Impoverish meaning

ĭm-pŏv'ər-ĭsh, -pŏv'rĭsh
To reduce to poverty; make poor.
verb
0
0
To deprive of richness or strength.

Impoverish the soil by overuse.

verb
0
0
To make poor; reduce to poverty.
verb
0
0
To deprive of strength, resources, etc.
verb
0
0
Make poor.
verb
0
0
Advertisement
Weaken in quality; deprive of some strength or richness.

That exuberant crop quickly impoverishes any fertile soil.

verb
0
0
(intransitive) Become poor.
verb
0
0

Origin of impoverish

Middle English empoverishen from Old French empovrir empovriss- en- causative pref. en–1 povre poor (from Latin pauper pauper)

Sentence Examples

  • Their worldly circumstances were easy, though they were always ready to impoverish themselves for the sake of others.

  • They are also gross feeders and impoverish the soil.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Teens from affluent or impoverish homes both can and do abuse drugs.

More sentences →

Words near impoverish in the Dictionary