Come away; poverty's catching. (Aphra Behn)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Association with poor people can lead to poverty
Literally: leave, poverty is contagious
Examples
Come away, poverty's catching, let's not linger here
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Come away; poverty's catching. (Aphra Behn)” mean?
Association with poor people can lead to poverty Literally: leave, poverty is contagious
Is “Come away; poverty's catching. (Aphra Behn)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.