adjective
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showing the adverse effects of overlong use or of old age
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hackneyed; trite
Etymology
Origin of timeworn
Explanation
The adjective timeworn is good for describing something that's been said or done so often that it's not interesting or fresh any more. A movie with a timeworn plot has few surprises. The joke your dad tells every year at Thanksgiving has probably become timeworn, and the meal itself may seem a bit timeworn. A local government's timeworn way of not dealing with problems may finally inspire voters to make a change. Timeworn is a word that first appeared in the 1700's, sometimes spelled with a hyphen: time-worn.
Vocabulary lists containing timeworn
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Uprooted
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But abandoning timeworn procedures meant new complications—including one that led the skunk works team to the Michigan plant at 3 a.m.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 5, 2026
Marooned on “a breathtaking piece of land” at the peninsula’s far western edge, steps from the deadly surf at Ocean Beach, the timeworn seaside menagerie had endured weeks of gray gloom.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2025
A timeworn story of unrequited love, it leans on his training as a counter-tenor, before exploding into an unexpected techno breakdown.
From BBC • May 9, 2025
But the gently moving “I’m Still Here” surpasses its contemporaries thanks to its well-paced screenplay and its ability to buck conventions in what would otherwise be a timeworn story of perseverance.
From Salon • Feb. 28, 2025
He raised his hand higher and then higher still until Despereaux's whiskers brushed against his leathery, timeworn ear.
From "The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread" by Kate DiCamillo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
