- poor´ness
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–adj.1. having few things or nothing; lacking money or property; needy: »
The children were so poor that they had no shoes. The poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb (II Samuel 12:3).
2. not good in quality; lacking something needed: »poor soil, poor milk, a poor story.
3. small in amount; scanty: »a poor crop. Upon this discovery the treasure-seekers, already reduced to a poor half dozen…fled outright (Robert Louis Stevenson).
SYNONYM(S): insufficient, inadequate.6. needing pity; unfortunate: »This poor child is hurt. The voter who seems likely to be commiserated with most…is the poor taxpayer (Newsweek).
7. not favorable: »a poor chance for recovery.
–n.the poor, persons who have very little or nothing: »The destruction of the poor is their poverty (Proverbs 10:15).
╂[Middle English pore, short for pouere < Old French povre < Latin pauper, -eris, related to paucus few. See etym. of doublet pauper. (Cf. ↑pauper)]–poor´ness, noun.Synonym Study adjective.1 Poor, penniless, impoverished mean with little or no money or property. Poor has a rather wide range of meaning, from being needy and dependent on charity for the necessities of life, to having no money to buy comforts or luxuries: »She is a poor widow.
Penniless means without any money at all, but sometimes only temporarily: »She found herself penniless in a strange city.
Impoverished means reduced to poverty from comfortable circumstances, even wealth: »Many people became impoverished during the depression of the 1930's.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.
