impoverished
[im-pov-er-isht, -pov-risht]
- reduced to poverty.
- (of a country, area, etc.) having few trees, flowers, birds, wild animals, etc.
- deprived of strength, vitality, creativeness, etc.: an impoverished attempt at humor.
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Origin of impoverished
Synonyms
See more synonyms for impoverished on Thesaurus.com1. See poor.
impoverish
[im-pov-er-ish, -pov-rish]
- to reduce to poverty: a country impoverished by war.
- to make poor in quality, productiveness, etc.; exhaust the strength or richness of: Bad farming practices impoverished the soil.
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Origin of impoverish
Synonyms
See more synonyms for impoverish on Thesaurus.com2. deplete, drain; weaken, enervate, fatigue, cripple.
Antonyms
1, 2. enrich.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for impoverished
Contemporary Examples
Locking up the primary breadwinner can push a family from working-class to impoverished.
Why Isn’t Prison Justice on the Ballot This Tuesday?Inimai Chettiar, Abigail Finkelman
November 1, 2014
Densely populated and impoverished, the community was struggling long before Ebola arrived.
My office is located such that I have many patients from both affluent and impoverished communities.
Impoverished defendants were frequently ordered to pay fines that were triple their monthly income.
Montgomery points to impoverished Bogota, for example, as “a happy city” that shows the way to urban development.
Historical Examples
The farmers were impoverished, and the poorer people made beggars.
The ScapegoatHall Caine
The king was so impoverished that he had not money sufficient to pay the debt.
Henry IV, Makers of HistoryJohn S. C. Abbott
What you say about the children shows how impoverished is the blood.
The Man Who WinsRobert Herrick
It was not he who enticed them; it was not he who impoverished them.
Peak and PrairieAnna Fuller
A people is impoverished by importations and enriched by exportations.
Sophisms of the ProtectionistsFrederic Bastiat
impoverish
- to make poor or diminish the quality ofto impoverish society by cutting the grant to the arts
- to deprive (soil, etc) of fertility
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French empovrir, from povre 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
Word Origin and History for impoverished
impoverish
v.
early 15c., empoverischen, from Old French empoveriss-, stem of empoverir, from em- + povre "poor" (see poor). Related: Impoverished; impoverishing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper