pauperize

especially British, pau·per·ise

[paw-puh-rahyz]

verb (used with object)

pauperized, pauperizing 

1. to make a pauper of.

   His extravagance pauperized him.

pauperize

/ ˈpɔːpəˌraɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to make a pauper of; impoverish

Other Word Forms

• pauperization noun
• pauperizer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pauperize¹

First recorded in 1825–35; pauper + -ize

Example Sentences

"Citizens are being pauperized left, right and centre, why does the citizenry of this country deserve so uncaring & heartless a leadership?"

Read more on BBC

Iran, after all, is not the only Muslim country with an urban westernized elite that’s been decimated by dictatorship and pauperized by decades of war.

Read more on New York Times

“Haiti was immediately quarantined and pauperized into the forced dysfunction of a postcolonial state,” literary scholar Nick Nesbitt has written, “hamstrung by the terrified slave-holding powers that then controlled the globe.”

Read more on Washington Post

Banks stopped giving out money, instantly pauperizing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, who couldn’t access their accounts even as they watched the value of their savings wither away.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“What you have in the U.S. and what you have in the Arab world are exactly the same: a pauperized citizenry rising up against a militarized state and system,” Khouri said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bankrupt 
• impoverish 
• ruin