impoverished

adjective

im·​pov·​er·​ished im-ˈpä-v(ə-)risht 

1

: reduced to poverty : poor

an impoverished family/community

2

: exhausted of richness or fertility

impoverished soils

3

of a fauna or flora : represented by few species or individuals

Synonyms

• beggared
• beggarly
• broke
• destitute
• dirt-poor
• down-and-out
• famished
• hard up
• impecunious
• indigent
• necessitous
• needful
• needy
• pauperized
• penniless
• penurious
• poor
• poverty-stricken
• skint [chiefly British]
• threadbare

Examples of impoverished in a Sentence

the widespread hope that the lottery's record-setting jackpot is won by an impoverished family

an impoverished field that over the years had been overgrazed

Recent Examples on the Web

Several factors skew those amounts up and down by district, with districts that have a higher rate of property tax revenue receiving less from the state, while those with higher rates rates of impoverished, disabled or homeless students receive more. —Krista Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 24 Dec. 2024

Its citizens are malnourished and impoverished; more refugees have left Venezuela than Syria or Ukraine. —Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 22 Dec. 2024

This inhumane practice visually captures and manipulates aesthetics of Congolese women into images of impoverished, oversexualized, and destitute archetypes from the lens of the (usually Western-adjacent) voyeur, furthering agendas of objectification. —Akilah Sailers, Essence, 19 Dec. 2024

The Islamic Republic may have emerged from that conflict battered and impoverished, but the fighting helped the clerical regime consolidate its grip on power. —Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, 10 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1611, in the meaning defined at sense 1