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View synonyms for dirt poor

dirt poor

adjective

  1. lacking nearly all material means or resources for living.


dirt-poor

adjective

  1. extremely 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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of dirt poor1

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
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Example Sentences

“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” he told the AP in 1998.

“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies too often, but I went whenever I could and focused in on movies as if they were more important than anything in life.”

“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” he told the AP in 1998.

He had grown up dirt poor in what is now South Korea, then occupied by Japan.

"Patients who were put in there were dirt poor," said Clare Blackmore, one of the volunteers.

From BBC

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