poor

comparative poorer · superlative poorest

1. With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

   We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.

   5 more examples

   England is growne to ſuch a paſſe of late, That rich men triumph to ſee the poore beg at their gate.

   1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I

   When Owenism and Chartism had burned themselves out, England had become poorer by that substance out of which the Anglo-Saxon ideal of a free society could have been built up for centuries to come.

   1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 167

   The poorest of the poor are truly destitute, with so few assets they are basically shackless.

   2014, George W. Norton, Hunger and Hope: Escaping Poverty and Achieving Food Security in Developing ...

   Durable goods can be cost-effective but make great disease vectors, and disposables like syringes and needles can be a problem in the poorest places, where there's desperate need of vaccines for diseases like polio. That's where the UCSD scientists come in.

   2016 January 14, Jessica Hall, “Nanoengineers build 'microcannons' that fire light-up bullets filled with drugs”, in ExtremeTech, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2024

   Because it’s considered relatively inexpensive, there’s an assumption that poor people eat more fast food than other socioeconomic groups – which has convinced some local governments to try to limit their access. […] The data showed becoming richer or poorer didn’t have much effect at all on how often people ate fast food.

   2017 July 12, Jay L. Zagorsky, Patricia Smith, “No, poor people don’t eat the most fast food”, in CNN, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2024

   Synonyms: broke, impecunious, needy, almsless, arm, badly off, bankrupt, beggared · Antonyms: rich, wealthy

2. Of low quality.

   That was a poor performance.

   2 more examples

   He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Meanwhile, due to a lack of wind, air quality in west Taiwan was poor yesterday, the Environmental Protection Administration said. Air quality could deteriorate early this morning, triggering a “red” alert — which signals unhealthy air quality — in some parts of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties, it said.

   2021 March 28, “Taiwan News Quick Take”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2021, Taiwan News, page 3

   Synonyms: cheap, inferior, low, sorry, ass, bad, base, below par · Antonyms: good

3. attributiveWorthy of pity.

   Oh, you poor thing, you're drenched!

   3 more examples

   This poor little puppy got a nasty snake bite.

   Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056

   Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: pitiable, pitisome, rueful, compassionate, pathetic, pathetisad, piteous, pitiable

4. Deficient in a specified way.

   Cow's milk is poor in iron.

   Synonyms: absent, devoid of, void of, absent, awanting, bereft of, deficient of, deprived of · Antonyms: rich

5. Inadequate, insufficient.

   Business is poor right now.

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   I received a poor reward for all my hard work.

   That I have wronged no Man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

   a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, Sermon 1

   The temptation was more than mortal heart could resist. She gave him the promise he sought, stifling the voice of conscience; and as she clung to his neck it seemed to her that heaven was a poor thing compared with a man's love.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   Synonyms: dismal, meager, slender, awanting, deficient, dismal, exiguous, geason · Antonyms: adequate, decent

6. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

   Blessed are the poor in spirit.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:3

   Synonyms: demure, modest, self-effacing, abased, demure, diffident, humble, humble-hearted

1. pluralplural onlyThe poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.

   The sun shines on the rich and the poor alike but, come the rain, the rich have better umbrellas.

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   ...when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might haue bin sold for much, and giuen to the poore. When Iesus vnderstood it, he said vnto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good worke vpon me. For ye haue the poore alwayes with you, but me ye haue not alwayes.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:8-11

   Harry Truman used to say that 13 or 14 million Americans had their interests represented in Washington, but that the rest of the people had to depend on the President of the United States. That is how I felt about the 35 million American poor. They had no voice and no champion. Whatever the cost, I was determined to represent them. Through me they would have an advocate and, I believed, new hope.

   1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39

   Then there have not always been proletarians? No. There have always been poor and working classes; and those who worked were almost always the poor. But there have not always been proletarians, just as competition has not always been free.

   1972, Anonymous translation of Friedrich Engels as "Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith", International Publishers

   He is glad to see me and tells me that during his absence from the parish one of the women beggars died. Usually in these cases the state comes and takes the body away in a bag, to incinerate, but this time, because of his teachings, the other poor decided that she deserved a real funeral.

   1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8

   This is the same Randian bullshit that we've been hearing from people like Brooks for ages and its entire premise is really revolting and insulting—this idea that the way society works is that the productive "rich" feed the needy "poor," and that any attempt by the latter to punish the former for "excesses" might inspire Atlas to Shrug his way out of town and leave the helpless poor on their own to starve. That's basically Brooks's entire argument here. Yes, the rich and powerful do rig the game in their own favor, and yes, they are guilty of "excesses"—but fucking deal with it, if you want to eat.

   2010 Jan. 27, Matt Taibbi, "Populism: Just Like Racism!", True/Slant

2. pluralplural onlycard gamesthe second-to-last placer in Tycoon

   Antonyms: rich

plural poors

1. countableA poor person.

   The poors are at it again.

   4 more examples

   ...me vint of ane king to huam a poure acsede ane peny...

   1340, Laurent du Bois, translated by Dan Michel, Ayenbite of Inwyt, page 195

   He had given somewhat to every poore in the Parish.

   1625, Thomas Jackson, A Treatise Containing the Originall of Vnbeliefe, Pt. v, Ch. xvi, §6

   So what happened? It’s fun to point the finger. Some say it was the poors, or the uneducateds, or even the third-party voters. No matter the scenario, it’s always fun to blame someone else and throw up your hands (while a finger on each is pointed of course).

   2018 May 28, Joel Edelman, “Primary election 2018 coverage for the deaf”, in Today's featured shit

   I don't understand, Simmons! I have all the money in the world, but I'm still unhappy! […] It must be the poors! Those leeches have been stealing my happiness somehow!

   2023, James Sandoval, “Buying Happiness”, in But A Jape (webcomic)

   Synonyms: beggar, have not, penny-father, bankrupt, beggar, indigent, insolvent, have not

2. obsoleteSynonym of poor cod.

   Synonyms: poor cod

present singular third person poors · participle present pooring · participle past poored · past poored

1. raretransitiveSynonym of impoverish, to make poor.

   It is very evident that Americans are being ‘poored down’ to suit the world socialist agenda, and to maximize profits for the international corporations.

   2003 August 10, Dallas News, p. 3

   Synonyms: beggar, pauperize, ruin, beggar, depauperate, depauperize, destitute, embeggar

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo become poor.

   The mone of this realme is born out in gret quantite and the realme puryt of the sammyn.

   1467, Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, Vol. II, p. 88

3. obsoleteTo call someone poor.

   Miss Lavinia... put in that she didn't want to be ‘poored by pa,’ or anybody else.

   1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, page 27

plural Poors

1. A surname