Meanings of utter penury in English

This splendid Carnival brought us to utter penury, as it does every student.

Three years there living, as he says, in utter penury.

Wait till you are married to a man like Reardon, and reduced to utter penury.'

From 1952 until 1973, when the unmarried mothers' allowance was introduced, young unmarried mothers faced not only isolation and stigma, but utter penury.