impoverire

to impoverish

verb eem-poh-veh-REE-reh Rare

Also means

to become poor

Usage Note

Impoverire can be used transitively ('to make poor or weaker': la crisi ha impoverito la regione) or intransitively ('to become poor': la famiglia si è impoverita). In the intransitive/reflexive sense it takes essere as the auxiliary. It is also used figuratively: impoverire il dibattito means 'to impoverish the debate' by reducing its quality.

Examples

"La crisi ha impoverito molte famiglie."

Natural Translation

The crisis impoverished many families.

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