pauperize

verb

Etymology: Etymology tree English pauper Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English pauperize From pauper + -ize.

1. To make someone a pauper; to impoverish.

   “This is an Education which consists in the outleading of the blackguardizing, pauperizing, vagrant-like, and theftuous elements of the mentality, entirely withdrawn, and apart from any moral guidance, any elevating tendency, any ameliorating influence, nay, directly under the direction of the demoralized and the abandoned.”

   “Burdocks, thistles, dwarf oaks, cottonweed, chalky holes and whitish puddles everywhere. It was all pauperized. The very bushes might have been on welfare.”