poverty-struck

comparative more poverty-struck · superlative most poverty-struck

1. uncommonPoverty-stricken; very poor.

   I warrant—Such Poverty-ſtruck Devils as you ſhan't ſtay in my Houſe—you ſhall go to Quod, I can tell you that—

   1756, Arthur Murphy, The Apprentice. A Farce, in Two Acts, Dublin: […] W. Smith; J. Exshaw; R. James, page 25

   3 more examples

   A more curious figure cannot be conceived than I made; for, my poverty-struck and half-starved appearance was so contrasted with my active pace and flowing spirits, that I bore more the stamp of a lunatic than any thing else.

   1802, William Templeton, chapter XI, in The Strolling Player; or, Life and Adventures of William Templeton, volume I, London: […] B. McMillan, […] H.D. Symonds, page 265

   […] the poverty-struck appearance of these appendages is disgraceful to the structure, and even the excuse of utility is wanted to apologise for their excessive meanness.

   1828 July 29, “St. Katharine's”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume XCVIII, page 9

   Why hadn't she told me? Why had she wanted me to think her only a poverty-struck little liar? Well, maybe she was a little liar, but a liar with money was something else again. And I did like that smile.

   1997 November 29, William Lashner, Veritas, Harper Paperbacks, page 42