poor [pʊəʳ]
adjetivo
poorer (comparative)poorest (superlative)1 (not rich) [+person, family, country] pobre
a poor woman una mujer pobre; a poor man un pobre; poor people gente (f) pobre; personas (f) pobres
pewter was the poor man's silver el peltre era la plata de los pobres
they thought that cinema was a or the poor relation of theatre pensaban que el cine era el pariente pobre del teatro
to be the poorer (for sth)
the nation is the poorer for her death la nación ha sufrido una gran pérdida con su muerte; it left me £5 the poorer me dejó con 5 libras de menos
to be as poor as a church mouse ser más pobre que las ratas
2 (inferior, bad) [+goods, service] malo; de mala calidad
the wine was poor el vino era malo or de mala calidad; Britain's poor economic performance el bajo rendimiento económico obtenido por Gran Bretaña; she has a very poor attendance record su expediente es muy malo en lo que a asistencia se refiere; they had made a poor job of it habían hecho una chapuza (informal)
to be a poor imitation of sth ser una burda or pobre imitación de algo
his decision shows poor judgment su decisión denota poco juicio
to have a poor opinion of sb tener un concepto poco favorable de algn
to come a poor second (to sth/sb)
he came a poor second in the final race quedó el segundo en la carrera final, a bastante distancia del primero; his family comes a poor second to his career su familia queda relegada a segundo lugar tras su carrera
3 (deficient) [+memory] malo; [+soil] pobre; estéril; [+harvest] pobre; escaso
I had a poor education la educación que recibí no fue muy buena; many people eat a poor diet mucha gente tiene una dieta pobre
poor (Educ) (as mark) deficiente
soils that are poor in zinc suelos que son pobres en zinc or que tienen bajo contenido en zinc
4 (untalented)
he was a poor actor era un actor flojo; I'm a poor traveller lo de viajar no lo llevo muy bien; she was a very poor swimmer no era buena nadadora
to be poor at maths no ser muy bueno en matemáticas
we are poor at marketing ourselves no somos muy buenos a la hora de darnos publicidad
5 (unfortunate) pobre
the poor child was hungry el pobre niño tenía hambre; poor little thing! ¡pobrecito!; ¡pobre criaturita!
poor (old) you! you poor (old) thing! ¡pobrecito!
poor Mary's lost all her money la pobre María ha perdido todo su dinero; he's very ill, poor chap está grave el pobre
a poor little rich girl una pobre niña rica
modificador
poor box (n) cepillo (m) de las limosnas
poor law (n) (Hist) ley (f) de asistencia pública
poor white (n) (US) persona pobre de raza blanca
You should generally put pobre after the noun when you mean poor in the sense of "not rich" and before the noun in the sense of "unfortunate":
It's a poor area Es una región pobre
The poor boy was trembling El pobre chico estaba temblando
