Weaken in quality; deprive of some strength or richness.
That exuberant crop quickly impoverishes any fertile soil.
verb
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(intransitive) Become poor.
verb
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Origin of impoverish
Middle English empoverishenfrom Old French empovrirempovriss-en-causative pref.en–1povrepoor (from Latin pauperpauper)
From
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Borrowing from Old French empoverir (modern French appauvrir), from em- + povre, from Latinpauper (“poor”) (English poor).
From
Wiktionary
Impoverish Sentence Examples
They are also gross feeders and impoverish the soil.
Their worldly circumstances were easy, though they were always ready to impoverish themselves for the sake of others.
Many regions suffer permanently from deficient rainfall; in others, owing to the absence of irrigation works, the water supply is lost, while the burning of the grass at the end of summer, a practice adopted by many farmers, tends to impoverish the soil and render it arid.
Two parts must not move in consecutive octaves or fifths, because by so doing they unaccountably reinforce each other by an amount by which they impoverish the rest of the harmony.