immiseration

noun

im·mis·er·a·tion (ˌ)i(m)-ˌmi-zə-ˈrā-shən

: the act of making miserable

especially : impoverishment

the immiseration of the working class —

C. R. Morris

immiserate

(ˌ)i(m)-ˈmi-zə-ˌrāt

transitive verb

immiserated; immiserating; immiserates

What Keynes would have found most disheartening, perhaps, is how economic theory has been used to immiserate the lives of the bottom half of the population. —

Charles R. Morris

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web El Moussa and Haack are flippers in Southern California who are alternately presented as hapless and cunning in their efforts to turn a quick profit while navigating the same landscape of immiseration. —

Curbed, 18 Mar. 2022 Raging inequality, terrible health outcomes, the immiseration of so many small towns and cities in this country where opportunity has completely dried up. —

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2022 The act of organizing seems to rest on hope for changing the world, but your books paint a grim picture: ecological collapse, political corruption, white supremacy, the continuing immiseration of the global poor. —

Sam Deanstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 25 July 2022 First, improving living conditions for the millions of poor Brazilians who have faced hunger and immiseration as the country’s economic fortunes dwindled in recent years. —

Andre Pagliarini, The New Republic, 7 July 2022 The novel depicts a brash golden boy anointed in his youth by elders of a community primed by centuries of suffering and immiseration to place their hopes in a revolutionary new system. —

Sam Sacks, WSJ, 28 Jan. 2022 The third blames the poor for their own immiseration. —

Damon Linker, The Week, 7 Jan. 2022 Our criminal legal system produces tremendous harm and immiseration, even death, not just for defendants but for their families and communities. —

John Pfaff, The New Republic, 21 June 2021 The group’s reports tend to punctuate the otherwise slow immiseration of climate change; its previous synthesis report, released in 2013, helped inform international climate policy, including the writing of the Paris Agreement. —

Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 9 Aug. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'immiseration.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.