0 a group of people with a lower social and economic position than any of the other classes of society: --
The long-term unemployed now constitute a kind of underclass.
1 the lowest economic and social class in society, consisting of people who are considered to have few opportunities to improve themselves --
2 the poorest people in a society, especially when discussing their lack of opportunities to find work: --
There are similar kinship relationships as well, pointing to a clearly distinguishable underclass in the parish.
Yet the squeeze that elite farmers place on their poorer neighbours does not diminish self-help among the underclass.
Such study offers a new way to bring the underclasses, especially children and women, into the mainstream of historical research.
It debases recipients and leads to the creation of an underclass, pauperism and a culture of dependency.
The income distribution became markedly less egalitarian, and rising crime and other social ills associated with the development of an underclass afflicted the country.
Nested within the discourse of social exclusion is its own underclass version.
For the greed and neediness, the divisiveness, for the communities consigned to the underclass.
Otherwise, charity would create an underclass of the slothful poor, which would invalidate the original charitable intent.
