View synonyms for dirt poor

dirt poor

adjective

dirt-poor

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

The family had grown up dirt-poor, sharecropping the 20,000 acres of cotton that stretched out below Sand Mountain.

They are poor; “dirt poor” is no exaggeration, for their land has been depleted by cotton farming and untilled for seven years.

“I considered it a gesture of good will because these people are so dirt poor,” said Stidham.

She had grown up dirt poor in the rural South, and her whole life trajectory had been a kind of fairy tale.

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