as in impoverished
lacking money or material possessions
the dictator and his inner circle lived in unconscionable luxury while the beggarly masses eked out a pitiful existence
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Recent Examples of beggarly
The aerial railway carried its last rider in 1937, and the fare was a beggarly two Depression-era dollars.
—
Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2021
Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for beggarly
Adjective
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But the Shah’s failure to provide support to the peasants led to their farms failing, and sent waves of impoverished migrants to Tehran and other Iranian cities—many of whom would later fuel the 1979 revolution.—
Nik Kowsar,
Time,
2 Oct. 2025
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Her existence in the vibrant capital city of Sepphoris brings into questions some of our traditional assumptions of Mary as an impoverished illiterate from a backwater rural village with no exposure to Greco-Roman culture.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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My adolescent cells floated away from poor me and traded places with his.—
Betty Gilpin,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Oct. 2025
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Women disproportionately suffer chronic disease, on average spend 25% more time in poor health than men, and, on average, experience the final 12 to 14 years of their lives in frail health.—
Maria Shriver,
Time,
9 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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For some irony, given the licensing deal with Netflix, Korvo and Terry announce that the Solar Opposites are broke, with all of their moneymaking machines zapped.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
29 Sep. 2025
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In another magical Miami tale, a broke witch who works in a spellshop and an adjunct professor who’s secretly a popular himbo mage team up to win a spellcasting reality show competition — except someone is sabotaging the contestants’ work.—
Lia Amador,
PEOPLE,
20 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Beggarly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/beggarly. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
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