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 Blair, Emma Helen

A moment later Sita sees an old hermit draw near to ask alms.

From The Book of the Epic by Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)

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 Millington, W. H.

To seek to win love from him was about as hopeless as it would have been to ask alms of a man whose purse was empty.

From Henry Dunbar A Novel by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)