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Poverty

poverty

1. The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need. Swathed in numblest poverty. The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. (Prov. Xxiii. 21)

2. Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

(Science: botany) Poverty grass, a name given to several slender grasses (as Aristida dichotoma, and Danthonia spicata) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.

Synonym: Indigence, penury, beggary, need, lack, want, scantiness, sparingness, meagerness, jejuneness.

Poverty, Indigence, Pauperism. Poverty is a relative term; what is poverty to a monarch, would be competence for a day laborer. Indigence implies extreme distress, and almost absolute destitution. Pauperism denotes entire dependence upon public charity, and, therefore, often a hopeless and degraded state.

Origin: OE. Poverte, OF. Poverte, F. Pauvrete, fr. L. Paupertas, fr. Pauper poor. See Poor.


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... answers. Human rights in this region are violated daily, death and hunger are the Africans bedtime companion. They only know fear, hunger, and poverty. How can this be for a nation that produces the largest amount of diamonds in the world? I have pondered this question at great lengths. Surely ...

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by MichaelXY
Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:58 am
 
Forum: Ecology
Topic: WHO scum - politics over lives
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... these countries without really making a difference in government and education... then we're just propping up a perpetual cycle of devastation poverty and overpopulation. The same things you saw years ago, you'll see years from now - if changes aren't made. It is easy to post your environmentalist ...

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by AstusAleator
Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:32 am
 
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Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:39 pm
 
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by biohazard
Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:45 am
 
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... schools for the simple fact that they can't afford them. This means poor people tend to be less educated, and have less chance of breaking out of poverty. It's a rather vicious cycle, and a nationalized education system would be much better, but that wouldn't fit with of our capitalist philosophy ...

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Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:58 am
 
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