From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Impoverish \Im*pov"er*ish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Impoverished};
p. pr. & vb. n. {Impoverishing}.] [OF. empovrir; pref. em-
(L. in) + povre poor, F. pauvre; cf. OF. apovrir, F.
appauvrir, where the prefix is a-, L. ad. Cf. {Empoverish},
and see {Poor}, and {-ish}.]
1. To make poor; to reduce to poverty or indigence; as,
misfortune and disease impoverish families.
[1913 Webster]
2. To exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of; to
make sterile; as, to impoverish land.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
impoverished
adj 1: poor enough to need help from others [syn: {destitute},
{impoverished}, {indigent}, {necessitous}, {needy},
{poverty-stricken}]
2: destroyed financially; "the broken fortunes of the family"
[syn: {broken}, {wiped out(p)}, {impoverished}]
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