一穷二白

一窮二白
yīqióngèrbái
  1. impoverished
  2. backward both economically and culturally

CEDICT

  1. 形容非常贫穷落后。
  2. 大陆地区穷指工农业不发达，白指文化科学水准低。形容基础差，底子薄。

重編國語辭典

Homographs

一穷二白 yīqióng'èrbái

Entry Composition

1 一 yī
  1. one
  2. single
  3. a (article)
  4. as soon as
  5. entire; whole; all; throughout
  6. "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)
  7. also pr. yāo for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
2 穷 qióng
  1. poor
  2. destitute
  3. to use up
  4. to exhaust
  5. thoroughly
  6. extremely
  7. (coll.) persistently and pointlessly
3 二 èr
  1. two
  2. 2
  3. (Beijing dialect) stupid
4 白 bái
  1. white
  2. snowy
  3. pure
  4. bright
  5. empty
  6. blank
  7. plain
  8. clear
  9. to make clear
  10. in vain
  11. gratuitous
  12. free of charge
  13. reactionary
  14. anti-communist
  15. funeral
  16. to stare coldly
  17. to write wrong character
  18. to state
  19. to explain
  20. vernacular
  21. spoken lines in opera

Related entries

凋敝 diāobì
  1. impoverished
  2. destitute
  3. hard
  4. depressed (of business)
  5. tattered
  6. ragged
穷苦 qióngkǔ
  1. impoverished
  2. destitute
贫乏 pínfá
  1. impoverished
  2. lacking
  3. deficient
  4. limited
  5. meager
  6. impoverishment
  7. lack
  8. deficiency
贫困 pínkùn
  1. impoverished
  2. poverty
他怎么在这样的贫困中谋生？

How did he make his living in such poverty?

Source: Tatoeba

沦落 lúnluò
  1. to degenerate
  2. impoverished
  3. to fall (into poverty)
  4. to be reduced (to begging)
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