Destitute of property; wanting in material riches or goods; needy; indigent. Note: It is often synonymous with indigent and with necessitous denoting extreme want. It is also applied to persons who are not entirely destitute of property, but who are not rich; as, a poor man or woman; poor people.
2.
(Law) So completely destitute of property as to be entitled to maintenance from the public.
3.
Hence, in very various applications: Destitute of such qualities as are desirable, or might naturally be expected; as:
(a)
Wanting in fat, plumpness, or fleshiness; lean; emaciated; meager; as, a poor horse, ox, dog, etc."Seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed."
(b)
Wanting in strength or vigor; feeble; dejected; as, poor health; poor spirits. "His genius... poor and cowardly."
(c)
Of little value or worth; not good; inferior; shabby; mean; as, poor clothes; poor lodgings. "A poor vessel."
(d)
Destitute of fertility; exhausted; barren; sterile; said of land; as, poor soil.
(e)
Destitute of beauty, fitness, or merit; as, a poor discourse; a poor picture.
(f)
Without prosperous conditions or good results; unfavorable; unfortunate; unconformable; as, a poor business; the sick man had a poor night.
(g)
Inadequate; insufficient; insignificant; as, a poor excuse. "That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day."
4.
Worthy of pity or sympathy; used also sometimes as a term of endearment, or as an expression of modesty, and sometimes as a word of contempt. "And for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray.""Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing."
5.
Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Poor law, a law providing for, or regulating, the relief or support of the poor.
Poor man's treacle (Bot.), garlic; so called because it was thought to be an antidote to animal poison. (Eng)
Poor man's weatherglass (Bot.), the red-flowered pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), which opens its blossoms only in fair weather.
Poor rate, an assessment or tax, as in an English parish, for the relief or support of the poor.
Poor soldier (Zool.), the friar bird.
The poor, those who are destitute of property; the indigent; the needy. In a legal sense, those who depend on charity or maintenance by the public. "I have observed the more public provisions are made for the poor, the less they provide for themselves."
... partial mother. Bred an attorney, he had (like both his brothers) changed his way of life, and was called to the bar when past thirty. A Commission of Enquiry into the state of the poor in Dorsetshire gave him an opportunity of proving his true talents; and he was appointed a Poor Law Inspector, first at Worcester, next at Manchester, where he had to deal with the potato famine and the Irish immigration of the 'forties, and finally in London, where he again distinguished himself during an epidemic of cholera. He was then advanced to the Permanent ... — Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin • Robert Louis Stevenson Read full book for free!
... intentions, than merely to display new bonnets, and trifle with grapes and peaches. Sea-air gives a whet to even a lady's appetite, and if the performances that morning were any criterion of the effects of that of Glyndewi, the new Poor Law Commissioners, in forming their scale of allowances, must really have reported it a "special case." The fair Cambrians, in short, played very respectable knives and forks—made no bones—or rather nothing but bones—of the chickens, and ate kippered salmon like ... — Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various Read full book for free!
... that the stairs are of Lilliputian measurement, fitted to their tiny strides. The same consideration for their years and weakness is expressed in their very seats, which are perfect curiosities, and look like articles of furniture for a pauper doll's-house. I can imagine the glee of our Poor Law Commissioners at the notion of these seats having arms and backs; but small spines being of older date than their occupation of the Board-room at Somerset House, I thought even this provision very merciful ... — American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens Read full book for free!
... decorated as were the other apartments of his princely residence, this apartment, with its plain business-look—its hard benches for such of the tenantry as came to him or his agent on business—its walls garnished with abstracts of the Game and Poor Law Enactments—its worn old chairs and heavy oak presses, the open doors of some of which disclosed bundles of old papers, parchments, etc.—this little room, the only one almost ever seen by any save the aristocracy and their followers—exercised and contained frequently ... — Edward Barnett; a Neglected Child of South Carolina, Who Rose to Be a Peer of Great Britain,--and the Stormy Life of His Grandfather, Captain Williams • Tobias Aconite Read full book for free!
... Prince' himself. Poor old fellow, he recollects not, and he need not recollect, that these great posting- houses were centres of corruption, from whence the newest vices of the metropolis were poured into the too-willing ears of village lads and lasses; and that not even the New Poor Law itself has done more for the morality of the South of England than the substitution of the rail ... — Prose Idylls • Charles Kingsley Read full book for free!
... Kerry in 1886, and Lord Cork's agent was the only one obliged to employ over two hundred police to protect him in endeavouring to recover in 1887 rent which was due in 1884. This rent was due on land let at considerably under the Poor Law valuation, and the rents were only half ... — The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent • S.M. Hussey Read full book for free!
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