poverty-struck

English

Adjective

poverty-struck (comparative more poverty-struck, superlative most poverty-struck)

1. (now somewhat uncommon) Poverty-stricken; very poor.
   • 1756, Arthur Murphy, The Apprentice. A Farce, in Two Acts, Dublin:  […] W. Smith; J. Exshaw; R. James, page 25:

     I warrant—Such Poverty-ſtruck Devils as you ſhan't ſtay in my Houſe—you ſhall go to Quod, I can tell you that—

   • 1802, William Templeton, chapter XI, in The Strolling Player; or, Life and Adventures of William Templeton, volume I, London:  […] B. McMillan,  […] H.D. Symonds, page 265:

     A more curious figure cannot be conceived than I made; for, my poverty-struck and half-starved appearance was so contrasted with my active pace and flowing spirits, that I bore more the stamp of a lunatic than any thing else.

   • 1828 July, “St. Katharine's”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume XCVIII, page 9:

     […] the poverty-struck appearance of these appendages is disgraceful to the structure, and even the excuse of utility is wanted to apologise for their excessive meanness.

   • 1997 November, William Lashner, Veritas, Harper Paperbacks, page 42:

     Why hadn't she told me? Why had she wanted me to think her only a poverty-struck little liar? Well, maybe she was a little liar, but a liar with money was something else again. And I did like that smile.