Poor

• POS: Adjective

CIDE DICTIONARY

Poor, a. [OE. poure or povre, OF. povre, F. pauvre, L. pauper; the first syllable of which is probably akin to paucus few (see Paucity, Few), and the second to parare to prepare, procure. See Few, and cf. Parade, Pauper, Poverty.].

•  Destitute of property; wanting in material riches or goods; needy; indigent.  [1913 Webster]

  " It is often synonymous with indigent and with necessitous denoting extreme want. It is also applied to persons who are not entirely destitute of property, but who are not rich; as, a poor man or woman; poor people."  [1913 Webster]
•  So completely destitute of property as to be entitled to maintenance from the public.  [1913 Webster]
•  Destitute of such qualities as are desirable, or might naturally be expected  [1913 Webster]

  "That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day."  [1913 Webster]
•  Worthy of pity or sympathy; -- used also sometimes as a term of endearment, or as an expression of modesty, and sometimes as a word of contempt.  [1913 Webster]

  "And for mine own poor part,
  Look you, I'll go pray."  [1913 Webster]

  "Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing."  [1913 Webster]
•  Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.  Matt. v. 3.  [1913 Webster]

Poor law, a law providing for, or regulating, the relief or support of the poor. -- Poor man's treacle (Bot.), garlic; -- so called because it was thought to be an antidote to animal poison. [Eng] Dr. Prior. -- Poor man's weatherglass (Bot.), the red-flowered pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), which opens its blossoms only in fair weather. -- Poor rate, an assessment or tax, as in an English parish, for the relief or support of the poor. -- Poor soldier (Zoöl.), the friar bird. -- The poor, those who are destitute of property; the indigent; the needy. In a legal sense, those who depend on charity or maintenance by the public. “I have observed the more public provisions are made for the poor, the less they provide for themselves.” Franklin.

Poor, n. 

 A small European codfish (Gadus minutus); -- called also power cod.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Poor, adj.
1 lacking adequate money or means to live comfortably.
2 (foll. by in) deficient in (a possession or quality) (the poor in spirit).
3 a scanty, inadequate (a poor crop). b less good than is usual or expected (poor visibility; is a poor driver; in poor health). c paltry; inferior (poor condition; came a poor third).
4 a deserving pity or sympathy; unfortunate (you poor thing). b with reference to a dead person (as my poor father used to say).
5 spiritless; despicable (is a poor creature).
6 often iron. or joc. humble; insignificant (in my poor opinion).

Idiom

poor-box a collection-box, esp. in church, for the relief of the poor. poor law hist. a law relating to the support of paupers. poor man's an inferior or cheaper substitute for. poor man's weather-glass the pimpernel. poor-rate hist. a rate or assessment for relief or support of the poor. poor relation an inferior or subordinate member of a family or any other group. poor-spirited timid; cowardly. poor White offens. (esp. used by Blacks) a member of a socially inferior group of White people. take a poor view of regard with disfavour or pessimism.

