1. to make poor or reduce to poverty
2. to make worse in quality by removing something essential

Examples

• The war impoverished many families in the region.
• Poor farming practices can impoverish the soil over time.
• The economic crisis threatened to impoverish the entire nation.
• Cutting funding for arts programs would impoverish our cultural life.
• Years of drought impoverished the once-fertile farmland.
• The dictator’s policies impoverished his own people.
• Overfishing has impoverished the ocean’s ecosystem.