pauper
One without means
A pauper is a very poor person, especially one dependent on public assistance or charity.
The word carries historical weight from the era of poorhouses and workhouses, where paupers were housed at public expense.
Today it sounds old-fashioned or literary: He died a pauper.
The related adjective is pauper's grave—an unmarked burial for the indigent.
Extremely poor, lacking necessities
- destituteUtterly without means
- beggarOne who asks for charity
- homelessWithout a dwelling
- penuryExtreme lack of money
want · needy · hardship · charity · alms · workhouse · relief · welfare
Grimly poor, socially unjust
- Les MiserablesFrench historical novel
- VictorianOf a prim era
- urchinNeglected street child
- waifAbandoned, neglected child
Oliver Twist · ragamuffin · street child · Cinderella · rags-to-riches · Cosette · downtrodden · wretched
Protected person; division
- burialPlacing deceased underground
- graveSerious and worrying
- cemeteryPlace for interring remains
- public defenderAttorney representing those unable to afford one
state care · institutional · unclaimed · anonymous · unmarked · potter's field · parish · public charge
Lacking any funds
- bankruptUnable to repay debts
- pennilessCompletely without money
- strappedLacking available funds
- insolventUnable to pay debts
ruined · impecunious · flat broke · down-and-out · hard up · struggling · deprived · wanting
indigent
Extremely poor, lacking necessities
penury · want · needy · hardship · charity · alms · workhouse · relief · welfare · subsistence
Dickensian
Grimly poor, socially unjust
- Les MiserablesFrench historical novel
- VictorianOf a prim era
- urchinNeglected street child
Oliver Twist · waif · ragamuffin · street child · Cinderella · rags-to-riches · Cosette · downtrodden · wretched · forsaken
ward
Protected person; division
public defender · state care · institutional · unclaimed · anonymous · unmarked · potter's field · parish · public charge · court-appointed
broke
Lacking any funds
insolvent · ruined · impecunious · flat broke · down-and-out · hard up · struggling · deprived · wanting · lacking
- povertypoverty line, poverty rate, generational poverty, poverty trap, poverty cycle
- social ranksking, queen, emperor, empress, noble
- wealth statusrich, wealthy, affluent, middle-class, upper class
- class labelsaristocrat, beggar, bourgeois, commoner, elite
- Victorian povertyworkhouse, poorhouse, tenement, slum, hovel
- welfarewelfare, welfare reform, welfare system, SNAP benefits, public assistance
paupermillionaire
Person possessing great wealth
billionaire · plutocrat · tycoon · magnate · moneybags
- pauper's funeralBurial for the destitute
- paupers' funeralsBurials paid by charity