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impoverish

[im-pov-er-ish, -pov-rish]

verb (used with object)

to reduce to poverty: a country impoverished by war.

to make poor in quality, productiveness, etc.; exhaust the strength or richness of: Bad farming practices impoverished the soil.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English empoverishen < Middle French empovriss- (long stem of empovrir), equivalent to em- em-¹ + povre poor + -iss -ish²

Related forms

im·pov·er·ish·er, noun

im·pov·er·ish·ment, noun

Synonyms
2. deplete, drain; weaken, enervate, fatigue, cripple.

Antonyms
1, 2. enrich.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Impoverish is one of our favorite verbs.

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to run away hurriedly; flee.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

impoverish (ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃ)

—vb
1.	to make poor or diminish the quality of: to impoverish society by cutting the grant to the arts
2.	to deprive (soil, etc) of fertility

[C15: from Old French empovrir, from povrepoor]

im'poverisher

—n

im'poverishment

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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"The paid wealth which hundreds in the community acquire in trade, or by the incessant expansions of our population and arts, enchants the eyes of all the rest; the luck of one is the hope of thousands, and the bribe acts like the neighborhood of a gold mine to impoverish the farm, the school, the church, the house, and the very body and feature of man."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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