poor

adj

1. destitute, poverty-stricken, impoverished, penurious, impecunious, beggared, pauperized; penniless, indigent, poor as Job's turkey, needy, necessitous, bad off, badly off; pinched, straitened, distressed, Inf. strapped, Inf. up against it, Inf. on one's uppers, Inf. hard up; financially embarrassed, out of cash, out-of-pocket, Inf. short, Brit. Sl. skint, All Inf. broke, dead broke, flat broke, stone broke; bankrupt, ruined, wiped out, Inf. on the rocks, insolvent, overdrawn, in the red; down and out, out at the elbows, down at the heels, seedy.

2. meager, scarce, scanty, scant, sparse, exiguous, in short supply, at a premium, not to be had, Inf. scarce as hen's teeth; lacking, wanting, short, short of, not enough, too little; slight, skimpy, scrimpy, stinted; shabby, beggarly, miserly, niggardly, stingy, puny, little, dinky, paltry, petty, piddling, Inf. picayune, pathetic, Inf. chintzy, Inf. measly; insignificant, unimportant, Archaic. seely, negligible, nugatory, inconsiderable, inconsequential.

3. barren, unproductive, unyielding, unfructuous, unfruitful, fruitless, infecund, unfecund, Bot. acarpous, sterile, effete; uncultivable, uncultivatable, fallow, uncultivated, unused, neglected; exhausted, depleted, drained, worn-out, impoverished; lean, empty, forlorn, bare, dry, arid, bald, waste, desolate, dead, naked.

4. unsatisfactory, inadequate, unacceptable, below standard, under or below par; inferior, low-grade, cheap, catchpenny, bargain-basement, U.S. Sl. cheesy, Brit. Sl. humpety, flimsy, jerry-built; weak, feeble, thin, defective, faulty, imperfect; second-rate, second-class, third-class, third-rate; mediocre, unprofessional, amateurish, not up to par or snuff; sorry, half-baked, Sl. half-assed, sloppy, haphazard, careless, shoddy, slipshod, sleazy; mean, grubstreet, Inf. no good, Inf. junky, trashy, rubbishy, Chiefly Dial. footy, worthless, useless, valueless; bad, Inf. lousy, Sl. crummy, Sl. crappy, Sl. rotten, miserable.

5. lean, thin, thin or skinny as a rail, skinny, lank, lanky; gaunt, scraggy, scrawny, emaciated, underfed, undernourished, starved, half-starved; bony, spindly, rawboned, skin and bones, mere flesh and bones.

6. cowardly, abject, mean, low, low-down, base, base-spirited, ignoble; dishonorable, disreputable, discreditable, disgraceful, shameful; contemptible, despicable, execrable, abominable; corrupt, wicked, depraved, perverted, debased, miscreant.

7. humble, modest, plain, simple, homespun, homely, rustic; plebian, common, commonplace, ordinary, everyday, average.

8. unfortunate, unlucky, luckless, out of luck, down on one's luck, hapless; unhappy, miserable, wretched, pitiable, pitiful, sorry; unsuccessful, unprosperous, fortuneless; unblest, star-crossed, ill-starred, ill-fated, ill-omened, doomed, born under an evil star, jinxed.