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Synonyms

pauperize

American  
[paw-puh-rahyz] / ˈpɔ pəˌraɪz /
especially British, pauperise

verb (used with object)

pauperized, pauperizing
  1. to make a pauper of.

    His extravagance pauperized him.


pauperize British  
/ ˈpɔːpəˌraɪz /

verb

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

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of pauperize

First recorded in 1825–35; pauper + -ize

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.

See Examples For:

Arose Alexander R. Sheppard, great public spirit, great builder, to pave and light streets, lay sewers, plant trees, pauperize himself.

From Time Magazine Archive

Runaway price boosts might wipe out savings, pauperize individuals, bring down governments —but usually in only one or a few countries at any specific time, and for what seemed fairly clear reasons.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Oh, as to that," Thor said, forcing himself to eat slowly and sit straight in the style commended by his stepmother, "it won't need a doctor to pauperize poor Fay."

From The Side Of The Angels A Novel by King, Basil

Would it have corrupted him, since pauperize him further it could not?

From Seven English Cities by Howells, William Dean

Her development came when the church made another future possible to her by refusing to pauperize the family.

From The Leaven in a Great City by Betts, Lillian William

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

From BBC May 27, 2025

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.

From New York Times Oct. 21, 2021

“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.”

From Washington Post Aug. 4, 2021

“Massive economic mismanagement coupled with spiraling corruption have pauperized large segments of the Arab people,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

From Seattle Times Oct. 26, 2019

She died, and left him broken-hearted and poor, impoverished by the doctors, and pauperized by the undertaker.

From A Perilous Secret by Reade, Charles

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.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 23, 2021

He recoups by stealing the family jewels of the cousin's fiance, pauperizing him in a single stroke and canceling the marriage vows.

From Time Magazine Archive

Coal operators were flayed for "pauperizing" the industry, the U. S. Government was asked to lend a helping hand.

From Time Magazine Archive

But by humiliating and pauperizing Germany, the victors contributed to the conditions out of which Nazism arose.

From Time Magazine Archive

Gradual but certain withdrawal of support from national or State boards in order to avoid pauperizing communities by relieving them of their local financial responsibilities.

From Church Cooperation in Community Life by Vogt, Paul L. (Paul Leroy)

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