An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We were dirt poor, had big Scottish accents at the time, a family of six siblings, and then coming to very conventional suburban schools,” he said, the memory eliciting a wild-card smile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” he told the AP in 1998.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 30, 2023
He had grown up dirt poor in what is now South Korea, then occupied by Japan.
From Science Magazine ● May 3, 2023
She says she grew up dirt poor on a pig farm in Alabama, but rose to be the first in her family to complete college, and she served in the armed forces reserves.
From Slate ● May 15, 2022
She and Glen were dirt poor, but Marsha had always compensated for the things she couldn’t give her kids by giving them all of her heart.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
They were dirt-poor immigrants who spoke no English in a new country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Colombia's anti -narcotics strategy targets those at the top of the cocaine trade, not the dirt-poor farmers at the bottom.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
The songs include “Busted,” the story of a dirt-poor farmer bemoaning his overdue bills, crop failures, and other financial woes while maintaining a sense of hope for the future.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
Loretta Lynn, the firebrand singer and songwriter who transformed coal into diamonds by exploring her dirt-poor childhood in eastern Appalachia in her career-defining 1970 hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” died on Tuesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2022
For another, he reminded Miranda of her dirt-poor past.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
