beggarliness

A person's beggarliness was evident in their tattered clothes and empty cup.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • Extreme poverty: "beggarliness" refers to the state or quality of being extremely poor, destitute, or impoverished.
   • Wretchedness or meanness: It can also denote a condition of being contemptibly low, mean, or miserably inferior in quality or character.

Usage Examples

• (The extreme poverty and destitution of their surroundings.)
• (A contemptible meanness of character.)

Advanced Usage

• "beggarliness of mind": a state of intellectual or moral poverty; small-mindedness.

  • The critic dismissed the novel for its beggarliness of imagination. (The novel lacked creativity and depth.)

• "beggarliness of means": severe lack of resources or material wealth.

  • Despite the beggarliness of means, the community remained resilient. (Despite extreme poverty.)

Variants and Related Words

• Beggarly (adj): relating to or characteristic of a beggar; extremely poor or mean.

  • He lived in a beggarly hut on the edge of the village. (A poor, shabby dwelling.)

• Beggar (n): a person who lives by asking for money or food.

  • The beggar sat quietly on the street corner. (A person in extreme poverty.)

Synonyms

• Poverty: the state of being extremely poor.
• Destitution: a state without money, food, or shelter.
• Meanness: lack of generosity or quality; small-mindedness.
• Wretchedness: a state of great unhappiness or misery.

Related Idioms

• "As poor as a church mouse": extremely poor.

  • After the financial crash, they were as poor as church mice. (In a state of beggarliness.)

• "On the breadline": living at the minimum level of subsistence.

  • Many families were on the breadline during the recession. (Experiencing beggarliness.)