impoverished

[im-pov-er-isht, -pov-risht]

adjective

1. reduced to poverty.

2. (of a country, area, etc.) having few trees, flowers, birds, wild animals, etc.

3. deprived of strength, vitality, creativeness, etc..

   an impoverished attempt at humor.

Other Word Forms

• unimpoverished adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of impoverished¹

First recorded in 1625–35; impoverish + -ed ²

Synonym Study

See poor.

Example Sentences

AFP spoke to relatives of four men from impoverished families who travelled to Russia to join its army, three of whom are officially missing.

Read more on Barron's

The family is among a handful of mafias that rose to power in the 2000s and transformed the impoverished backwater town of Laukkaing into a lucrative hub of casinos and red-light districts.

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Inside Yemen, an impoverished nation of 40 million, Al-Houthi rules through a combination of religious inspiration and repression of those who don’t follow his radical creed.

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She said four people arrested and charged so far over the theft that shocked France and the world were "clearly local people" living in Seine-Saint-Denis, an impoverished area just north of Paris.

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Melissa did not cause fatalities in Cuba, according to authorities, but it knocked the stuffing out of the impoverished Caribbean nation, where fuel, electricity, hard currency and affordable foodstuffs were already in short supply.

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Related Words

• barren 
• destitute 
• distressed 
• indigent 
• needy 
• poverty-stricken 
• strapped