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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Impoverish \Im*pov"er*ish\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Impoverished}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Impoverishing}.] [OF. empovrir; pref. em- (L. in) + povre poor, F. pauvre; cf. OF. apovrir, F. appauvrir, where the prefix is a-, L. ad. Cf. {Empoverish}, and see {Poor}, and {-ish}.]
1. To make poor; to reduce to poverty or indigence; as, misfortune and disease impoverish families.
2. To exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of; to make sterile; as, to impoverish land.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
impoverish
verb
1: make poor [ant: {enrich}]
2: take away [syn: {deprive}] [ant: {enrich}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
57 Moby Thesaurus words for "impoverish": ablate, absorb, assimilate, bankrupt, beggar, bleed, bleed white, break, burn up, bust, consume, denude, deplete, deplume, despoil, digest, displume, divest, drain, drain of resources, draw, draw down, dry, eat, eat up, erode, exhaust, expend, finish, finish off, flay, fleece, fold up, gobble, gobble up, ingest, milk, pauper, pauperize, pick clean, pluck, reduce, ruin, scuttle, shear, sink, skin, spend, squander, strip, strip bare, suck dry, swallow, swallow up, use up, waste away, wear away
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