ask alms

A bat-eared young man with the mournful features of a card player who has aces wired, Murray could not ask alms as a disabled vet, since he had not been in service.

From Time Magazine Archive

They would neither own property nor ask alms, but worked at various trades and were thus maintained, with voluntary offerings from the faithful.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55 1521-1569 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century by Emma Helen Blair

Juan became so poor at last that he was forced to ask alms from his brother, or what was only the same thing, a loan.

From Philippine Folk-Tales by W. H. Millington

Could I ask alms or borrow what I could not pay?

From Room Number 3 and Other Detective Stories by Anna Katharine Green

One who makes it his business to ask alms.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster