des·ti·tute

(dĕs′tĭ-to͞ot′, -tyo͞ot′)

adj.

1. Lacking resources or the means of subsistence; completely impoverished.

2. Utterly lacking; devoid: Young recruits destitute of any experience.

[Middle English, from Latin dēstitūtus, past participle of dēstituere, to abandon : dē-, de- + statuere, to set; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

des′ti·tute′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

The Prophet himself emphasizes the importance of opening the doors to those who are in need: "There is no leader who closes his door to the needy, the poor, and the destitute except that God will close the door of heaven to his poverty, neediness, and destituteness" (al-Tirmidhi, hadith no: 1332).

AN ISLAMIC APPROACH TO MIGRATION AND REFUGEES

[and] destitute of moisture and vegetation." In most definitions, therefore, barrenness, lifelessness, and destituteness are common attributes of such spaces.

The Arab desert in American poetic discourse

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