threadbare
having the nap worn off so as to lay bare the threads of the warp and woof, as a fabric, garment, etc.
wearing threadbare clothes; shabby or poor: a threadbare old man.
meager, scanty, or poor: a threadbare emotional life.
hackneyed; trite; ineffectively stale: threadbare arguments.
Origin of threadbare
1Other words from threadbare
- threadbareness, noun
Words Nearby threadbare
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use threadbare in a sentence
The penguin metaphor construct becomes increasingly threadbare as the seasons progress.
Atypical Fell Short as Both Autistic Representation and Entertainment. At Least It Was Eclipsed During Its Own Time | Sarah Kurchak | July 16, 2021 | TimeBecause few of the alternatives are ready to be tested, and the bit that can be is so threadbare that marketers wouldn’t learn much.
Google’s delayed cookie cull is an inevitable intermission to its fractious pursuit of privacy protections | Seb Joseph | June 25, 2021 | DigidayTaiwan doesn’t suffer from a threadbare healthcare system or poor government management when it comes to Covid-19.
Taiwan’s face-time work culture is hurting its pandemic response | Leslie Nguyen-Okwu | May 18, 2021 | QuartzI’ll wear it to every party—until it’s threadbare, and then I’m sure I’ll have horror stories connected to it once that happens.
Spent the Last Year in Sweatpants? The Creator Behind a New Netflix Show Has Some Ideas About Where Our Clothes Go From Here | Annabel Gutterman | April 1, 2021 | TimeThe Kremlin of course denies this, but such denials are threadbare in the aftermath of at least three high-profile poisonings since 2006 of people opposing the regime or associated with regime opponents.
Even though there is a threadbare concession stand, overflowing picnic baskets abound.
Native American Basketball Team in Wyoming Have Hoop Dreams Of Their Own | Robert Silverman | August 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTInstead, Carson tends to alternate between inflammatory arguments and threadbare truisms.
Immigration and tax policy are just as beggared and threadbare and awful.
Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush & the Politics of Exhaustion | Nick Gillespie | April 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOn the other hand, the economic model is as threadbare as many of the buildings and much of the island's infrastructure.
Obama Should End America’s Stupidest Foreign Policy: Isolating Cuba | Robert Shrum | February 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSequestration tore at our threadbare social safety net, and this deal leaves the damage intact.
Tea Party Republicans: The Biggest Sore Winners in Washington | Jamelle Bouie | December 12, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe trick that he hit upon was the stalest, the most threadbare, the most commonplace and vulgar that one can imagine.
Overland | John William De ForestIt is used to divert attention from poverty of thought and a threadbare vocabulary.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) WebsterMoreover he had torn his threadbare overalls and his hot face was smeared where he had rubbed off the mosquitoes with dirty hands.
The Girl From Keller's | Harold BindlossNo one should pretend to write upon so threadbare a topic without having at least some novelty of expression.
Peveril of the Peak | Sir Walter ScottThe fireplace gave the room a cheerful appearance but she could not fail to notice the threadbare rug, the scanty furniture.
The Missing Formula | Mildred A. Wirt, AKA Ann Wirt
British Dictionary definitions for threadbare
/ (ˈθrɛdˌbɛə) /
(of cloth, clothing, etc) having the nap worn off so that the threads are exposed
meagre or poor: a threadbare existence
hackneyed: a threadbare argument
wearing threadbare clothes; shabby
Derived forms of threadbare
- threadbareness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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