impoverish
verb /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃ/
/ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they impoverish | /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃ/ /ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃ/ |
| he / she / it impoverishes | /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃɪz/ /ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃɪz/ |
| past simple impoverished | /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃt/ /ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃt/ |
| past participle impoverished | /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃt/ /ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃt/ |
| -ing form impoverishing | /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃɪŋ/ /ɪmˈpɑːvərɪʃɪŋ/ |
- impoverish somebody to make somebody poor
- These changes are likely to impoverish single-parent families even further.
- impoverish something to make something worse in quality
- Intensive cultivation has impoverished the soil.
Word Originlate Middle English (formerly also as empoverish): from Old French empoveriss-, lengthened stem of empoverir, based on povre ‘poor’.