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View synonyms for impoverish

impoverish

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

verb (used with object)

  1. to reduce to poverty:

    a country impoverished by war.

    Antonyms: enrich

  2. to make poor in quality, productiveness, etc.; exhaust the strength or richness of:

    Bad farming practices impoverished the soil.

    Synonyms: cripple, fatigue, enervate, weaken, drain, deplete

    Antonyms: enrich



impoverish

/ ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃ /

verb

  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


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Derived Forms

  • imˈpoverishment, noun
  • imˈpoverisher, noun

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Other Words From

  • im·pover·ish·er noun
  • im·pover·ish·ment noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of impoverish1

1400–50; late Middle English empoverishen < Middle French empovriss- (long stem of empovrir ), equivalent to em- em- 1 + povre poor + -iss -ish 2

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Word History and Origins

Origin of impoverish1

C15: from Old French empovrir, from povre poor

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Example Sentences

These twin deficits enrich our frenemies and impoverish present and future Americans.

Rosner seemed to think such boycotts simply serve to impoverish our knowledge of these crucial issues.

Their basic claim is that if government spends more now, deficits will rise, and that will impoverish our grandchildren.

In short, deficits undertaken to finance productive investment not only do not impoverish our grandchildren, they enrich them.

Giving does not impoverish either her ample purse or her generous heart.

Father Castel was a madman, but a good man upon the whole; he was sorry to see me thus impoverish myself to no purpose.

Spanish policy had devised a still more ingenious contrivance gradually to impoverish the richest families of the land.

In the system we are discussing, to allow them to export crowns would be to allow them to impoverish themselves.

Sometimes nature appears to spend all her intellectual and moral wealth on the father, and almost to impoverish the sons.

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inveterate

[in-vet-er-it ]

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impoundmentimpoverished