impoverish

/im'pɔvəriʃ/

Thân thiện

The new policy threatens to impoverish many small farmers.

Definition

1. Verb (transitive):
   • To make poor; to reduce to poverty: To cause a person, group, or region to become poor or destitute.
   • To deprive of strength, richness, or fertility: To make something weaker, less fertile, or less valuable in quality.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:
  • The war served to impoverish the entire nation. (The war caused the entire nation to become poor.)
  • Over-farming can impoverish the soil, making it less productive. (Over-farming can deprive the soil of its fertility.)
  • The economic policies are likely to impoverish the middle class. (The economic policies will probably make the middle class poor.)

Advanced Usage

• "to impoverish oneself": To cause oneself to become poor, often through one's own actions.
  • He impoverished himself by gambling away his inheritance. (He made himself poor by gambling away his inheritance.)
• Used figuratively: To describe making something less rich in a non-financial sense.
  • Relying solely on clichés will impoverish your writing. (Relying solely on clichés will make your writing less rich and original.)

Variants and Related Words

• Impoverished (adjective): Made poor; depleted of strength or richness.
  • They lived in an impoverished neighborhood. (They lived in a poor neighborhood.)
  • The impoverished soil could no longer support crops. (The soil, depleted of fertility, could no longer support crops.)
• Impoverishment (noun): The act of making poor or the state of being poor; depletion.
  • The rapid impoverishment of the rural population was alarming. (The rapid process of the rural population becoming poor was alarming.)

Synonyms

• Pauperize: To reduce to poverty.
• Bankrupt: To make insolvent or destitute.
• Deplete: To use up the strength or resources of; to exhaust.
• Weaken: To reduce the strength or quality of.

Antonyms

• Enrich: To make wealthy or to improve the quality of.
• Fortify: To strengthen.
• Fertilize: To make (soil) more productive.

Related Phrases

• Cultural impoverishment: The reduction in the richness or diversity of a culture.
  • The loss of indigenous languages leads to cultural impoverishment. (The loss of indigenous languages causes a reduction in cultural richness.)
• To impoverish the spirit: To diminish one's emotional or spiritual vitality (figurative).
  • A life without creativity can impoverish the human spirit. (A life lacking creativity can diminish human spiritual vitality.)

Học thuật

Verb

1. take away
2. make poor

Từ đồng nghĩa

• deprive