Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1400-1500
Language: Old French
Origin: empovrir, from povre 'poor'

impoverish

 verb
     
im‧pov‧e‧rish [transitive]
1 to make someone very poor:
Falling coffee prices have impoverished many Third World economies.
families impoverished by debt
2 to make something worse in quality:
Fast-growing trees remove nutrients and impoverish the soil.
—impoverished adjective:
an impoverished student
—impoverishment noun [uncountable]
spiritual impoverishment
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary