Impoverish
[ɪm'pɒv(ə)rɪʃ] or [ɪm'pɑvərɪʃ]
Definition
(v. t.) To make poor; to reduce to poverty or indigence; as, misfortune and disease impoverish families.
(v. t.) To exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of; to make sterile; as, to impoverish land.
Edited by Barrett
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Make poor, bring to want, reduce to poverty, reduce to indigence.[2]. Exhaust the fertility of, make sterile.
Edited by Alison
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See ENRICH]
Typed by Hannah
Definition
v.t. to make poor: to exhaust the resources (as of a nation) or fertility (as of the soil).—n. Impov′erishment.
Typed by Carolyn
Examples
- As a selfish man will impoverish his family and often bring them to ruin, so a selfish king brings ruin on his people and often plunges them into war. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- To take three thousand pounds from the fortune of their dear little boy would be impoverishing him to the most dreadful degree. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- I am an impoverished wretch--the very gaberdine I wear is borrowed from Reuben of Tadcaster. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Lord Raymond was the sole remnant of a noble but impoverished family. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The frontier counties all along the continent having been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The scientist is emotionally impoverished. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Ten years of such stupid and confused fighting impoverished all Europe and left the Emperor in possession of Milan. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Checker: Neil