impoverish
/im'pɔvəriʃ/
Definition
- 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.)
Verb
-
take away
-
make poor
Khám phá thêm
Các từ liên quan
Từ đồng nghĩa
Từ trái nghĩa
Từ chứa "impoverish"
