IMPOVERISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does impoverish mean? 

• IMPOVERISH (verb)
  The verb IMPOVERISH has 2 senses:

1. make poor

2. take away

  Familiarity information: IMPOVERISH used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPOVERISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they impoverish    ... he / she / it impoverishes   
Past simple: impoverished   
Past participle: impoverished   
-ing form: impoverishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make poor

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "impoverish" is one way to...):

deprive (keep from having, keeping, or obtaining)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "impoverish"):

reduce (lessen and make more modest)

beggar; pauperise; pauperize (reduce to beggary)

bankrupt; break; ruin; smash (reduce to bankruptcy)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Antonym:

enrich (make wealthy or richer)

Derivation:

impoverishment (the act of making someone poor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Take away

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

deprive; impoverish

Hypernyms (to "impoverish" is one way to...):

decline; worsen (grow worse)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "impoverish"):

disestablish (deprive (an established church) of its status)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody of something

Derivation:

impoverishment (the act of making someone poor)

 Context examples 

To take three thousand pounds from the fortune of their dear little boy would be impoverishing him to the most dreadful degree.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Not a line of the great poets can be spared without impoverishing the world by that much.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing, that she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)