destitute
DES-tih-tootadjMeaning without money, a home or the basic things needed to live
Memory hook DE-STITCH-ute: not a STITCH left. After the storm sank his ship, the merchant had not a stitch to his name but the shirt he wore; he was destitute.
After the flood, many destitute families slept in the school gym until their homes could be rebuilt.
In context Once a wealthy merchant, he lost all his ships in a single storm and was left destitute, with no house, no savings and only the coat on his back.
Similar penniless, impoverished, needy, poor
Opposite affluent, wealthy, prosperous
From Latin destitutus, “abandoned,” from destituere (to forsake, to leave without).