poor

Inherited from Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure, from Latin pauper, from Old Latin *pavo-pars (literally “getting little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Doublet of pauper.

Displaced native arm, wantsome, Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unlǣde), Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- + weliġ (“well-to-do, prosperous, rich”)).

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): (pour–poor merger) /pɔː/, (without the pour–poor merger) /pʊə/

  • Audio (Received Pronunciation); /pɔː/:

    (file)

• (US, Canada)
  • IPA^(key): (pour–poor merger) /pɔɹ/; (without the pour–poor merger) /pʊɚ/, /pʊɹ/

  • Audio (US); /pɔɹ/:

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /pʉːɹ/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /puːɹ/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /poː/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈpʊ(ː)ə(r)/
• (non-rhotic, show–sure merger, African-American Vernacular) IPA^(key): /poʊ/
• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophones: pour, pore (pour–poor merger); paw (paw–poor merger); Poe (show–sure merger)

poor (comparative poorer, superlative poorest)

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

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:impoverished

   Antonyms: rich, wealthy

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

   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

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

2. Of low quality.

   Synonym: inferior

   Antonym: good

   That was a poor performance.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 2021 March 28, “Taiwan News Quick Take”, in Taipei Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 March 2021, Taiwan News, page 3‎^[2]:

     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 only) Worthy of pity.

   Synonym: pitiable

   Oh, you poor thing, you're drenched!

   This poor little puppy got a nasty snake bite.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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.

   Antonym: rich

   Cow's milk is poor in iron.

5. Inadequate, insufficient.

   Antonyms: adequate, decent

   I received a poor reward for all my hard work.

   • a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, Sermon 1:

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

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:3:

     Blessed are the poor in spirit.

poor (plural only)

1. (plural only) The poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:8-11:

     ...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.

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point‎^[3], Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39:

     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.

   • 1972, Anonymous translation of Friedrich Engels as "Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith", International Publishers:

     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.

   • 1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8:

     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.

   • 2010 Jan. 27, Matt Taibbi, "Populism: Just Like Racism!", True/Slant:

     This is the same Randian bullshit that we've been hearing from people like Brooks for ages and its entire premise is really revolting and insulting—this idea that the way society works is that the productive "rich" feed the needy "poor," and that any attempt by the latter to punish the former for "excesses" might inspire Atlas to Shrug his way out of town and leave the helpless poor on their own to starve. That's basically Brooks's entire argument here. Yes, the rich and powerful do rig the game in their own favor, and yes, they are guilty of "excesses"—but fucking deal with it, if you want to eat.

   The sun shines on the rich and the poor alike but, come the rain, the rich have better umbrellas.

   The poor are always with us.

   The rich are often so insulated from reality that they think the poor have extra money they could save for more than a short time.

poor (plural poors)

2. (countable, originally chiefly Scotland) A poor person.

   The poors are at it again.

   • 1340, Laurent du Bois, translated by Dan Michel, Ayenbite of Inwyt, page 195:

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

   • 1625, Thomas Jackson, A Treatise Containing the Originall of Vnbeliefe, Pt. v, Ch. xvi, §6:

     He had given somewhat to every poore in the Parish.

   • 2023, James Sandoval, “Buying Happiness”, in But A Jape‎^[4] (webcomic):

     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!

3. (obsolete) Synonym of poor cod.

The countable sense of poor, despite having a long history and continuing existence in some Scottish dialects, is now generally parsed as nonstandard slang and frequently employed with ironic condescension as a critique of supposed upper-class views towards the poor.

• deserving poor
• undeserving poor
• Europoor

poor (third-person singular simple present poors, present participle pooring, simple past and past participle poored)

1. (transitive, rare) Synonym of impoverish, to make poor.
   • 2003 August 10, Dallas News, p. 3:

     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.
   • 1467, Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, Vol. II, p. 88:

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

3. (obsolete) To call poor.
   • 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the, page 27:

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

Although having a long and chiefly Scottish history, verbal use of poor is now generally parsed as a nonstandard innovation and employed within quotes.

• “poor, adj. and n¹.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “poor, n².”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “poor, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “poor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• poro-, roop

• Poor, Porré (Eupen)

From Walloon porea.

poor m

1. leek

poor oblique singular, f (oblique plural poors, nominative singular poor, nominative plural poors)

1. fear