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Poor law   /pur lɔ/   Listen
adjective
Poor  adj.  (compar. poorer; superl. poorest)  
1.
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."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Poor law" Quotes from Famous Books



... no amateur anarchy and incompetence should be tolerated. As to allowing that admirable detective agency for the defence of the West End against begging letter writers, the Charity Organization Society to touch the soldier's home, the very suggestion is an outrage. The C.O.S., the Poor Law, and the charitable amateur, whether of the patronizing or prying or gushing variety, must be kept as far from the army and its folk as if they were German spies. The business of our fashionable amateurs is to pay Income Tax and Supertax. This time they will have ...
— New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 - From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index • Various

... false unity of the Church with its fantastic spiritual fraternity could be counteracted. St. Paul had been right, he declared, in his desire to break down the partition-walls between nations, and wrong only in his exaltation of Jesus Christ. Thus he had preluded his speech on the Poor Law question, pointing to the true charity that existed among Masons apart from religious motive, and appealing to the famous benefactions on the Continent; and in the enthusiasm of the Bill's success the Order had received a great ...
— Lord of the World • Robert Hugh Benson

... 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

... thousand other papers, but some odd chance has preserved and brought with me to Italy the menu for the evening; its back black with the scrawled notes I made of the discussion for my reply. I found it the other day among some letters from Margaret and a copy of the 1909 Report of the Poor Law Commission, also rich ...
— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells

... (in 1804), says, "Coleridge and Rickman, with William Taylor, make my Trinity of living greatness." A voluminous correspondence took place between Southey and Rickman, ranging from 1800 to 1839, in the course of which a variety of important subjects—namely, History, Antiquities, Political Economy, Poor Law, and general Politics were deliberately argued between them. From this it appears that Southey, whose reading was very extensive, must have had great trust in the knowledge and ...
— Charles Lamb • Barry Cornwall

... With what wonderful effect you will expatiate on the patriotism which tears you away from your affianced bride, to undertake the arduous duties of a champion of the popular cause, or an inveterate enemy of the new Poor Law. But, really, there is no time to lose, my dear fellow; the enemy will take the field to-morrow; and if you do not get ...
— Ellen Middleton--A Tale • Georgiana Fullerton

... country. He's a big ratepayer,' I said. 'He has extensive house property in the city and three places of business and isn't it to his own advantage to keep down the rates? He's a prominent and respected citizen,' said I, 'and a Poor Law Guardian, and he doesn't belong to any party, good, bad, or indifferent.' That's the ...
— Dubliners • James Joyce

... travel the same mental pathways over and over again, and to wear the ruts of prejudice deeper at every step; such traces of age as these undoubtedly manifested themselves in the way in which the poet confronted the great series of changes—Catholic Emancipation, Reform Bill, New Poor Law, on which England entered about the year 1829. "My sixty-second year," Wordsworth writes, in 1832, "will soon be completed; and though I have been favoured thus far in health and strength beyond most men of my age, ...
— Wordsworth • F. W. H. Myers



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