Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use destitute in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, verb

Destitute means lacking something; devoid. Example: “The prodigal son spent his share of his inheritance until he was destitute.”

Examples of destitute by meaning

adjectiveLacking money, poor, impoverished; especially, extremely so.

  • He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 428

More sentences with destitute

  • The prodigal son spent his share of his inheritance until he was destitute.From the entry prodigal
  • The poorest of the poor are truly destitute, with so few assets they are basically shackless.2014, George W. Norton, Hunger and Hope: Escaping Poverty and Achieving Food Security in Developing .... From the entry poor
  • Thus, in its work with destitute children, the protectory did everything it could to keep families together.2004, Stephen O'Connor, Orphan Trains, →ISBN. From the entry protectory
  • The self-sale of a destitute person for self-support or support of family.2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 1079. From the entry self-support
  • Sections of the media are culpable of only describing two types of African – powerful and corrupt, or destitute and starving.2017 March 24, David Lammy, “Africa deserves better from Comic Relief”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry guilt trip
  • A few years ago, the Bangwai production brigade of the Santaishan commune in the mountainous Luxi County, west Yunnan, was destitute.1983 July 18, Zhou Zheng, “Yunnan: A multinational frontier province”, in Beijing Review, volume 26, number 29, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 23…. From the entry Luxi
  • How strange that I should be called a destitute woman!1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 10. From the entry cast pearls before swine
  • The dandle-board of Nigeria’s history has thrust the oligarchs upward; rendered insensate to citizenry travails, they render millions destitute, humiliated and bereft of hope.2020 February 6, Olatunji Ololade, “This toxic underside”, in The Nation Newspaper. From the entry dandle board
  • After all, here was a country that less than a quarter of a century ago had been destitute after three decades of revolutionary warfare.2015, James McGrath Morris, Eye on the Struggle, Amistad, →ISBN, page 321. From the entry bamboo curtain
  • Like the European imperialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Driessen claims, today's eco-imperialists keep developing countries destitute for the benefit of the developed world.2007, U.C. Mandal, Dictionary Of Public Administration, page 147. From the entry eco-imperialist
  • Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner living in your land and in your city.2018, “Deuteronomy 24”, in Eugene H. Peterson, transl., The Message Deluxe Gift Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, page 196. From the entry hand to mouth
  • Virtually all of them will swell the ranks of law-abiding, industrious, self-sufficient and successful young Americans, while the numbers among the wayward lawless, dependent, and destitute are noticeably reduced.1989, E. Dorian Gadsden, Progress Against the Tide, page 186. From the entry swell the ranks
  • But soothly, of sithes the more I am umbeset with anguish of heart, and destitute of all men’s comfort, the more favourable and godly I find her to me.1952, Walter Milton, The Goad of Love, Faber & Faber, page 201. From the entry umbeset
  • Yeomen of the Provision Department, young Lords destitute of petulant volubility, Aldermen, Mayors, even Lords Mayors and Ladies Mayoresses—omnes eodem cogimur—quo George III.-quo dives Tullus et Ancus.1910 February, C. R. L. Fletcher, "The Lord Mayor's Visit to Oxford in 1826" The Cornhill Magazine Vol. XXVIII, No. 164 n.s., p.269. From the entry Ladies Mayoresses
  • The municipality appointed a special streetkeeper to each of these districts, whose duty it was to see that destitute sick persons were conveyed to the hospitals and to enforce cleanliness.1908, Theal, George McCall, History of South Africa since September 1795, Sonnenschein, page 83. From the entry streetkeeper

Meaning of destitute

  1. adjective Lacking something; devoid.
  2. adjective Lacking money, poor, impoverished; especially, extremely so.
  3. verb To impoverish; to strip of wealth, resources, etc.

Full definition of destitute

Questions about destitute in a sentence

How do you use destitute in a sentence?
Destitute is used as an adjective and verb. For example: “The prodigal son spent his share of his inheritance until he was destitute.”
What is a short sentence with destitute?
“How strange that I should be called a destitute woman!”
What does destitute mean?
Destitute means lacking something; devoid.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: destitute (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use destitute in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/destitute. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.