Dictionary Definition
poor adj
1 moderate to inferior in quality; "they improved
the quality from mediocre to above average"; "he would make a poor
spy" [syn: mediocre,
second-rate]
2 deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim";
"miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as
extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help";
"pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor
thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn:
hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, wretched]
3 having little money or few possessions;
"deplored the gap between rich and poor countries"; "the proverbial
poor artist living in a garret" [ant: rich]
4 characterized by or indicating lack of money;
"the country had a poor economy" [ant: rich]
5 low in degree; "expectations were poor"
6 badly supplied with desirable qualities or
substances; "a poor land"; "the area was poor in timber and coal";
"food poor in nutritive value" [ant: rich]
7 not sufficient to meet a need; "an inadequate
income"; "a poor salary"; "money is short"; "on short rations";
"food is in short supply"; "short on experience" [syn: inadequate, short]
8 unsatisfactory; "a poor light for reading";
"poor morale"
9 yielding little by great labor; "a hardscrabble
farm"; "poor soil" [syn: hardscrabble]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
Adjective
en-adj er- With little or no possessions or money.
- To be pitied.
- Oh you poor little thing.
- Of low quality.
- That was a poor performance.
- Those people as a group who have no possessions or money.
- Usage notes: always takes the plural verb.
-
- the poor are in a bad condition
Antonyms
Translations
with no possessions or money
- Albanian: varfër
- Arabic: (faqīr)
- Catalan: pobre
- Chinese: 穷 (qióng)
- Croatian: siromašan
- Czech: chudý
- Danish: fattig
- Dutch: arm, berooid
- Finnish: köyhä, varaton
- French: pauvre
- German: arm
- Greek: φτωχός (ftokhós)
- Hebrew: עני (ani) , עניה (aniah) ,
- Hindi: गरीब (garib), दीन (deen)
- Hungarian: szegény
- Irish: bocht
- Italian: povero, povera
- Japanese: 貧しい (まずしい, mazushii), 貧乏な (びんぼうな, bimbōna)
- Korean: 가난한 (gananhan)
- Kurdish: , ,
- Latin: pauper m, f, n
- Marathi: गरीब (garib), दीन (deen)
- Norwegian: fattig, blakk qualifier colloquial
- Persian: (darvīš)
- Polish: biedny , biedna , biedne
- Portuguese: pobre
- Russian: бедный, нищий
- Sanskrit: अदानः (adānaha)
- Scottish Gaelic: truagh, bochd
- Slovene: reven, ubog
- Spanish: pobre
- Swahili: maskini
- Swedish: fattig
- Telugu: బీద (beeda), పేద (paeda)
- West Frisian: earm
to be pitied
- Arabic: (miskīn)
- Catalan: pobre
- Chinese: 可怜 (kělián)
- Dutch: arm, arme, beklagenswaardig
- Finnish: raukka, rukka, poloinen, rassu
- French: pitoyable
- German: arm
- Greek: φτωχός (ftokhós)
- Italian: povero, povera
- Japanese: 哀れな (あわれな, awarena)
- Kurdish:
- Norwegian: stakkars
- Old English: earm
- Russian: бедный (bédnyj), вызывающий жалость (vyzyvájuščij žálost’)
- Scottish Gaelic: truagh
- Spanish: pobre (precedes the noun)
- Swedish: stackars, miserabel
- Telugu: పాపం (paapaM)
- West Frisian: earm
of low quality
- Catalan: pobre
- Chinese: 贫乏 (pínfá)
- Finnish: kehno, heikkolaatuinen
- French: piètre
- German: armselig
- Greek: φτωχός (ftokhós)
- Italian: misero, misera
- Japanese: (そまつな, somatsuna)
- Kurdish: ,
- Norwegian: dårlig, elendig
- Old English: earm
- Russian: жалкий
- Scottish Gaelic: bochd
- Swedish: dålig, undermålig, eländig, miserabel, usel
- Telugu: నాసి (naasi), నాసి రకం (naasi rakaM)
those with no possessions
- ttbc Fijian: vakaloloma
- ttbc Indonesian: miskin, papa, tak berada, kekurangan
- ttbc Irish: bocht
- ttbc Slovak: chudobný
Extensive Definition
People with the surname Poor:
- Charles Henry Poor, a US Navy officer
- Charles Lane Poor, an astronomer
- Edward Erie Poor, a vice president of the National Park Bank
- Enoch Poor, a brigidier-general in the American Revolution
- Henry Varnum Poor, founder of Standard and Poor
- Salem Poor, an African-American soldier in the American Revolution
poor in German: Poor
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
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