indigent
/ˈɪndɪdʒ(ə)nt
/adjective
Poor; needy: a charity for the relief of indigent artists...
- He would say ‘I grew up as an orphan and I emigrated as a poor and indigent person.’
- Besides learning criminal law, he learnt to investigate cases of police torture and providing free legal aid to the poor and indigent prisoners.
- Instead, they say, it has actually increased the gap between rich and poor countries and between well-off and indigent inhabitants within countries.
Synonyms
poor, impecunious, destitute, penniless, impoverished, poverty-stricken, down and out, pauperized, without a penny to one's name, without two farthings/pennies to rub together;
insolvent, ruined;
needy, in need, in want, hard up, on the breadline, hard-pressed, in reduced/straitened circumstances, deprived, disadvantaged, distressed, badly off;
beggarly, beggared
informal on one's uppers, up against it, broke, flat broke, strapped (for cash), without a brass farthing, without a bean, without a sou, as poor as a church mouse, on one's beam-ends
British informal stony broke, skint, boracic (lint)
North American informal stone broke, without a red cent, on skid row
formal penurious
noun
A needy person.Automatons, illiterates and indigents of every shape and size, don't stop but aid this cruel crusade participate in their own demise....
- The Los Angeles County public hospital system nowadays mostly treats indigents: It was designed to treat everyone.
- He mingles among indigents and Mercedes drivers alike with gestures of acceptance and welcome.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin indigent- 'lacking', from the verb indigere, from indi- (strengthened form of in- 'into') + egere 'to need'.