Definitions

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

  • adjective Owning much unprofitable land but lacking the capital to improve or maintain it.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Poor or in need of ready money while owning or holding much unremunerative land; especially, poor because of the taxes and other maintenance charges against such land.

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

  • adjective colloq. Pecuniarily embarrassed through owning much unprofitable land.

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

  • adjective Alternative form of land poor.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Seattle is an especially attractive place for brownfield redevelopment for a number of reasons, including that the land-poor Northwestern port city needs to reclaim abandoned properties to grow, said Mr. Williams, whose firm is also redeveloping brownfields in Denver and Parchment, Mich.

    Brownfields Bloom in Seattle Jim Carlton 2011

  • "As everyone knows, by the time Gerau de Pallars inherited his estate, the family was land-poor," said Ramon.

    Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine 2003

  • "As everyone knows, by the time Gerau de Pallars inherited his estate, the family was land-poor," said Ramon.

    Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine 2003

  • The redistribution of land mainly owned by white commercial farmers to the land-poor black majority has sparked an

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2001

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Stands a Calder Man Janet Dailey 1983

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Stands a Calder Man Janet Dailey 1983

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Mistletoe and Holly Janet Dailey 1982

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Mistletoe and Holly Janet Dailey 1982

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Mistletoe and Holly Janet Dailey 1982

  • They were land-poor in this part of the West, owners of thousands of square-mile tracts of land along their right-of-way, deeded to them by the U.S. government for laying track.

    Mistletoe and Holly Janet Dailey 1982

Comments

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  • Impoverished, young and a bland boor

    The squireen is well-housed but land-poor.

    To attract a rich wife

    And be set up for life

    His campaign begins with a grand tour.

    September 8, 2014