0 the condition of being or becoming very poor, or the act of making someone very poor:
There was widespread impoverishment of tenants and small farmers.
Solidly middle-class Americans still face impoverishment following a serious illness.
The intellectual impoverishment of politics in this country is shameful.
They could only lament the impoverishment of their resources.
The drive to establish theatre work as a profession was a direct response to mass impoverishment among artists.
The effects of impoverishment, child care burden, instability, and geographic isolation on child maltreatment were analyzed separately for the two types of neighborhoods.
This reflects the relatively greater impoverishment of ' older ' households where there is a greater depletion of savings and a lower likelihood of adequate occupational pensions.
The improvement in working people's incomes was matched by a gradual decline in the degree of impoverishment amongst the retired population.
