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poor

[poo r]
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adjective, poor·er, poor·est.
  1. having little or no money, goods, or other means of support: a poor family living on welfare.
  2. Law. dependent upon charity or public support.
  3. (of a country, institution, etc.) meagerly supplied or endowed with resources or funds.
  4. characterized by or showing poverty.
  5. deficient or lacking in something specified: a region poor in mineral deposits.
  6. faulty or inferior, as in construction: poor workmanship.
  7. deficient in desirable ingredients, qualities, or the like: poor soil.
  8. excessively lean or emaciated, as cattle.
  9. of an inferior, inadequate, or unsatisfactory kind: poor health.
  10. lacking in skill, ability, or training: a poor cook.
  11. deficient in moral excellence; cowardly, abject, or mean.
  12. scanty, meager, or paltry in amount or number: a poor audience.
  13. humble; modest: They shared their poor meal with a stranger.
  14. unfortunate; hapless: The poor dog was limping.
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noun
  1. (used with a plural verb) poor persons collectively (usually preceded by the): sympathy for the poor.
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Idioms
  1. poor as a church mouse, extremely poor.
  2. poor as Job's turkey, extremely poor; impoverished.
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Origin of poor

1150–1200; Middle English pov(e)re < Old French povre < Latin pauper. See pauper
Related formspoor·ness, nounnon·poor, nounqua·si-poor, adjectivequa·si-poor·ly, adverb
Can be confusedpaw poor pore

Synonyms

See more synonyms for poor on Thesaurus.com
1. needy, indigent, necessitous, straitened, destitute, penniless, poverty-stricken. Poor, impecunious, impoverished, penniless refer to those lacking money. Poor is the simple term for the condition of lacking means to obtain the comforts of life: a very poor family. Impecunious often suggests that the poverty is a consequence of unwise habits: an impecunious actor. Impoverished often implies a former state of greater plenty, from which one has been reduced: the impoverished aristocracy. Penniless may mean destitute, or it may apply simply to a temporary condition of being without funds: The widow was left penniless with three small children. 5. meager. 6. unsatisfactory, shabby. 7. sterile, barren, unfruitful, unproductive. 8. thin, skinny, meager, gaunt. 14. miserable, unhappy, pitiable.

Antonyms

1, 5, 7. rich. 1, 3, 4. wealthy.

Pronunciation note

In the North and North Midland U.S., the vowel of poor is most often [oo] /ʊ/. Poor and sure thus contrast with pour and shore: [poo r] /pʊər/, [shoo r] /ʃʊər/ versus [pawr] /pɔr/, [shawr] /ʃɔr/ or [pohr] /poʊr/, [shohr] /ʃoʊr/. In the South Midland and South, the vowel of poor is generally [aw] /ɔ/ or [oh] /oʊ/ (often with the final (r) dropped), which means that in these areas, poor and pour are homophones, as are sure and shore. Both types of pronunciation exist in the British Isles.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for poorness

Historical Examples

  • I am taught the poorness of our invention, the ugliness of towns and palaces.

    Essays, Second Series

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • I never could see no 'poorness of spirit,' come to git at 'em!

    Stories by American Authors (Volume 4)

    Constance Fenimore Woolson

  • I knew the state of Spain well, his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time.

    Raleigh

    Edmund Gosse

  • It showed her deep knowledge of her poorness in laying bare the fact.

  • It was just like my poorness to think I could ever marry any one so clever and spry as yourself.

British Dictionary definitions for poorness

poor

adjective
    1. lacking financial or other means of subsistence; needy
    2. (as collective noun; preceded by the)the poor
  2. characterized by or indicating povertythe country had a poor economy
  3. deficient in amount; scanty or inadequatea poor salary
  4. (when postpositive, usually foll by in) badly supplied (with resources, materials, etc)a region poor in wild flowers
  5. lacking in quality; inferior
  6. giving no pleasure; disappointing or disagreeablea poor play
  7. (prenominal) deserving of pity; unluckypoor John is ill again
  8. poor man's something a (cheaper) substitute for something
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Derived Formspoorness, noun

Word Origin

C13: from Old French povre, from Latin pauper; see pauper, poverty
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 poorness

n.

late 13c., from poor (adj.) + -ness.

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poor

adj.

c.1200, "lacking money or resources, destitute; needy, indigent; small, scanty," from Old French povre "poor, wretched, dispossessed; inadequate; weak, thin" (Modern French pauvre), from Latin pauper "poor, not wealthy," from pre-Latin *pau-paros "producing little; getting little," a compound from the roots of paucus "little" (see paucity) and parare "to produce, bring forth" (see pare).

Replaced Old English earm. Figuratively from early 14c. Meaning "of inferior quality" is from c.1300. Of inhabited places from c.1300; of soil, etc., from late 14c. The poor boy sandwich, made of simple but filling ingredients, was invented and named in New Orleans in 1921. To poor mouth "deny one's advantages" is from 1965 (to make a poor mouth "whine" is Scottish dialect from 1822). Slang poor man's ________ "the cheaper alternative to _______," is from 1854.

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poor

n.

"poor persons collectively," mid-12c., from poor (adj.). The Latin adjective pauper "poor" also was used in a noun sense "a poor man."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper