Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To reduce to poverty; make poor.
- v. To deprive of natural richness or strength: impoverish the soil by overuse. See Synonyms at deplete.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make poor; reduce to poverty or indigence.
- To make poor in quality or character; reduce in vigor, capacity, productiveness, etc.; cause to deteriorate.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make poor; to reduce to poverty or indigence.
- v. To exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of; to make sterile.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take away
- v. make poor
Etymologies
- Middle English empoverishen, from Old French empovrir, empovriss- : en-, causative pref.; see en-1 + povre, poor (from Latin pauper; see pauper).
Examples
“Current global economic turmoil is unlikely to "impoverish" South”
“It is a perversion of the truth to state that dams "impoverish" citizens.”
“Brad Shinn writes that I pervert the truth when I state that dams "impoverish" citizens.”
“Republicans and many wealthy people and entities "impoverish" our country EVERY DAY by exporting jobs to overseas labor markets.”
“I know what the Liberal -- left and right -- arguments against these prescriptions are: they will materially "impoverish" us collectively.”
“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.”
The Huffington Post: Ethan Rome: Republican Budget Plan Denies the American Dream
“Not only would your idea impoverish retirees, but it takes no account of individual differences in tolerance for risk, retirement lifestyle, expected lifespan, etc.”
“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.”
“You wish us to do the same, and your logic is: “We have to impoverish ourselves, or else we will become impoverished.””
“It will, however, make the world a more dangerous place, and it will impoverish our future.”
Lists
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