POOR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does poor mean? 

• POOR (noun)
  The noun POOR has 1 sense:

1. people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)

  Familiarity information: POOR used as a noun is very rare.

• POOR (adjective)
  The adjective POOR has 5 senses:

1. deserving or inciting pity

2. having little money or few possessions

3. characterized by or indicating poverty

4. lacking in quality or substances

5. of insufficient quantity to meet a need

  Familiarity information: POOR used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

People without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

poor; poor people

Context example:

the urban poor need assistance

Hypernyms ("poor" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "poor"):

homeless (poor people who unfortunately do not have a home to live in)

needy (needy people collectively)

Antonym:

rich (people who have possessions and wealth (considered as a group))

• POOR (adjective)

Comparative: poorer   
Superlative: poorest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deserving or inciting pity

Synonyms:

hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched

Context example:

a wretched life

Similar:

unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having little money or few possessions

Context example:

the proverbial poor artist living in a garret

Similar:

broke; bust; skint; stone-broke; stony-broke (lacking funds)

destitute; impoverished; indigent; necessitous; needy; poverty-stricken (poor enough to need help from others)

hard up; impecunious; in straitened circumstances; penniless; penurious; pinched (not having enough money to pay for necessities)

moneyless (having no money)

unprovided for (without income or means)

Also:

underprivileged (lacking the rights and advantages of other members of society)

Attribute:

financial condition (the condition of (corporate or personal) finances)

Antonym:

rich (possessing material wealth)

Derivation:

poorness (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Characterized by or indicating poverty

Context example:

they lived in the poor section of town

Similar:

beggarly; mean (marked by poverty befitting a beggar)

slummy ((of housing or residential areas) indicative of poverty)

Antonym:

rich (suggestive of or characterized by great expense)

Derivation:

poorness (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lacking in quality or substances

Context example:

the food in the cafeteria was of poor quality

Similar:

resourceless (lacking or deficient in natural resources)

Antonym:

rich (having an abundant supply of desirable qualities or substances (especially natural resources))

Derivation:

poorness (the quality of being meager)

poorness (less than adequate)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Of insufficient quantity to meet a need

Synonyms:

inadequate; jejune; poor; short

Context example:

the jejune diets of the very poor

Similar:

deficient; insufficient (of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement)

Derivation:

poorness (the quality of being meager)

 Context examples 

There was poor old Wadley, of the Zoological Institute.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have no more money to give him: we are getting poor.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The observed cases have been associated with a poor prognosis.

(Acute Basophilic Leukemia, NCI Thesaurus/WHO)

And those who were long sleepers who also had poor sleep quality were 82% more likely to later have a stroke.

(Regular extended sleep increases risk of stroke, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

An aggressive carcinoma with a poor prognosis characterized by a presence of both malignant squamous cells and glandular cells.

(Adenosquamous Lung Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

This tumor has a relatively poor prognosis.

(Adult Spinal Cord Glioblastoma, NCI Thesaurus)

I have felt like one of those poor rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is the most common subtype of breast cancer associated with BRCA1 mutations, and is associated with a poor prognosis.

(Basal-Like Breast Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

CD38, a type II transmembrane glycoprotein, is present on various immune cells and hematologic malignancies, and its expression has been correlated with poor prognosis.

(Anti-CD38 Monoclonal Antibody MOR03087, NCI Thesaurus)

B symptoms are signs of a poor prognosis in patients with lymphoma.

(B-Symptoms, NCI Thesaurus)