poormouth

• poor-mouth, poor mouth

From poor +‎ mouth.

poormouth (third-person singular simple present poormouths, present participle poormouthing, simple past and past participle poormouthed)

1. (ambitransitive, informal) To claim to be poor.
   • 1970 June 8, Tom Wolfe, “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's”, in New York Magazine‎^[1]:

     On the other hand one does not want to arrive “poor-mouthing it” in some outrageous turtleneck and West Eighth Street bell-jean combination, as if one is “funky” and of “the people.”

• cap in hand

• “poor mouth”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.