the dispossessed
noun
: people whose land, possessions, etc., have been taken away from them
helping the poor and the dispossessed
Examples of the dispossessed in a Sentence
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Many of the dispossessed took to the woods and subsisted by slash-and-burn tillage, while others immigrated to Manchuria and Japan in search of jobs; the majority of Korean residents now in those areas are their descendants.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Mar. 2026
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden joined thousands in praising Jackson as an ambassador of hope, and a champion for the poor and the dispossessed.
—NBC news, 15 Mar. 2026
These weren't movements of the dispossessed, but of the downwardly mobile—overeducated and politically alienated.
—Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 June 2025
His was a papacy focused on the margins, on the dispossessed, and the most vulnerable.
—ABC News, 27 Apr. 2025
That was what Jesus was about: service to the poor and the dispossessed.
—Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 22 Apr. 2025
October 7 shattered this paradigm, as the state-of-the-art nation was briefly overthrown by the crude weapons of the dispossessed.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 30 Oct. 2024
Routine and cliché, frustration and anger, despair and fatigue weigh heavily on the dispossessed, and impinge on the relationship at the movie’s center.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2024
As for the voices of the enslaved and the dispossessed, the island is unsettlingly silent.
—Sue Eisenfeld, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2024
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Mar. 2026
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden joined thousands in praising Jackson as an ambassador of hope, and a champion for the poor and the dispossessed.
—NBC news, 15 Mar. 2026
These weren't movements of the dispossessed, but of the downwardly mobile—overeducated and politically alienated.
—Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 June 2025
His was a papacy focused on the margins, on the dispossessed, and the most vulnerable.
—ABC News, 27 Apr. 2025
That was what Jesus was about: service to the poor and the dispossessed.
—Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 22 Apr. 2025
October 7 shattered this paradigm, as the state-of-the-art nation was briefly overthrown by the crude weapons of the dispossessed.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 30 Oct. 2024
Routine and cliché, frustration and anger, despair and fatigue weigh heavily on the dispossessed, and impinge on the relationship at the movie’s center.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2024
As for the voices of the enslaved and the dispossessed, the island is unsettlingly silent.
—Sue Eisenfeld, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2024
Cite this Entry
“The dispossessed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20dispossessed. Accessed 18 Apr. 2026.
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