impoverished

- 4 dictionary results

im⋅pov⋅er⋅ished

[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.

Origin:
1625–35; impoverish + -ed ²

Synonyms:
1. See poor.

im⋅pov⋅er⋅ish

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

–verb (used with object)

1.	to reduce to poverty: a country impoverished by war.

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

Origin:
1400–50; late ME empoverishen < MF empovriss- (long s. of empovrir), equiv. to em- em- ¹ + povre poor + -iss -ish ²

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. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To impoverished

im·pov·er·ish (ĭm-pŏv'ər-ĭsh, -pŏv'rĭsh)

tr.v. im·pov·er·ished, im·pov·er·ish·ing, im·pov·er·ish·es

To reduce to poverty; make poor.
To deprive of natural richness or strength: impoverish the soil by overuse. See Synonyms at deplete.

[Middle English empoverishen, from Old French empovrir, empovriss- : en-, causative pref.; see en-¹ + povre, poor (from Latin pauper; see pauper).]
im·pov'er·ish·ment n.

im·pov·er·ished (ĭm-pŏv'ər-ĭsht, -pŏv'rĭsht)

adj.

Reduced to poverty; poverty-stricken. See Synonyms at poor.
Deprived of natural richness or strength; limited or depleted: an impoverished vocabulary; a region impoverished by drought.

Search another word or see impoverished on Thesaurus | Reference

»colloquialism
»comic relief

»hirsute
»insouciant

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