dispossessed 1 of 2

dispossessed

2 of 2

verb

past tense of dispossess
as in evicted
to end the occupancy or possession of opponents of gentrification claim that the process unfairly dispossesses poorer residents of their long-established homes

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dispossessed
Adjective
Three days after his 10th birthday, his father, a depressed junkman, killed himself, and the experience of misfortune fueled the young artist’s identification with the dispossessed. Peter Saenger, WSJ, 22 Apr. 2022 Without the voices of the dispossessed, how can there be deconstruction? Audrey Clare Farley, The New Republic, 3 Jan. 2022 And when Israel gained its independence in 1948, Zionism became the world’s first successful Indigenous movement of a dispossessed and colonized people regaining sovereignty in their Indigenous homeland. Micha Danzig, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2021 Chilton’s sonorous voice carries with it the perseverance and anguish of the dispossessed, disenfranchised and violated. Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2021 See all Example Sentences for dispossessed 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dispossessed
Adjective
  • When the Home Secretary is abducted in the largest deprived area, Paradis City, special agent Fredrika (Julia Ragnarsson) enlists Emir (Alexander Abdallah), an ex-MMA fighter facing life in prison, to find the politician.
    Annika Pham, Variety, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Yet the contrast is sharp between how AI is used in the experimental school—nestled within an abundance of human attention—and how it is used in more deprived circumstances.
    Allison Pugh, WIRED, 7 Dec. 2024
Verb
  • Erickson's life unraveled steadily for years — and then, after she was evicted, all at once.
    Jessica Goodheart, USA TODAY, 27 Dec. 2024
  • She was evicted in February and died in May, while homeless, just days short of her 71st birthday.
    Jessica Goodheart, USA TODAY, 27 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • Those accomplishments included what may be the lowest homicide rate per capita in the city’s history, an increase in the median household income, funding for programs for disadvantaged youth and investments in infrastructure, like $60 million in federal funding for the Underdeck project.
    Tess Riski, Miami Herald, 16 Jan. 2025
  • In the 1990s, teletherapy was championed as a way to reach disadvantaged patients living in remote locations where there were few psychiatrists.
    Ellen Barry, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Guatemala, a small, impoverished nation scarred by a brutal civil war, has a substantial undocumented population in the United States.
    Daniele Volpe, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2025
  • The workshop's initial mission was to provide a trade for widows and other impoverished Palestinian women.
    Lauren Frayer, NPR, 18 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Figure Skating in Harlem is a first of its kind organization that mentors young girls of color in underprivileged communities, helping to transform their lives and grow in confidence, leadership and academic achievement for their futures.
    Danielle Jennings, People.com, 16 Jan. 2025
  • More than 30 years after Voinovich and the bishops proposed vouchers as a solution for underprivileged children in a single city, public subsidies for private school tuition were now universal in Ohio, covering tens of thousands of families.
    Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, 13 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Millions of Syrian refugees reside in countries bordering Syria — Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan — and endure precarious conditions in crowded and destitute refugee camps.
    Avishay Artsy, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • That was, until big-hearted border officers took in these destitute immigrants, who found new lives in America as Selma and Lieu, Petunia and Peanut, Cupid, Penelope, Selena and Floyd.
    Lauren Villagran, Austin American-Statesman, 2 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Looking like the cross between a spermatozoon and a tadpole, this needy, frail little infant is wrapped tightly in swaddling clothes, resting on the dresser and then the drawer of poor Jack Nance’s apartment in an industrial hellscape.
    Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 16 Jan. 2025
  • There’s William Shawn, who was a mentor to Michaels and who ran this magazine for thirty-five years, corralling a gang of talented, needy egos in order to produce a weekly publication.
    Susan Morrison, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Audiences savored White’s scathing dialogue, actor Jennifer Coolidge’s tragicomic performance as the emotionally indigent heiress Tanya McQuoid, and the show’s sly insights into how money comes to shape our every relationship.
    Charlie Campbell, TIME, 24 Jan. 2025
  • The commission supports indigent communities, including immigrants.
    Taryn Luna, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2025

Thesaurus Entries Near dispossessed

Cite this Entry

“Dispossessed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dispossessed. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.

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