Etymology

ME & OF pov(e)re, poure f. L pauper

THESAURUS

Poor

DP, Lenten, Mickey Mouse, Spartan, abject, abominable, abstemious, against, amateurish, arrant, artless, ascetic, atrocious, attenuated, austere, awful, bad, badly off, bankrupt, bare-handed, barren, base, beggared, beggarly, below par, beneath contempt, broke, bumbling, cadaverous, cheap, cheeseparing, cheesy, chinchy, chintzy, chronic poor, chronic poverty area, coarse, common, con, contemptible, corpselike, crumbling, crummy, debased, decrepit, defective, deficient, degraded, depleted, depraved, depressed class, depressed population, despicable, destitute, destitution, dirty, disappointed, disapprobatory, disapproving, discontented, disenchanted, disgruntled, disgusting, disillusioned, disintegrating, displeased, dissatisfied, dissenting, distressed, down to bedrock, down-and-out, dwarfed, dwarfish, emacerated, emaciate, emaciated, embarrassed, empty-handed, execrable, exhausted, exiguous, famished, faulty, feeble, feeling the pinch, flagrant, flat, flat broke, flawed, flimsy, fortuneless, foul, fourth-class, frugal, fruitless, fulsome, gaudy, ghetto-dwellers, gimcracky, grave, gross, haggard, half-assed, half-starved, hapless, hard up, heinous, hollow-eyed, homely, humble, humble-looking, humble-visaged, humblest, ill, ill off, ill-equipped, ill-fated, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill-starred, impecunious, impecuniousness, impoverished, impoverishment, in Queer Street, in narrow circumstances, in need, in rags, in reduced circumstances, in straitened circumstances, in want, inadept, inadequate, inapt, inattentive, inconclusive, inconsequential, indigence, indigent, indignant, inefficient, inept, inexpert, inferior, infertile, infirm, infrequent, inglorious, innocuous, insignificant, insolvent, insubstantial, insufficient, irregular, jejune, land-poor, lean, least, limited, little, lousy, low, low-class, low-down, low-grade, low-quality, low-test, lowest, lowliest, lowly, luckless, lumpen, mangy, marantic, marasmic, meager, mean, measly, mediocre, meretricious, miserable, miserly, modest, moneyless, monstrous, narrow, necessitous, neediness, needy, nefarious, niggardly, obnoxious, odious, on short commons, on the edge, opposed, opposing, out of pocket, outcasts, paltry, parsimonious, pathetic, pauperism, pauperized, peaked, peaky, pedestrian, penniless, penurious, penury, petty, piddling, pinched, pitiable, pitiful, plain, poky, poorish, poorly off, poorness, poverty subculture, poverty-stricken, privation, punk, puny, rank, rare, reduced, reptilian, rotten, rotten at, rubbishy, ruined, sad, scabby, scant, scanty, scarce, scattered, scrawny, scrimp, scrimping, scrimpy, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, second-best, second-class, second-rate, seedy, seldom met with, seldom seen, shabby, shoddy, short, short of cash, short of funds, short of money, shorthanded, shriveled, simple, skeletal, skill-less, skimp, skimping, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, slipshod, slum-dwellers, small, sorry, spare, sparing, sparse, spotty, sprinkled, squalid, squeezed, star-crossed, starvation, starved, starveling, starving, sterile, stingy, stinted, stone-broke, stony, straitened, strapped, stunted, subsistence, substandard, tabetic, tabid, tacky, teachable, the disadvantaged, the dispossessed, the distressed, the down-and-out, the forgotten man, the have-nots, the needy, the other America, the poor, the powerless, the underprivileged, the urban poor, thin, third-class, third-rate, thoughtless, tight, tinny, trashy, trifling, trivial, trumpery, turned-off, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unacceptable, unappreciative, unapproving, unapt, uncomplimentary, undeft, under par, underdeveloped nation, underfed, undermanned, undernourished, underprivileged, undexterous, undextrous, undistinguished, unfacile, unfavorable, unfed, unfirm, unfortunate, unfruitful, unhappy, unimportant, unintelligent, unlucky, unmentionable, unmoneyed, unnourishing, unnutritious, unpretentious, unproductive, unprofessional, unproficient, unprosperous, unproved, unprovided, unreplenished, unrigorous, unsatisfactory, unskillful, unsolid, unsound, unstable, unsturdy, unsubstantial, unsupplied, unsustained, valueless, vile, want, wasted, watered, watery, weak, weazeny, welfare rolls, wiped out, withered, wizened, worthless, wraithlike, wretched

ROGET THESAURUS

Poor

Feebleness

N feebleness, feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid, colorless, enervated, proposing, prosy, prosaic, unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy- washy, sketchy, slight, careless, slovenly, loose, lax (negligent), slipshod, slipslop, inexact, puerile, childish, flatulent, rambling.

Insufficiency

N insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, a beggarly account of empty boxes, indigence, insolvency, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake, Adj, insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, weighed in the balance and found wanting, perfunctory, deficient, wanting imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt, insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing, semper avarus eget.

