Dictionary

immiserate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ɪˈmɪzəɹeɪt/

Etymology

Back-formation from immiseration.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To impoverish (someone); to make someone sink into misery.
   • Higher inequality, in part the result of a real estate boom that immiserated some and enriched others, meant more wealth in the hands of the high-saving rich. 2020, Thomas Orlik, China: The Bubble that Never Pops, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 76:
   • The fun, pleasurable aspect of playbor troubles scholars because it seems to suggest that playborers are not exploited; exploitation is supposed to be immiserating, not fun. 2018 January 16, Greg Goldberg, Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor in the Digital Economy, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 51:
   • By far the most powerful dynamic conception of capitalism as a system wracked by unavoidable change is the classic Marxian view in which a working class is first immiserated, then disciplined, finally goaded beyond endurance by a system that systematically exploits and deceives it. 1971 November 28, Robert L. Heilbroner, “Phase II of the Capitalist System”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • These regimes will favor older people and contain and immiserate the young. 2021, Michael Harris, Stay Alive: Surviving Capitalism’s Coming Hunger Games, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN:

Forms

Relateds

commiserate · commiseration · immiseration

Synonyms

destitute · depauperate · pauperize · depauperize · poverish · depauperate · poor · beggar · embeggar · impoor · ruin · immiserate · pauperize · impoverish · destitute · empoverish

Translations (10)

bg разоря (impoverish) · pl zubożyć (impoverish) · de but see verarmen lassen (impoverish) · bg обеднявам (impoverish) · bg разорявам (impoverish) · ro sărăci (impoverish) · es miserabilizar (impoverish) · pl zubażać (impoverish) · bg обедня (impoverish) · cs zbídačit (impoverish)