the destitute

noun

: people who are extremely poor : needy people
The charity provides food and clothing for the destitute.

Examples of the destitute in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In the 1990s, tennis-world stars such as Billie Jean King and journalist Bud Collins raised money for the destitute Gibson, but there wasn’t much oversight. Patrick Sauer, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2023 But even by that standard, the coronavirus’s outsize impact on the destitute and vulnerable is striking. Robert Malley, Foreign Affairs, 8 June 2020 Its mission is to help the poor, the imprisoned, the destitute, the hungry, the aged and victims of disaster. San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Dec. 2022 The flood of Tunisian émigrés spans socioeconomic classes, with professionals, the working class and the destitute represented among those fleeing, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushes up the price of food and gas, and the government pulls back from subsidizing basic items such as sugar and rice. Chao Deng, WSJ, 14 Dec. 2022 Adhikari, for his part, wants his heroes to speak out this month for incremental reform and overdue compensation — for the underpaid, the destitute, and the dead. Matt Sullivan, Rolling Stone, 9 Nov. 2022 ByteDance extracts an overly generous cut of the charitable money meant to go to the poor and the destitute. Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2022 At My Father’s House, a community kitchen in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, Pastor Shadrick Valayadum has spent more than 20 years feeding the homeless and the destitute. Borso Tall, Washington Post, 14 June 2022 There is no natural constituency for the destitute of yore, although their stories far outnumber the aristocracy’s and say just as much about this country as the fortunes of any duke. New York Times, 23 Dec. 2021

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

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Cite this Entry

“The destitute.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20destitute. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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