Adjective

(en adjective)

Not adequate; unequal to the purpose; insufficient; deficient; as, inadequate resources, power, conceptions, representations, etc.

* 2013 June 18, , " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):

In a convulsion that has caught many in Brazil and beyond by surprise, waves of protesters denounced their leaders for dedicating so many resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remain woefully inadequate .

Adjective

(er)

With little or no possessions or money.

:

Of low quality.

:

*, chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}

To be pitied.

:

*

*:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=15 citation , passage=Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’}}

Deficient in a specified way.

:

Inadequate, insufficient.

:

*(w) (1600-1666)

*:That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

*(Bible), (w) v.3

*:Blessed are the poor in spirit.