poor

adj

1. With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

   “We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.”

   “England is growne to ſuch a paſſe of late, That rich men triumph to ſee the poore beg at their gate.”

   “When Owenism and Chartism had burned themselves out, England had become poorer by that substance out of which the Anglo-Saxon ideal of a free society could have been built up for centuries to come.”

   “The poorest of the poor are truly destitute, with so few assets they are basically shackless.”

   “Durable goods can be cost-effective but make great disease vectors, and disposables like syringes and needles can be a problem in the poorest places, where there's desperate need of vaccines for diseases like polio. That's where the UCSD scientists come in.”

2. Of low quality.

   “That was a poor performance.”

   “He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.”

   “Meanwhile, due to a lack of wind, air quality in west Taiwan was poor yesterday, the Environmental Protection Administration said. Air quality could deteriorate early this morning, triggering a “red” alert — which signals unhealthy air quality — in some parts of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties, it said.”

3. (attributive)Worthy of pity.

   “Oh, you poor thing, you're drenched!”

   “This poor little puppy got a nasty snake bite.”

   “Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.”

   “Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’”

4. Deficient in a specified way.

   “Cow's milk is poor in iron.”

5. Inadequate, insufficient.

   “I received a poor reward for all my hard work.”

   “That I have wronged no Man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.”

   “The temptation was more than mortal heart could resist. She gave him the promise he sought, stifling the voice of conscience; and as she clung to his neck it seemed to her that heaven was a poor thing compared with a man's love.”

6. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

   “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

noun

1. (plural, plural-only)The poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.

   “...when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might haue bin sold for much, and giuen to the poore. When Iesus vnderstood it, he said vnto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good worke vpon me. For ye haue the poore alwayes with you, but me ye haue not alwayes.”

   “Harry Truman used to say that 13 or 14 million Americans had their interests represented in Washington, but that the rest of the people had to depend on the President of the United States. That is how I felt about the 35 million American poor. They had no voice and no champion. Whatever the cost, I was determined to represent them. Through me they would have an advocate and, I believed, new hope.”

   “Then there have not always been proletarians? No. There have always been poor and working classes; and those who worked were almost always the poor. But there have not always been proletarians, just as competition has not always been free.”

   “He is glad to see me and tells me that during his absence from the parish one of the women beggars died. Usually in these cases the state comes and takes the body away in a bag, to incinerate, but this time, because of his teachings, the other poor decided that she deserved a real funeral.”

2. (plural, plural-only)the second-to-last placer in Tycoon
3. (countable)A poor person.

   “The poors are at it again.”

   “...me vint of ane king to huam a poure acsede ane peny...”

   “He had given somewhat to every poore in the Parish.”

   “So what happened? It’s fun to point the finger. Some say it was the poors, or the uneducateds, or even the third-party voters. No matter the scenario, it’s always fun to blame someone else and throw up your hands (while a finger on each is pointed of course).”

   “I don't understand, Simmons! I have all the money in the world, but I'm still unhappy! […] It must be the poors! Those leeches have been stealing my happiness somehow!”

4. (obsolete)Synonym of poor cod.

verb

1. (rare, transitive)Synonym of impoverish, to make poor.

   “It is very evident that Americans are being ‘poored down’ to suit the world socialist agenda, and to maximize profits for the international corporations.”

2. (intransitive, obsolete)To become poor.

   “The mone of this realme is born out in gret quantite and the realme puryt of the sammyn.”

3. (obsolete)To call poor.

   “Miss Lavinia... put in that she didn't want to be ‘poored by pa,’ or anybody else.”

name

1. A surname