poorly.
In a poor manner or condition; without plenty, or sufficiency, or suitable provision for comfort.
Meaning & usage
In a poor manner or condition; without plenty, or sufficiency, or suitable provision for comfort.
to live poorly
He uses his employees poorly.
With little or no success; indifferently; with little profit or advantage.
to do poorly in business
Meanly; without spirit.
Without skill or merit.
He plays tennis poorly.
In a negative manner; with disapproval; unfavorably.
I think poorly of them.
She looked poorly on that suggestion.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English poorly, pouerly, poreliche, poureliche, pouerliche, equivalent to poor + -ly.
Ill, unwell, sick.
to report one's child poorly
I got poorly when I went abroad and ate the local food.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- Proto-Indo-European *perh₃-? Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w(o)p(o)rh₃o- Proto-Italic *paw(o)paro-? Latin dīvesinflu. Latin pauper Old French povrebor. Middle English povre English poor Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Middle English -ly English -ly English poorly From poor + -ly.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.