impoverish
verb (used with object)
to reduce to poverty.
impoverishes
-
present tense formof impoverish (3rd person singular).present tense
Used to describe things happening now or regularly.
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.
But soil drainage gradually impoverishes the land, posing a threat to local farmers and releasing the CO2 captured by the peatland which are important carbon sinks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025
"This debate impoverishes democracy. It's a scrappy debate, in which you provoke, you use debauchery, you joke around," said Janones, who denied accusations that he uses fake news.
From Reuters ● Nov. 10, 2022
Translating my private, zany experience of a photo of a thrift-shop window into words necessarily impoverishes it, but it captures something of the camp interjection in action.
From Slate ● May 14, 2019
But the semantic shift impoverishes our ethical vocabulary.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2014
Even in this case, it is true, war usually impoverishes the country that wages it, but there are large classes to whom it is by no means a calamity.
From The Map of Life Conduct and Character by William Edward Hartpole Lecky