Unimportance

N unimportance, insignificance, nothingness, immateriality, triviality, levity, frivolity, paltriness, poverty, smallness, vanity, matter of indifference, no object, nothing, nothing to signify, nothing worth speaking of, nothing particular, nothing to boast of, nothing to speak of, small matter, no great matter, trifling matter, mere joke, mere nothing, hardly anything, scarcely anything, nonentity, small beer, cipher, no great shakes, peu de chose, child's play, kinderspiel, toy, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, trifles light as air, yankee notions, trumpery, trash, rubbish, stuff, fatras, frippery, leather or prunello, chaff, drug, froth bubble smoke, cobweb, weed, refuse, scum, joke, jest, snap of the fingers, fudge, fiddlestick, fiddlestick end, pack of nonsense, mere farce, straw, pin, fig, button, rush, bulrush, feather, halfpenny, farthing, brass farthing, doit, peppercorn, jot, rap, pinch of snuff, old son, cent, mill, picayune, pistareen, red cent, minutiae, details, minor details, small fry, dust in the balance, feather in the scale, drop in the ocean, flea-bite, molehill, nine days' wonder, ridiculus mus, flash in the pan, much ado about nothing, unimportant, of little account, of small account, of no account, of little importance, of no importance, immaterial, unessential, nonessential, indifferent, subordinate, mediocre, passable, fair, respectable, tolerable, commonplace, uneventful, mere, common, ordinary, inconsiderable, so-so, insignificant, inappreciable, trifling, trivial, slight, slender, light, flimsy, frothy, idle, puerile, airy, shallow, weak, powerless, frivolous, petty, niggling, piddling, peddling, fribble, inane, ridiculous, farcical, finical, finikin, fiddle-faddle, fingle-fangle, namby-pamby, wishy-washy, milk and water, poor, paltry, pitiful, contemptible, sorry, mean, meager, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel, weedy, niggardly, scurvy, putid, beggarly, worthless, twopennyhalfpenny, cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery, one- horse, not worth the pains, not worth while, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, not worth a curse, not worth a straw, beneath notice, unworthy of notice, beneath regard, unworthy of regard, beneath consideration, unworthy of consideration, de lana caprina, vain, slightly, rather, somewhat, pretty well, tolerably, for aught one cares, Int, no matter!, pish!, tush!, tut!, pshaw!, pugh!, pooh, pooh-pooh!, fudge!, bosh!, humbug!, fiddlestick, fiddlestick end!, fiddlededee!, never mind!, n'importe!, what signifies it, what boots it, what of it, what of that, what matter, what's the odds, a fig for', stuff!, nonsense!, stuff and nonsense, magno conatu magnas nugas, le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle, it matters not, it does not signify, it is of no consequence, it is of no importance, elephantus non capit murem, tempete dans un verre d'eau.

Adversity

N adversity, evil, failure, bad luck, ill luck, evil luck, adverse luck, hard fortune, hard hap, hard luck, hard lot, frowns of fortune, evil dispensation, evil star, evil genius, vicissitudes of life, ups and downs of life, broken fortunes, hard case, hard lines, hard life, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, hell upon earth, slough of despond, trouble, hardship, curse, blight, blast, load, pressure, pressure of the times, iron age, evil day, time out of joint, hard times, bad times, sad times, rainy day, cloud, dark cloud, gathering clouds, ill wind, visitation, infliction, affliction, bitter pill, care, trial, the sport of fortune, mishap, mischance, misadventure, misfortune, disaster, calamity, catastrophe, accident, casualty, cross, reverse, check, contretemps, rub, backset, comedown, setback, losing game, falling, fall, downfall, ruination, ruinousness, undoing, extremity, ruin, unfortunate, unblest, unhappy, unlucky, improsperous, unprosperous, hoodooed, luckless, hapless, out of luck, in trouble, in a bad way, in an evil plight, under a cloud, clouded, ill off, badly off, in adverse circumstances, poor, behindhand, down in the world, decayed, undone, on the road to ruin, on its last legs, on the wane, in one's utmost need, planet-struck, devoted, born under an evil star, born with a wooden ladle in one's mouth, ill-fated, ill-starred, ill-omened, adverse, untoward, disastrous, calamitous, ruinous, dire, deplorable.

