destitute

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des·ti·tute

(dĕs′tĭ-to͞ot′, -tyo͞ot′)

adj.

1. Lacking resources or the means of subsistence; completely impoverished.

2. Utterly lacking; devoid: Young recruits destitute of any experience.

[Middle English, from Latin dēstitūtus, past participle of dēstituere, to abandon : dē-, de- + statuere, to set; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

des′ti·tute′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

destitute

(ˈdɛstɪˌtjuːt)

adj

1. (Social Welfare) lacking the means of subsistence; totally impoverished

2. (foll by: of) completely lacking; deprived or bereft (of): destitute of words.

3. obsolete abandoned or deserted

[C14: from Latin dēstitūtus forsaken, from dēstituere to leave alone, from statuere to place]

ˈdestiˌtuteness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

des•ti•tute

(ˈdɛs tɪˌtut, -ˌtyut)

adj., v. -tut•ed, -tut•ing. adj.

1. without means of subsistence; lacking food, clothing, and shelter.

2. deprived of, devoid of, or lacking (often fol. by of): destitute of feeling.

v.t.

3. to leave destitute.

[1350–1400; Middle English < Latin dēstitūtus, past participle of dēstituere to abandon, deprive of support =dē- de- + -stituere, comb. form of statuere to cause to stand]

des′ti•tute`ness, n.

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Adj.	1.	destitute - poor enough to need help from others impoverished, indigent, necessitous, needy, poverty-stricken poor - having little money or few possessions; "deplored the gap between rich and poor countries"; "the proverbial poor artist living in a garret"
	2.	destitute - completely wanting or lacking; "writing barren of insight"; "young recruits destitute of experience"; "innocent of literary merit"; "the sentence was devoid of meaning" devoid, barren, innocent, free nonexistent - not having existence or being or actuality; "chimeras are nonexistent"

destitute

adjective penniless, poor, impoverished, distressed, needy, on the rocks, insolvent, poverty-stricken, down and out, indigent, impecunious, dirt-poor (informal), on the breadline (informal), flat broke (informal), short, penurious, on your uppers, necessitous, in queer street (informal), moneyless, without two pennies to rub together (informal) destitute children who live on the streets

destitute of lacking, wanting, without, in need of, deprived of, devoid of, bereft of, empty of, drained of, deficient in, depleted in a country destitute of natural resources

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

destitute

adjective

1. Not having a desirable element:

barren, devoid, empty, innocent, lacking, void, wanting.

Idiom: in want of.

2. Having little or no money or wealth:

beggarly, down-and-out, impecunious, impoverished, indigent, necessitous, needy, penniless, penurious, poor, poverty-stricken.

Informal: broke, strapped.

Idioms: hard up, on one's uppers.

Translations

مُعْوِز، مُعْدِم، خالي الوِفاض

bez prostředkůstrádající

forarmet

mittellos

ενδεής

blásnauîur

indigente poverissimo

be lėšųskurstantis

nabadzīgstrūcīgs

lutfattig uten midler

bez prostriedkov

muhtaç yoksul

一贫如洗的缺乏的

destitute

[ˈdestɪtjuːt] ADJ

1. (= poverty-stricken) → indigente
to be (utterly) destitute → estar en la (más absoluta) miseria

2. (= lacking) destitute of → desprovisto de

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

destitute

[ˈdɛstɪtjuːt]

adj

(= poor) [person] → misérable, dans la misère
to be left destitute → être plongé(e) dans la misère

destitute of (= lacking) → dépourvu(e) de, dénué(e) de

npl
the destitute → les indigents mpl

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

destitute

adj

(= poverty-stricken) → mittellos; to be utterly destitute → bettelarm sein

(= lacking) → bar (→ of +gen)

n the destitute pl → die Mittellosen, die, die im Elend leben

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

destitute

[ˈdɛstɪˌtjuːt] adj (frm) → indigente
utterly destitute → ridotto/a in miseria
destitute of → privo/a di

destitute

(ˈdestitjuːt) adjective

in great need of food, shelter etc. They were left destitute when he died.

References in classic literature ?

THE plains over which the travellers were journeying continued to be destitute of trees or even shrubs; insomuch that they had to use the dung of the buffalo for fuel, as the Arabs of the desert use that of the camel.

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You may perhaps have been somewhat surprised my Dearest Marianne, that in the Distress I then endured, destitute of any support, and unprovided with any Habitation, I should never once have remembered my Father and Mother or my paternal Cottage in the Vale of Uske.

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This principle was sufficient thenceforward to rid me of all those repentings and pangs of remorse that usually disturb the consciences of such feeble and uncertain minds as, destitute of any clear and determinate principle of choice, allow themselves one day to adopt a course of action as the best, which they abandon the next, as the opposite.

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The supposition of a want of proper knowledge seems to be entirely destitute of foundation.

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Having condoled with us on our loss and destitute position, she added that my father had been to blame for everything, in that he had lived beyond his means, and taken upon himself more than he was able to perform.

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FROM THE MIDDLE to the end of May, Captain Bonneville pursued a western course over vast undulating plains, destitute of tree or shrub, rendered miry by occasional rain, and cut up by deep water-courses where they had to dig roads for their wagons down the soft crumbling banks and to throw bridges across the streams.

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He gave thanks for our food and comfort, and prayed for the poor and destitute in great cities, where the struggle for life was harder than it was here with us.

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This man, who might have brought us to the king in three days, led us out of the way through horrid deserts destitute of water, or where what we found was so foul, nauseous, and offensive, that it excited a loathing and aversion which nothing but extreme necessity could have overcome.

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It terminated in a concave breast of rock, nearly vertical and destitute of vegetation.

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Did it resemble the earth at the period when the latter was destitute as yet of an atmosphere?

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Every profession, and every trade, required length of time, and what was worse, money; for matters are so constituted, that "nothing out of nothing" is not a truer maxim in physics than in politics; and every man who is greatly destitute of money, is on that account entirely excluded from all means of acquiring it.

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Verily, I like them not, the merciful ones, whose bliss is in their pity: too destitute are they of bashfulness.