Definition of "dirt-poor" [dirt-poor]

• Lacking most of the necessities of life. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He should admit that our national interest isn't served by throwing a 100,000-plus-troop war machine at a dirt-poor country to catch fewer than 100 nutcases."
• "Food for thought: A dirt-poor couple of equal incomes."
• "And that switch has been hastened by the plot upheaval that finds Eric trying to revive the football program at a new, dirt-poor, competing high school."