indigence

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
His present indigence is a sufficient punishment for former folly; and I have heard my pappa himself say, that we should never strike our unnecessary blow at a victim over whom providence holds the scourge of its resentment. '

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Poverty; neediness.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • And to add insult to his indigence, the poor boy is told that the greatest gift he can hope for is friendship. —  FSFApril2005
  • I do not come here to ask your favors, such as cupidity would covet, or even such as would relieve indigence--Marat's widow needs no more than a tomb Before arriving at that happy termination to my existence, however I come to ask that justice may be done in respect to the reports recently put forth in this body against the memory of at once the most intrepid and the most outraged defender of the people Simonne Evrard Marat, to the Convention Illustration: JEAN PAUL MARAT The French Revolution traces a lineal descent direct from Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators
  • My purs and I be callyd to the lure Off indigence, our stuff leyd in morgage; But ye, my lord, may al our soor recure, With a receyt of plate, and of coignage Nat sugre plate maad by thappotecarye, Plate of briht metal yevith a mery sone, In Boklerys bury is noon such letuary; Gold is a cordial, gladdest confeccione, Ageyn etiques of oold consumpcione, Auru' potabile, for folk ferre ronne in age, In quynt essence best restauracione, With silver plate, enprentyd with coignage O seely bille! —  A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 Written in the Fifteenth Century, and for the First Time Printed from MSS. in the British Museum
  • It was curious to see him, out of his very deformity, indigence, and houselessness, so cheerily endured, raising mirth in some of that crowd, whose own purses, hearths, hearts, all their possessions, sound limbs included, could not make gay What is your name, old boy?" —  The Confidence-Man
  • The poverty of the frontier, where all are engaged in a common struggle, and where a common sympathy and hearty co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty, different in kind, different in influence and effect, from that conscious and humiliating indigence which is every day forced to contrast itself with neighboring wealth on which it feels a sense of grinding dependence. —  Hidden Treasures Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail
 

Tags

indigence hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 117 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French indigence, from Latin indigentia, need, want, from indigen(t-)s, needy: see indigent.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ˈɪndɪdʒəns/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

oration · Stayed · kiloton · disquisition · analogous

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich