destitute

Word family

des·ti·tute /ˈdestɪtjuːt $ -tuːt/ adjectiveadj

1 POORhaving no money, no food, no home etc 一无所有的，贫困的

The floods left many people destitute.

这场洪水使许多人变得一无所有。

► see thesaurus at poor

2 be destitute of something literaryNOT HAVE to be completely without something 完全没有…，毫无…

a man who is destitute of mercy

毫无同情心的人

Examples from the Corpus

be destitute of something• a man destitute of compassion

—destitution /ˌdestɪˈtjuːʃən $ -ˈtuː-/ noun [uncountableU]

Examples from the Corpus

destitute• The floods left many people destitute.• The rest of her family all died in a smallpox epidemic, leaving her destitute.• Meanwhile his Society's inefficiency left him destitute.• Everywhere he went, people were destitute, and all of those people offered him something to eat.• Six years before, she had shocked her family and class by marrying a destitute Berkeley law student.• In 1860 Father Murphy set up a home for orphans and destitute children.• But when they first meet, as children, she is a destitute peasant girl called Firecrackers.• The first was from a destitute young woman about to be evicted and threatening to gas her four children, then herself.

left ... destitute• He neither knew nor cared who had been evicted from it and left destitute.• Meanwhile his Society's inefficiency left him destitute.• After her own parents died and she was left destitute, Elizabeth had found her wandering the streets.

From Longman Business Dictionary

destitutedes·ti·tute /ˈdestətjuːt-tuːt/ adjectiveadj

having no money, no food, and nowhere to live

San Francisco has targeted the problems of street litter and homelessness by hiring destitute citizens to perform jobs cleaning up the city.

—destitution noun [uncountableU]

Many low-paid workers are living on the brink of destitution.

Origin destitute

(1300-1400) Latin destitutus, past participle of destituere “to set down, leave”

des·ti·tute adjectiveadj

Chinese

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