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View synonyms for dirt poor

dirt poor

adjective

  1. lacking nearly all material means or resources for living.


dirt-poor

adjective

  1. extremely poor
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of dirt poor1

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
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Example Sentences

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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