destitute children
Poor homeless young ones
Children living in extreme poverty, lacking basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, or parental care.
The phrase appears in legal contexts, charity appeals, and historical accounts of social welfare: The orphanage took in destitute children from the streets.
Destitute emphasizes not just poverty but utter deprivation—these children have nothing and no one to provide for them.
- orphansChildren whose parents died
- homelessWithout a dwelling
- hungryWanting to eat
- raggedWorn to shreds
- barefootWearing no shoes
empty bellies · waifs · urchins · abandoned · neglected · poverty · streets · begging · thin · gaunt · shelters · workhouse · foster · charity · vulnerable · innocent · lost innocence · cold
- Victorian childhoodfoundlings, urchins, waifs, orphanages, chimney sweeps
destitute, children, child, destitution, childish, childlike, childless, childhood, childishly