Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To speak ill of.
  • intransitive verb To claim poverty as an excuse or a defense.
  • noun An exaggerated assertion of poverty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To pretend to be poor

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The problem with variable support is that there are plenty of guys out there who will self-impoverish, reduce their income, etc., go to the judge and poormouth to get a minimal support payment, and then re-up their income on the side or under the table to regain their standard of living.

    Court Strongly Rejects “Choice For Men” Civil Rights Lawsuit 2006

  • The Detroit automakers always poormouth this sort of thing: they did it for seatbelts, for airbags, for bumper standards, for CAFE standards in previous decades … and then they manage to meet the standards anyway.

    Firedoglake » Friday Amusements (And One Disturbing Bit) 2006

  • The next time you hear naysayers poormouth college, ask them if they plan to send their own children.

    NYT > Home Page By DAVID LEONHARDT 2011

  • The next time you hear naysayers poormouth college, ask them if they plan to send their own children.

    NYT > Home Page By DAVID LEONHARDT 2011

  • Why have they not been responsible all this time and now cry poormouth, pity us.

    SplicedFeed 2010

  • Why have they not been responsible all this time and now cry poormouth, pity us.

    SplicedFeed 2010

  • Why have they not been responsible all this time and now cry poormouth, pity us.

    SplicedFeed 2010

  • Why have they not been responsible all this time and now cry poormouth, pity us.

    SplicedFeed 2010

  • That he did this while simultaneously pleading poormouth to the team's city and state and threatened to put the Colts on Route 66 to California betrayed a family resemblance that the locals took seriously.

    Can't Stop The Bleeding 2008

  • That he did this while simultaneously pleading poormouth to the team's city and state and threatened to put the Colts on Route 66 to California betrayed a family resemblance that the locals took seriously.

    Can't Stop The Bleeding 2008

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