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Webster 1913 Edition


Poverty

Pov′er-ty

(pŏv′ẽr-ty̆)
,
Noun.
[OE.
poverte
, OF.
poverté
, F.
pauvreté
, fr. L.
paupertas
, fr.
pauper
poor. See
Poor
.]
1.
The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.
“Swathed in numblest poverty.”
Keble.
The drunkard and the glutton shall come to
poverty
.
Prov. xxiii. 21.
2.
Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness;
as,
poverty
of soil;
poverty
of the blood;
poverty
of ideas.
Poverty grass
(Bot.)
,
a name given to several slender grasses (as
Aristida dichotoma
, and
Danthonia spicata
) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.
Syn. – Indigence; penury; beggary; need; lack; want; scantiness; sparingness; meagerness; jejuneness.
Poverty
,
Indigence
,
Pauperism
. Poverty is a relative term; what is poverty to a monarch, would be competence for a day laborer. Indigence implies extreme distress, and almost absolute destitution. Pauperism denotes entire dependence upon public charity, and, therefore, often a hopeless and degraded state.

Webster 1828 Edition


Poverty

POV'ERTY

,
Noun.
[L. paupertas. See Poor.]
1.
Destitution of property; indigence; want of convenient means of subsistence. The consequence of poverty is dependence.
The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. Prov.23.
2.
Barrenness of sentiment or ornament; defect; as the poverty of a composition.
3.
Want; defect of words; as the poverty of language.

Definition 2024


poverty

poverty

English

Noun

poverty (usually uncountable, plural poverties)

  1. The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.
    • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:
      America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
  2. Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:poverty

Antonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:wealth

Related terms

Translations