adjective
destitute
DES-tuh-toot/ˈdestɪtuːt/
Lacking the basic necessities of life.
The destitute young man shelters in a doorway with an empty food bowl.
Etymology
The combination of ‘away’ and ‘place’ meant ‘forsake,’ giving an early sense of ‘abandoned.’ The meaning shifted through ‘forlorn, hopeless’ to lacking resources or means—the material deprivation expressed today.
In context
If you were old and destitute, perhaps you had failed to save, failed to work hard enough, failed to be sufficiently industrious.
More examples
- After losing her savings and home, she is destitute.
- Emergency aid keeps struggling families from becoming destitute.
- He arrives destitute, with no money, food, or place to stay.
Forms
destitute
destitution noun — Extreme poverty involving a lack of basic necessities.
Similar words
- impoverished
- Describes severe poverty without necessarily implying that basic necessities are missing.
- penniless
- Emphasizes having no money, rather than lacking all basic necessities.