Poverty

N poverty, indigence, penury, pauperism, destitution, want, need, neediness, lack, necessity, privation, distress, difficulties, wolf at the door, bad circumstances, poor circumstances, need circumstances, embarrassed circumstances, reduced circumstances, straightened circumstances, slender means, narrow means, straits, hand to mouth existence, res angusta domi, low water, impecuniosity, beggary, mendicancy, mendicity, broken fortune, loss of fortune, insolvency, empty pocket, empty purse, light purse, beggarly account of empty boxes, poor man, pauper, mendicant, mumper, beggar, starveling, pauvre diable, fakir, schnorrer, homeless person, poor, indigent, poverty-stricken, badly off, poorly off, ill off, poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job, fortuneless, dowerless, moneyless, penniless, unportioned, unmoneyed, impecunious, out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash, without a rap, not worth a rap, qui n'a pas le sou, out of pocket, hard up, out at elbows, out at heels, seedy, bare-footed, beggarly, beggared, destitute, fleeced, stripped, bereft, bereaved, reduced, homeless, in want, needy, necessitous, distressed, pinched, straitened, put to one's shifts, put to one's last shifts, unable to keep the wolf from the door, unable to make both ends meet, embarrassed, under hatches, involved, insolvent, in forma pauperis, zonam perdidit, a penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree, a pobreza no hay verguenza, he that is down can fall no lower, poca roba poco pensiero, steeped, in poverty to the very lips, the short and simple annals of the poor.

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.

Pain

N mental suffering, pain, dolor, suffering, sufferance, ache, smart, passion, displeasure, dissatisfaction, discomfort, discomposure, disquiet, malaise, inquietude, uneasiness, vexation of spirit, taking, discontent, dejection, weariness, anhedonia, annoyance, irritation, worry, infliction, visitation, plague, bore, bother, botheration, stew, vexation, mortification, chagrin, esclandre, mauvais quart d'heur, care, anxiety, solicitude, trouble, trial, ordeal, fiery ordeal, shock, blow, cark, dole, fret, burden, load, concern, grief, sorrow, distress, affliction, woe, bitterness, heartache, carking cares, heavy heart, aching heart, bleeding heart, broken heart, heavy affliction, gnawing grief, unhappiness, infelicity, misery, tribulation, wretchedness, desolation, despair, extremity, prostration, depth of misery, nightmare, ephialtes, incubus, pang, anguish, agony, torture, torment, purgatory, hell upon earth, iron age, reign of terror, slough of despond, peck of troubles, ills that flesh is heir to, miseries of human life, unkindest cut of all, sufferer, victim, prey, martyr, object of compassion, wretch, shorn lamb, in pain, in a state of pain, full of pain, suffering, pained, afflicted, worried, displeased, aching, griped, sore, on the rack, in limbo, between hawk and buzzard, uncomfortable, uneasy, ill at ease, in a taking, in a way, disturbed, discontented, out of humor, weary, heavy laden, stricken, crushed, a prey to, victimized, ill-used, unfortunate, to be pitied, doomed, devoted, accursed, undone, lost, stranded, fey, unhappy, infelicitous, poor, wretched, miserable, woe-begone, cheerless, careworn, concerned, sorry, sorrowing, sorrowful, cut up, chagrined, horrified, horror-stricken, in grief, plunged in grief, a prey to grief, in tears, steeped to the lips in misery, heart-stricken, heart-broken, heart-scalded, broken-hearted, in despair, the iron entered into our soul, haeret lateri lethalis arundo, one's heart bleeding, down, thou climbing sorrow, mirth cannot move a soul in agony, nessun maggior dolere che ricordarsi del tempo fel, sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier th, the Niobe of Nations.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.