poverty

Roget category 804

5. Words relating to the voluntary powers
› 5.9. Possessive relations
›› 5.9.4. Monetary relations

#804. Poverty

noun

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.

verb

be poor etc. adj. — want, lack, starve, live from hand to mouth, have seen better days, go down in the world, come upon the parish — go to the dogs, go to wrack and ruin — not have a penny etc. (money) 800, not have a shot in one's locker — beg one's bread — tirer le diable par la queue [Fr.] — run into debt etc. (debt) 806.
render poor etc. adj. — impoverish — reduce, reduce to poverty — pauperize, fleece, ruin, bring to the parish.

adjective

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.

adverb

in forma pauperis [Lat.].

phrase

zonam perdidit [Lat.] — a penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree" [Lady Nairne]; a pobreza no hay verguenza [Sp.] — he that is down can fall no lower" [Butler]; poca roba poco pensiero [It] — steeped .
. . in poverty to the very steeped . . . in poverty to the very lips" [Othello]; the short and simple annals of the poor" [Gray].

The content on this page comes straight from Project Gutenberg Etext of Roget's Thesaurus No. Two, which consists of the acclaimed work by Peter Mark Roget augmented with more recent material. Some changes were made to the formatting for improved readability.

Bold numbers signify related Roget categories. A dagger symbol (†) indicates archaic words and expressions no longer in common use.

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