impoverish

From Middle English impoverishen, empoverishen, from Old French empoverir, from em- + povre, from Latin pauper (“poor”) (English poor).

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɒv(ə)ɹɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

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impoverish (third-person singular simple present impoverishes, present participle impoverishing, simple past and past participle impoverished)

1. (transitive) To make poor.
2. (transitive) To weaken in quality; to deprive of some strength or richness.

   That exuberant crop quickly impoverishes any fertile soil.

   • 1979 December 22, Nancy Walker, “The Reaffirmation of Life”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 16:

     To many of us, organized religion is obnoxious. Yet if we throw out the sense of peace, order and joy that flows from religious ritual, we impoverish ourselves.

3. (intransitive) To become poor.

• (to make poor): ruin; poor (rare)
• (to weaken or deprive): deplete

• enrich

• impoverisher
• impoverishment

• immiserate

• “impoverish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “impoverish”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “impoverish”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.