Crossword clues for destitution
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Destitution \Des`ti*tu"tion\, n. [L. destitutio a forsaking.] The state of being deprived of anything; the state or condition of being destitute, needy, or without resources; deficiency; lack; extreme poverty; utter want; as, the inundation caused general destitution.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., from Old French destitution and directly from Latin destitutionem (nominative destitutio) "a forsaking, deserting," from destitutus, past participle of destituere (see destitute).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) The action of deserting or abandoning. 2 (context now rare English) Discharge from office; dismissal. 3 The condition of lacking something. 4 An extreme state of poverty, in which a person is almost completely lacking in resources or means of support.
WordNet
n. a state without friends or money or prospects
Usage examples of "destitution".
She explained as well as she could the social destitution of these opulent people, and she had of course to name Beaton as the source of her knowledge concerning them.
This portion were termed boshmen, or bushmen, and have still retained that appellation: living in extreme destitution, sleeping in caves, constantly in a state of starvation, they soon dwindled down to a very diminutive race, and have continued so ever since.
Ferdias would not have believed that the hills and valleys of the North Temperate Zone contained so large a population, or that one season's crop failure could create such widespread destitution.
The pondokkies on the Cape Flats, for instance, where squatters live in the most utter destitution.
Luzhin, who propounds the theory of the superiority of wives raised from destitution and owing everything to their husband's bounty--who propounds it, too, almost at the first interview.