threadbare
[thred-bair]
- 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
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for threadbare
Contemporary Examples
Even though there is a threadbare concession stand, overflowing picnic baskets abound.
Native American Basketball Team in Wyoming Have Hoop Dreams Of Their OwnRobert Silverman
August 31, 2014
Instead, Carson tends to alternate between inflammatory arguments and threadbare truisms.
Immigration and tax policy are just as beggared and threadbare and awful.
On the other hand, the economic model is as threadbare as many of the buildings and much of the island's infrastructure.
Sequestration tore at our threadbare social safety net, and this deal leaves the damage intact.
Historical Examples
It's a very good word, too, but sometimes I fear she will wear it threadbare.
The Fortune HunterLouis Joseph Vance
When at length she felt a welcome jar and lurch her patience was threadbare.
The Very Small PersonAnnie Hamilton Donnell
He weighed the stories he had heard from Shaky, and picked them threadbare.
The Night RidersRidgwell Cullum
His sentiments were, no better known in Boston than his threadbare clothes.
The Siege of BostonAllen French
She pressed the cat to her threadbare bosom with a breathless exclamation.
Under Western EyesJoseph Conrad
threadbare
- (of cloth, clothing, etc) having the nap worn off so that the threads are exposed
- meagre or poora threadbare existence
- hackneyeda threadbare argument
- wearing threadbare clothes; shabby
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
Word Origin and History for threadbare
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper