Definitions

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

  • adjective Lacking resources or the means of subsistence; completely impoverished.
  • adjective Utterly lacking; devoid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To forsake; desert; abandon; leave to neglect.
  • To deprive, as of property, preferment, or office; divest: used absolutely or with of.
  • To disappoint.
  • Deprived; bereft; under complete lack or privation, whether of what has been lost or of what has never been possessed: with of: as, destitute of honor or of prudence; destitute of the necessaries of life.
  • Without means; indigent; needy; poor: as, the family has been left destitute.
  • A destitute person, or destitute persons collectively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Forsaken; not having in possession (something necessary, or desirable); deficient; lacking; devoid; -- often followed by of.
  • adjective Not possessing the necessaries of life; in a condition of want; needy; without possessions or resources; very poor.
  • transitive verb obsolete To leave destitute; to forsake; to abandon.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make destitute; to cause to be in want; to deprive; -- followed by of.
  • transitive verb obsolete To disappoint.

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

  • adjective Lacking something; devoid; especially lacking money; poor, impoverished, poverty-stricken.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective poor enough to need help from others
  • adjective completely wanting or lacking

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin dēstitūtus, past participle of dēstituere, to abandon : dē-, de- + statuere, to set; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The number of destitute is greatly reduced, there is strong national pride, and the general populace is VERY optimistic about where they are going.

    Sound Politics: "Peak Oil" Despair Versus Energy Innovation 2007

  • But men scarcely take pleasure at all in these things, at least those whom we call destitute of self-control do not, but only in the actual enjoyment which arises entirely from the sense of Touch, whether in eating or in drinking, or in grosser lusts.

    Ethics 384 BC-322 BC Aristotle

  • Charlottesville to open a pay school for colored pupils, but had not been successful, and having used all her money was in destitute circumstances so she came to us for aid and sympathy.

    Reminiscences of Philena Carkin 1875

  • As they rode home they passed a row of almshouses that Gifford had built and endowed for the widows of small Catholic tradesmen who had been left in destitute circumstances.

    Zoe: The History of Two Lives 1845

  • Nor is even the first heroine of the name destitute of a certain strange beauty in her fierceness, or of honesty in the midst of perverted passion and passionate perversity.

    Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells Charlotte Bront�� 1835

  • They are classified as "destitute", a condition designed to deter others from seeking asylum in Britain.

    The Guardian World News Patrick Barkham 2011

  • The house was large and old, the furniture not much less ancient, the situation dreary, the roads everywhere bad, the soil a stiff clay, wet and dirty, except in the midst of summer, the country round it disagreeable, and in short, destitute of every thing that could afford any satisfaction to Mrs

    A Description of Millenium Hall And the Country Adjacent Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants and Such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections As May Excite in the Reader Proper Sentiments of Humanity, and Lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue Sarah Scott 1759

  • But as the faith, which is not founded on revelation, must remain destitute of any firm assurance, the disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgar superstition; and the popular and philosophic notion of the Deity seems to have been confounded in the practice, the writings, and even in the mind of Julian.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • The ancients, who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge of the great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted to believe, that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants; 126 and they sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant space with headless men, or rather monsters; 127 with horned and cloven-footed satyrs; 128 with fabulous centaurs; 129 and with human pygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare against the cranes.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Each woman and each man matters, even a drunk who dies destitute, which is what tragically happens to the boys 'father, Charlie.

    Joseph Smigelski: Film Review: Touching Home 2010

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