The state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions.
synonyms: impoverishment, poorness.
Roget 640:
insufficiency;
inadequacy,
inadequateness;
incompetence
etc.
(impotence)
158;
deficiency
etc.
(incompleteness)
53;
imperfection
etc.
651;
shortcoming
etc.
304;
paucity;
stint;
scantiness
etc.
(smallness)
32;
none to spare,
bare subsistence.
scarcity,
dearth;
want,
need,
lack,
poverty,
exigency;
inanition,
starvation,
famine,
drought.
dole,
mite,
pittance;
short allowance,
short commons;
half rations;
banyan day.
emptiness,
poorness
etc.
adj.;
depletion,
vacancy,
flaccidity;
ebb tide;
low water;
a beggarly account of empty boxes"
[Romeo and Juliet];
indigence
etc.
804;
insolvency
etc.
(nonpayment)
808.
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Roget 643:
unimportance,
insignificance,
nothingness,
immateriality.
triviality,
levity,
frivolity;
paltriness
etc.
adj.;
poverty;
smallness
etc.
32;
vanity
etc.
(uselessness)
645;
matter of indifference
etc.
866;
no object.
nothing,
nothing to signify,
nothing worth speaking of,
nothing particular,
nothing to boast of,
nothing to speak of;
small matter,
no great matter,
trifling matter
etc.
adj.;
mere joke,
mere nothing;
hardly anything;
scarcely anything;
nonentity,
small beer,
cipher;
no great shakes,
peu de chose [Fr.];
child's play,
kinderspiel.
toy,
plaything,
popgun,
paper pellet,
gimcrack,
gewgaw,
bauble,
trinket,
bagatelle,
Rickshaw,
knickknack,
whim-wham,
trifle,
trifles light as air;"
yankee notions [U.S.].
trumpery,
trash,
rubbish,
stuff,
fatras†,
frippery;
leather or prunello;"
chaff,
drug,
froth bubble smoke,
cobweb;
weed;
refuse
etc.
(inutility)
645;
scum
etc.
(dirt)
653.
joke,
jest,
snap of the fingers;
fudge
etc.
(unmeaning)
517;
fiddlestick†,
fiddlestick end†;
pack of nonsense,
mere farce.
straw,
pin,
fig,
button,
rush;
bulrush,
feather,
halfpenny,
farthing,
brass farthing,
doit†,
peppercorn,
jot,
rap,
pinch of snuff,
old son;
cent,
mill,
picayune,
pistareen†,
red cent [U.S.].
minutiae,
details,
minor details,
small fry;
dust in the balance,
feather in the scale,
drop in the ocean,
flea-bite,
molehill.
nine days' wonder,
ridiculus mus [Lat.];
flash in the pan
etc.
(impotence)
158;
much ado about nothing
etc.
(overestimation)
482.
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Roget 804:
poverty,
indigence,
penury,
pauperism,
destitution,
want;
need,
neediness;
lack,
necessity,
privation,
distress,
difficulties,
wolf at the door.
bad circumstances,
poor circumstances,
need circumstances,
embarrassed circumstances,
reduced circumstances,
straightened circumstances;
slender means,
narrow means;
straits;
hand to mouth existence,
res angusta domi [Lat.],
low water,
impecuniosity.
beggary;
mendicancy,
mendicity†;
broken fortune,
loss of fortune;
insolvency
etc.
(nonpayment)
808.
empty pocket,
empty purse;
light purse;
beggarly account of empty boxes.
[poor people]
poor man,
pauper,
mendicant,
mumper†,
beggar,
starveling;
pauvre diable [Fr.];
fakir†,
schnorrer†;
homeless person.
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Dutch: kommer, verarming, armoe, armoede, armoedigheid, armzaligheid, behoeftigheid, nood, nooddruft
Polish: ubóstwo, bieda, niedostatek, niezamożność, mortus, zubożenie