Not having enough money to pay for necessities.

synonyms: hard up, in straitened circumstances, penniless, penurious, pinched.

Roget 804: poor, indigent; poverty-stricken; badly off, poorly off, ill off; poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job; fortuneless^†, dowerless^†, moneyless^†, penniless; unportioned^†, unmoneyed^†; impecunious; out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash; without a rap, not worth a rap etc. (money) 800; qui n'a pas le sou [Fr.], out of pocket, hard up; out at elbows, out at heels; seedy, bare-footed; beggarly, beggared; destitute; fleeced, stripped; bereft, bereaved; reduced; homeless.    in want etc. n.; needy, necessitous, distressed, pinched, straitened; put to one's shifts, put to one's last shifts; unable to keep the wolf from the door, unable to make both ends meet; embarrassed, under hatches; involved etc. (in debt) 806; insolvent etc. (not paying) 808.    ... show more