outworn

[out-wawrn, -wohrn]

adjective

1. out-of-date, outmoded, or obsolete.

   outworn ideas; outworn methods.

2. worn-out, as clothes.

3. exhausted in strength or endurance, as persons.

verb

1. past participle of outwear.

outworn

/ ˌaʊtˈwɔːn, ˈaʊtwɔːn /

adjective

1. no longer accepted, used, believed, etc; obsolete or outmoded

Other Word Forms

• unoutworn adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of outworn¹

First recorded in 1555–65; out- + worn

Example Sentences

“I had outworn my usefulness,” Watt said of his decision, adding that others “wouldn’t get off my case” about his insulting coal advisory panel comment.

Read more on Seattle Times

Could I remount the river of my years To the first fountain of our smiles and tears I would not trace again its stream of hours Between its outworn banks of withered flowers.

Read more on Salon

That “hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn,” as science fiction author Wilson Tucker memorably put it when he coined the term in 1941.

Read more on Washington Post

So, the high temperature of 62 seemed an obvious anachronism, an outdated and outworn remnant of earlier times.

Read more on Washington Post

Perhaps expecting it might be reformed soon, Albright called it “creaky,” “archaic,” “tired,” “no longer dependable” and “America’s outworn way of electing its presidents.”

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• ancient 
• antique 
• archaic 
• corny 
• dated 
• odd 
• old 
• old-time 
• outdated 
• outmoded 
• primitive