of information - I didn't know the origin of 'tramp'.