poor

poor

W1S1 [po: US pur] adj comparative poorer superlative poorest

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1¦(no money)¦

2¦(not good)¦

3¦(sympathy)¦

4¦(not good at something)¦

5¦(health)¦

6 poor in something

7 a poor second/third etc

8 the poor man's somebody

9 the poor man's something

10 poor relation

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[Date: 1100-1200; : Old French; Origin: povre, from Latin pauper]

1.) ¦(NO MONEY)¦

a) having very little money and not many possessions

≠ ↑rich

▪ Her family were so poor they couldn't afford to buy her new clothes.

▪ an area where poor people lived

▪ one of the poorest countries in the world

▪ a poor part of Chicago (=where a lot of poor people live)

▪ My grandparents grew up dirt poor (=very poor) .

desperately/extremely poor

▪ Many of the families are desperately poor.

b) the poor [plural]

people who are poor

▪ It's the government's responsibility to help the poor.

the rural/urban/working poor

▪ tax relief for the working poor

2.) ¦(NOT GOOD)¦

not as good as it could be or should be

▪ The soil in this area is very poor.

▪ poor rates of pay

▪ He blames himself for the team's poor performance .

of poor quality

(=not made well or not made of good materials)

▪ The jacket was of very poor quality.

poor hearing/eyesight/memory

▪ Her hearing is poor, so speak fairly loudly.

make/do a poor job of doing sth

▪ The builders did a really poor job of fixing our roof.

3.) ¦(SYMPATHY)¦ [only before noun]

spoken used to show sympathy for someone because they are so unlucky, unhappy etc

▪ Poor kid, he's had a rough day.

▪ You poor thing , you've had a hard time of it, haven't you?

▪ Poor old Ted was sick for weeks.

4.) ¦(NOT GOOD AT SOMETHING)¦

not good at doing something

▪ a poor public speaker

poor at

▪ He's poor at sports.

5.) ¦(HEALTH)¦

someone whose health is poor is ill or weak for a long period of time

▪ My parents are both in rather poor health .

6.) poor in sth

lacking something that is needed

▪ The country is poor in natural resources.

7.) a poor second/third etc

the act of finishing a race, competition etc a long way behind the person ahead of you

▪ McLean won easily, and Benson was a poor second.

come (in) a poor second/third etc BrE

▪ The Socialists came a poor second with 26.5% of the vote.

8.) the poor man's sb

used to say that someone is like a very famous performer, writer etc but is not as good as they are

▪ He was the poor man's Elvis Presley.

9.) the poor man's sth

used to say that something can be used for the same purpose as something else, and is much cheaper

▪ Herring is the poor man's salmon.

10.) poor relation

BrE someone or something that is not treated as well as other members of a group or is much less successful than they are

poor relation of

▪ Theatre musicians tend to be the poor relations of the musical profession.

→be in bad/poor taste at ↑taste¹ (6), ↑poorly

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WORD FOCUS: words meaning poor

be hard up/be broke also be skint (BrE informal) to have very little money at the present time and be unable to buy the things that you want

destitute having no money and nowhere to live, especially because something terrible has happened

poverty-stricken very poor

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