poverty-stricken
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of poverty-stricken
First recorded in 1795–1805
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He also represented Alex Saab, who American prosecutors said laundered money for Venezuela’s former strongman, Nicolás Maduro, and oversaw the importation of often-rotten food to a poverty-stricken country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
The recording has spread widely on social media and caused a strong reaction in oil-rich but poverty-stricken Equatorial Guinea, ruled by Obiang for over 40 years.
From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026
He was calling from a jail in Jehanabad, a poverty-stricken district and, at the time, a stronghold of left-wing extremism.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2024
I think if you take a camera into any rural area or area that's poverty-stricken, it's not gonna look pretty, but somehow we were special.
From Salon ● May 19, 2024
I saw few or no dilapidated houses, with poverty-stricken inmates; no half-naked children and barefooted women, such as I had been accustomed to see in Hillsborough, Easton, St. Michael’s, and Baltimore.
From "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass
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.
