Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Poverty
Pov′er-ty
(pŏv′ẽr-ty̆)
, Noun.
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.
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. Webster 1828 Edition
Poverty
POV'ERTY
,Noun.
1.
Destitution of property; indigence; want of convenient means of subsistence. The consequence of poverty is dependence. The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. Prov.23.
2.
Barrenness of sentiment or ornament; defect; as the poverty of a composition.3.
Want; defect of words; as the poverty of language.