(a) Lacking money or material possessions, destitute; needy, indigent; also, less wealthy in comparison with somebody else; (b) ~ and nedi, ~ nedi, etc.; ~ and riche, riche and ~, etc.; for richere for poverer; (c) fig. spiritually poor or lacking; also, miserly, stingy; (d) voluntarily devoid of possessions; deliberately poor in conformity with Christian virtue; ~ prest, a member of an itinerant preaching order established by Wyclif; (e) devoid of material possessions at birth or death; (f) maken ~, to impoverish (sb., oneself), reduce to poverty; (g) of low degree, common, ordinary; (h) in proverbs and proverbial phrases.

In phrases: (a) ~ man, a person who has few or no material possessions, a needy or indigent man; a beggar; ~ menes hous, ?an almshouse; (b) ~ folk (peple), needy or indigent people, the poor; also, the common people; (c) ~ boren, born in humble circumstances; (d) in proverbs and proverbial phrases.

As noun: (a) coll. needy or indigent people; poor people as a class; comp. poverer, poorer people; (b) ~ and riche, riche and ~, rich and poor, everybody; riche ne ~, nobody; (c) the ~, the class of poor people, the poor; the povres, belonging to poor people; the ~ and the riche, the riche and the ~; (d) a needy or an indigent person, poor man; comp. poverer, a person of lower degree; sup. alder-mest ~, poverest, the poorest person.

(a) Of things, places, conditions, etc.: afflicted by poverty, poverty-stricken; characterized by poverty; of a purse: lacking money, poorly supplied; (b) of clothing: mean, shabby, indicative of poverty; (c) of a house or gate: mean, poor; (d) as adv.: poorly clothed, in shabby clothes.

(a) Small, insufficient; of intelligence: limited, inadequate; (b) of low quality, not good; of earth, etc.: unproductive; (c) ~ of, deficient in (sth.), lacking in, devoid of; not possessing much of (sth.); (d) of color: drab; (e) in poor health; (f) of a planet: in a part of the zodiac where it has least influence.

(a) Wretched, unfortunate, deserving of pity; (b) humble, meek [often with allusion to the first Beatitude (Mat.5.3)]; ~ in (of) spirit; ~ man; also as noun: the ~ in gost (spirit); (c) in deprecatory phrases: humble, undeserving, unworthy; as noun: humble servant.

(a) In surnames; (b) in street name.