Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To reduce to poverty; make poor.
- transitive verb To deprive of richness or strength.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make poor; reduce to poverty or indigence.
- To make poor in quality or character; reduce in vigor, capacity, productiveness, etc.; cause to deteriorate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make poor; to reduce to poverty or indigence.
- transitive verb To exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of; to make sterile.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive Make
poor . - verb transitive
Weaken in quality;deprive of some strength or richness. - verb intransitive Become poor.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb take away
- verb make poor
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Current global economic turmoil is unlikely to "impoverish" South
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It is a perversion of the truth to state that dams "impoverish" citizens.
Letters 1995
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Brad Shinn writes that I pervert the truth when I state that dams "impoverish" citizens.
Letters 1995
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Republicans and many wealthy people and entities "impoverish" our country EVERY DAY by exporting jobs to overseas labor markets.
Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local thecap0 2010
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Republicans and many wealthy people and entities "impoverish" our country EVERY DAY by exporting jobs to overseas labor markets.
Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local bagzzaf 2010
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Republicans and many wealthy people and entities "impoverish" our country EVERY DAY by exporting jobs to overseas labor markets.
Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local pftp 2010
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I know what the Liberal -- left and right -- arguments against these prescriptions are: they will materially "impoverish" us collectively.
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The Republicans want to convert Medicaid into state block grants that will shift costs to states, lower payments to hospitals and doctors, cost three million jobs, and impoverish seniors and their families by shifting to them the burden of paying for nursing homes and other essential long-term care services.
Ethan Rome: Republican Budget Plan Denies the American Dream Ethan Rome 2011
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Not only would your idea impoverish retirees, but it takes no account of individual differences in tolerance for risk, retirement lifestyle, expected lifespan, etc.
Matthew Yglesias » The Other Public Sector Pension Problem 2010
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When more than 15% of Americans over 65 live in poverty and skyrocketing health care costs are likely to impoverish even more of them, we can't afford to cut any of theie financial lifelines.
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