worn-out
adjective
worn or used beyond repair.
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worn-out
American
[wawrn-out, wohrn-]
/ ˈwɔrnˈaʊt, ˈwoʊrn- /
adjective
-
worn or used beyond repair.
-
depleted of energy, strength, or enthusiasm; exhausted; fatigued.
worn-out
British
adjective
-
worn or used until threadbare, valueless, or useless
-
exhausted; very weary
worn out
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of worn-out
First recorded in 1585–95
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.
See Examples For:
The federal government encouraged pine planting with annual payments to landowners through programs meant to reduce erosion and support crop prices by converting worn-out farmland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
What can the beat-up, worn-out records at your local thrift store do to dodge a landfill and keep the Earth spinning?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Speaking to the BBC, dressed in worn-out clothes and bathroom slippers, he sounds stressed and bitter as he recalls his incarceration.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
A strategy that strengthens the body's natural capacity to replace worn-out mitochondria could, in principle, help address all of these problems at once.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2025
He wears a worn-out cap—who knows what color?—silver now.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
Wodehouse caper: “Jacqui Cutler trudged into her expansive kitchen, looking every bit as worn out and miserable as someone who had spent the morning digging potatoes, which she most certainly had not.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Left behind is a charred out refrigerator, bed frames, a worn out and graffiti-covered couch, piles of left-behind clothes and the burnt debris of the home that once stood there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
The president went on to say he planned to renovate a "dilapidated, worn out, and very dangerous" golf course in Washington called East Potomac Golf Links, located on an island in the Potomac River.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
Osteoarthritis is not simply about "worn out" joints.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 4, 2026
He doesn’t make eye contact with me, but for some reason I get the feeling he’s worn out.
From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman
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.
