indigently


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in·di·gent

 (ĭn′dĭ-jənt)
adj.
1. Experiencing want or need; impoverished: distributed food to indigent families.
2. Archaic Lacking or deficient.
n.
A poor or destitute person.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin indigēns, indigent-, present participle of indigēre, to need : indu-, in; see en in Indo-European roots + egēre, to lack.]

in′di·gent·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Is it not high time for Muslims to Act?' God asks indigently. How much more impatient he must be after fourteen centuries!
After centuries as an indigently war-ravaged state, Vietnam shifted first to a centrally planned control economy and more recently to a market-based one with socialist characteristics that has boomed.