Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having the nap worn down so that the filling or warp threads show through; frayed or shabby.
- adjective Wearing old, shabby clothing.
- adjective Overused to the point of being worn out; hackneyed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the thread bare; worn so that the nap is lost and the thread is visible, either wholly or in certain parts: said of a piece of textile fabric, as in a garment, or of the garment itself.
- Wearing threadbare clothes; shabby; seedy.
- Well-worn; much used; hence, hackneyed; trite: as, a threadbare jest.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off;
threadbare clothes. - adjective Fig.: Worn out
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of cloth
shabby ,frayed andworn to an extent thatwarp threads show - adjective of a person wearing
clothes of threadbare material - adjective of speech
banal orclichéd ;trite orhackneyed
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
- adjective having the nap worn away so that the threads show through
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word threadbare.
Examples
-
During office hours, he tools around in threadbare denim shirts and old motorcycle jackets.
Old Clothes Teri Agins 2010
-
Let us leave it to the Reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans.
-
Let us leave it to the Reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans.
SeeLight: 2006
-
Replied he, O Kings of the Age, the strangest thing that happened to me was that one day, two-and-twenty years ago, I snatched a girl who belonged to the Holy City; she was gifted with beauty and comeliness, despite that she was but a servant and was clad in threadbare clothes, with a piece of camlet-cloth on her head.
-
The Cathedral is occupied 24/7 by pious parched and shriveled Indian women, barefoot and wrapped in threadbare Indian cloths, crawling the length of the nave on their knees, pleading with the larger than life suffering gesso Jesus hanging above the baroque red velvet elegance of the raised altar platform.
-
The Cathedral is occupied 24/7 by pious parched and shriveled Indian women, barefoot and wrapped in threadbare Indian cloths, crawling the length of the nave on their knees, pleading with the larger than life suffering gesso Jesus hanging above the baroque red velvet elegance of the raised altar platform.
-
"Gentle, austere figures, dressed always in threadbare black"
-
I had not meant to spend any more money on the house, but I was worn threadbare from the discomfort of having no room of my own.
Madeleine: An Autobiography Madeleine 1919
-
But I felt a pang of guilt as I recalled the threadbare state of Kedge-Lockaby's modest little hospital.
Sagittarius Whorl May, Julian 2001
-
Blake endures the deprivation with a kind of threadbare resignation, saving his hostility for angry phone calls to his manager (Paul Herman).
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.