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povertymore about poverty

poverty

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Poverty  \Pov"er*ty\  (p[o^]v"[~e]r*t[y^]),  n.  [OE.  poverte,  OF 
  povert['e],  F.  pauvret['e],  fr  L.  paupertas  fr  pauper 
  poor.  See  {Poor}.] 
  1.  The  quality  or  state  of  being  poor  or  indigent;  want  or 
  scarcity  of  means  of  subsistence;  indigence;  need 
  ``Swathed  in  numblest  poverty.''  --Keble. 
 
  The  drunkard  and  the  glutton  shall  come  to  poverty. 
  --Prov.  xxiii. 
  21. 
 
  2.  Any  deficiency  of  elements  or  resources  that  are  needed  or 
  desired,  or  that  constitute  richness;  as  poverty  of  soil; 
  poverty  of  the  blood;  poverty  of  ideas. 
 
  {Poverty  grass}  (Bot.),  a  name  given  to  several  slender 
  grasses  (as  {Aristida  dichotoma},  and  {Danthonia  spicata}) 
  which  often  spring  up  on  old  and  worn-out  fields. 
 
  Syn:  Indigence;  penury;  beggary;  need  lack;  want 
  scantiness;  sparingness;  meagerness;  jejuneness. 
 
  Usage:  {Poverty},  {Indigence},  {Pauperism}.  Poverty  is  a 
  relative  term;  what  is  poverty  to  a  monarch,  would  be 
  competence  for  a  day  laborer.  Indigence  implies 
  extreme  distress,  and  almost  absolute  destitution. 
  Pauperism  denotes  entire  dependence  upon  public 
  charity,  and  therefore,  often  a  hopeless  and  degraded 
  state. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  poverty 
  n  :  the  state  of  having  little  or  no  money  and  few  or  no 
  material  possessions  [syn:  {poorness},  {impoverishment}] 
  [ant:  {wealth}] 
 
  From  THE  DEVIL'S  DICTIONARY  ((C)1911  Released  April  15  1993)  [devils]: 
 
  POVERTY,  n.  A  file  provided  for  the  teeth  of  the  rats  of  reform.  The 
  number  of  plans  for  its  abolition  equals  that  of  the  reformers  who 
  suffer  from  it  plus  that  of  the  philosophers  who  know  nothing  about 
  it  Its  victims  are  distinguished  by  possession  of  all  the  virtues 
  and  by  their  faith  in  leaders  seeking  to  conduct  them  into  a 
  prosperity  where  they  believe  these  to  be  unknown.




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