empoverish

present singular third person empoverishes · participle present empoverishing · participle past empoverished · past empoverished

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of impoverish.

   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.

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

   2 more examples

   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.

   1815, Joseph Coppinger, The American Practical Brewer and Tanner

   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.

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

   Synonyms: beggar, impoor, poverish, beggar, depauperate, depauperize, destitute, embeggar