English

Verb

empoverish ‎(third-person singular simple present empoverishes, present participle empoverishing, simple past and past participle empoverished)

1. Obsolete spelling of impoverish
   • 1815, Joseph Coppinger, The American Practical Brewer and Tanner:

     A sudden chill would precipitate the grosser, and diffuse the lighter dregs throughout the fermenting fluid, which should be thrown off from the surface in cleansing; this would retard the fining, and empoverish the beer or ale; while the mode recommended will be found to promote transparency, and give strength and body, that is, fullness and spirituosity.

   • 1837, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete:

     But we cannot refuse our admiration to the fervent and generous order of public spirit existent at that time, when we find that it was a popular leader who proposed to, and carried through, a popular assembly the motion, that went to empoverish the men who supported his party and adjudged his proposition.

   • 1856, Austin Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman:

     The judges allowed twenty minutes to prepare the horses for the second trial of their speed--a trial which must enrich or empoverish many of the thousands present.