people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)
<noun.group> the urban poor need assistance [ adj ]
having little money or few possessions
<adj.all> deplored the gap between rich and poor countries the proverbial poor artist living in a garret
characterized by or indicating poverty
<adj.all> the country had a poor economy they lived in the poor section of town
lacking in specific resources, qualities or substances
<adj.all> a poor land the area was poor in timber and coal food poor in nutritive value
deserving or inciting pity
<adj.all> a hapless victim miserable victims of war the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic piteous appeals for help pitiable homeless children a pitiful fate Oh, you poor thing his poor distorted limbs a wretched life
not sufficient to meet a need
<adj.all> an inadequate income a poor salary money is short on short rations food is in short supply short on experience
unsatisfactory
<adj.all> a poor light for reading poor morale expectations were poor
Poor \Poor\, a. [Compar. {Poorer} (?; 254); superl. {Poorest}.] [OE. poure or povre, OF. povre, F. pauvre, L. pauper; the first syllable of which is probably akin to paucus few (see {Paucity}, {Few}), and the second to parare to prepare, procure. See {Few}, and cf. {Parade}, {Pauper}, {Poverty}.] 1. Destitute of property; wanting in material riches or goods; needy; indigent.
Note: It is often synonymous with indigent and with necessitous denoting extreme want. It is also applied to persons who are not entirely destitute of property, but who are not rich; as, a poor man or woman; poor people.
2. (Law) So completely destitute of property as to be entitled to maintenance from the public.
3. Hence, in very various applications: Destitute of such qualities as are desirable, or might naturally be expected; as: (a) Wanting in fat, plumpness, or fleshiness; lean; emaciated; meager; as, a poor horse, ox, dog, etc. ``Seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed.'' --Gen. xli. 19. (b) Wanting in strength or vigor; feeble; dejected; as, poor health; poor spirits. ``His genius . . . poor and cowardly.'' --Bacon. (c) Of little value or worth; not good; inferior; shabby; mean; as, poor clothes; poor lodgings. ``A poor vessel.'' --Clarendon. (d) Destitute of fertility; exhausted; barren; sterile; -- said of land; as, poor soil. (e) Destitute of beauty, fitness, or merit; as, a poor discourse; a poor picture. (f) Without prosperous conditions or good results; unfavorable; unfortunate; unconformable; as, a poor business; the sick man had a poor night. (g) Inadequate; insufficient; insignificant; as, a poor excuse.
That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day. --Calamy.
4. Worthy of pity or sympathy; -- used also sometimes as a term of endearment, or as an expression of modesty, and sometimes as a word of contempt.
And for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray. --Shak.
Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing. --Prior.
5. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek. ``Blessed are the poor in spirit.'' --Matt. v. 3.
{Poor law}, a law providing for, or regulating, the relief or support of the poor.
{Poor man's treacle} (Bot.), garlic; -- so called because it was thought to be an antidote to animal poison. [Eng] --Dr. Prior.
{Poor man's weatherglass} (Bot.), the red-flowered pimpernel ({Anagallis arvensis}), which opens its blossoms only in fair weather.
{Poor rate}, an assessment or tax, as in an English parish, for the relief or support of the poor.
{Poor soldier} (Zo["o]l.), the friar bird.
{The poor}, those who are destitute of property; the indigent; the needy. In a legal sense, those who depend on charity or maintenance by the public. ``I have observed the more public provisions are made for the poor, the less they provide for themselves.'' --Franklin.
Poor \Poor\, n. (Zo["o]l.) A small European codfish ({Gadus minutus}); -- called also {power cod}.
Our unemployment benefits show what a caring society we have and mark us out from the poor.
The program in this city of 165,000 on the east side of San Francisco Bay also would help sick kids and subsidize poor parents for baby-sitting costs.
Much of Friday's session was spent debating language permitting the District of Columbia to use local funds to pay for abortions for poor women.
Oddly, the computer-aided group didn't recognize that using the programs led to poor decisions.
The poor Third World countries without oil resources hoped the oil producers would share some of their wealth, but so far no formal steps toward that goal have been taken.
If government could divert resources to the poor, then they would be pushed out of poverty.
It was isolated by several miles from the city centre with no rail service and poor road connections.
But a lot of people here think he was just trying to help the poor," he said.
"With all this moisture and coolness and poor germination, you get shallow root development," said Richard Loewy, president of AgResource Co., Chicago.
Last year was a relatively poor period for taxable bond funds, which finished the year ahead 4.26%, compared with 9.44% in 1989.
An even stronger majority, 74 percent, rated lobbyists' ethical performance as "only fair" or "poor." Lobbyists pervade the lawmaking process, representing businesses, unions and other organizations that have an interest in proposed laws.
St. Croix is at least 75% black, and the looting seems to have been a very understandable attempt by the black poor to get a more equitable distribution of the island's resources.
Railways Minister Ding Guangen was forced to resign in March to take responsibility for the accidents, which were blamed on negligence or poor enforcement of safety rules by rail workers.
Analysts said there was no specific reason for the drop, but cited a sneaker industry slowdown and a poor head-to-head performance against Reebok.
"They really are in poor condition," he said. "Nationally, many school systems are not making physical education a mandatory course, or it's being dropped back to once a week.
Bargain hunters helped engineering and aerospace company TI resist the poor market trend.
Most AIDS sufferers are poor, have no insurance and can't even afford to go to doctors, much less pay for medicine.
He is still quite capable of living down to his poor image.
"We didn't take part in a lot of deals" in the quarter "because their credit quality was poor," the spokesman said.
About a quarter of the voters said the poor and elderly were a key issue to them, and Jackson won that group, 52 percent to 44 percent for Dukakis.
According to the study, 23.1 percent of rural children were poor while 29.6 percent of the children in the central cities were poor in 1987.
According to the study, 23.1 percent of rural children were poor while 29.6 percent of the children in the central cities were poor in 1987.
In London, the dollar fell slightly against the British pound, and traders said it was due to the poor showing of the governing Conservative Party in European Parliament elections.
On many older presses, such a change takes eight hours, and then the press sometimes makes poor parts for a couple of hours while workers make adjustments.
Mother Teresa was awarded the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor.
Interest charges fell from Dollars 123.7m to Dollars 110m. Kroger's poor results are partly due to a strike by clerks and meat-cutters in the Michigan region.
Mrs. Gabel, who died at her Manhattan home, had long been in poor health and had suffered several minor strokes this year, friends said.
In the South, he said, the disease probably will remain uncommon, perhaps because ticks there feed on lizards, which are poor reservoirs for the bugs.
I talked with Mr Parry after the release of the May employment report, which showed unemployment rising sharply to 7.5 per cent (8.7 per cent in California) but before Thursday's unexpectedly poor retail sales figures.
To promote his plan, Uno quickly threw himself into a series of bilateral meetings with leaders of countries both rich and poor, ranging from the United States and Great Britain to Bangladesh and Mexico.