different between poor vs windlass

English

Etymology

From Middle English povre, povere, from Old French (and Anglo-Norman) povre, poure (Modern French pauvre), from Latin pauper (English pauper), from Old Latin *pavo-pars (literally “getting little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh?w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old English f?awa (“little, few”). Doublet of pauper.

Displaced native Middle English earm, arm (“poor”) (from Old English earm; See arm), Middle English wantsum, wantsome (“poor, needy”) (from Old Norse vant (“deficiency, lack, want”)), Middle English unlede (“poor”) (from Old English unl?de), Middle English unweli, unwely (“poor, unwealthy”) (from Old English un- + weli? (“well-to-do, prosperous, rich”).

Pronunciation

• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /po?/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /p??/, /pu?/, /p??/
• (Indian English) IPA^(key): /?p?(?)?(r)/
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): /p??(?)/, /p??(?)/
• (US)
  • IPA^(key): /p??/, /p??/
• Rhymes: -??(?), -??(?)
• Homophones: pour, pore (with the pour-poor merger)
• Homophone: paw (in some non-rhotic accents, with the pour-poor merger)

Adjective

poor (comparative poorer, superlative poorest)

1. With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

   The poor are always with us.

2. Of low quality.
3. Used to express pity.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
4. Deficient in a specified way.

5. Inadequate, insufficient.
   • a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, Sermon 1

     That I have wronged no Man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

6. Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

   • Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Usage notes

When the word "poor" is used to express pity, it does not change the meaning of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "Give this soup to that poor man!", the word "poor" does not serve to indicate which man is meant (and so the sentence expresses exactly the same command as "Give this soup to that man!"). Instead, the word "poor" merely adds an expression of pity to the sentence.

Synonyms

• (with no or few possessions or money): See Thesaurus:impoverished
• (of low quality): inferior
• (to be pitied): pitiable, arm

Antonyms

• (with no or few possessions): rich, wealthy
• (of low quality): good
• (deficient in a specified way): rich
• (inadequate): adequate

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• deserving poor
• poorhouse
• undeserving poor

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• poro-, roop

Limburgish

Etymology

From Walloon porea.

Noun

poor m

1. leek

Old French

Noun

poor f (oblique plural poors, nominative singular poor, nominative plural poors)

1. fear

English

Alternative forms

• windless (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English wyndlas, wyndelas, wyndlasse, wyndelasse, probably an alteration (due to Middle English windel) of Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?nd.l?s/

Homophone: windless

Noun

windlass (plural windlasses)

1. Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights
2. A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Ham II. i. 65:

     With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.

3. An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.

Translations

Verb

windlass (third-person singular simple present windlasses, present participle windlassing, simple past and past participle windlassed)

1. To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
   • 1882, Constance Gordon-Cumming, "Ningpo and the Buddhist Temples", in The Century Magazine

     A favoring breeze enabled us to sail all the way down the lake, and (having been windlassed across the haul-over) even down the canals.

2. To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
   • a. 1660, Henry Hammond, a sermon

     He could not expect to allure him forward, and therefore drives him as far back as he can; that so he may be the more sure of him at the rebound; as a skilful woodsman, that by windlassing presently gets a shoot, which, without taking a compass and thereby a commodious stand, he could never have obtained.