Threadbare

Definition: Threadbare

Threadbare

Adjective

1. Repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse; "bromidic sermons"; "his remarks were trite and commonplace"; "hackneyed phrases"; "a stock answer"; "repeating threadbare jokes"; "parroting some timeworn axiom"; "the trite metaphor `hard as nails'".

2. Having the nap worn away so that the threads show through; "threadbare rugs".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "threadbare" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Synonyms: Threadbare

Deterioration

Adjective: unimproved; (improve; ); deteriorated; Verb: altered, altered for the worse; injured; Verb: sprung; withering, spoiling; Verb: on the wane, on the decline; tabid; degenerate; marescent; worse; the worse for, all the worse for; out of repair, out of tune; imperfect; the worse for wear; battered; weathered, weather-beaten; stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare; worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags; reduced, reduced to a skeleton; far gone; tacky.

Divestment

Adjective: divested; Verb: bare, naked, nude; undressed, undraped; denuded; exposed; in dishabille; bald, threadbare, ragged, callow, roofless.

Crosswords: Threadbare

Books

• A mixed and threadbare bag : employment, incomes, and poverty in Lower Roza, Qumbu, Transkei (reference)

• Threadbare Like Lace (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

His coat was the most fashionable cut, but threadbare.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "threadbare": a threadbare joke ♦ threadbare joke. Additional references.

Albanian

shumë i përdorur (well worn), i vjetruar (antiquated, back number, dated, decrepit, dilapidated, disreputable, fusty, moldy, moth-eaten, mouldy, napless, obsolete, old hat, out of date, outdated, outworn, overage, rusty, seasoned, second hand, superannuated, time worn, worm-eaten), i grisur (decrepit, dilapidated, infirm, lacerate, ramshackle, rickety), i grirë (beaten, cankered, hackneyed, minced, obsolete, outworn, stale, trite), bajat (moldy, mouldy, stale, stuffy, warmed-over). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مكرر حتى البتذال, ‏مبتذل (banal, common, commonplace, conventional, corny, everyday, fade, fading, hack, hackneyed, outworn, overused, pedestrian, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, prose, routine, slipshod, stale, stereotyped, tacky, tired, trite, trivial, vapid, vulgar, well worn, workaday, worn out), ‏رث (dowdy, down, dungy, heel, inherit, mangy, outworn, seedy, shabby, slipshod, worn, worn out), ‏بالي (obsolete, reck), ‏بال (decomposed, decrepit, fossil, mangy, musty, old fashioned, outmoded, outworn, rotten, shabby, stale, tired, trite, well worn, worn, worn out). (various references)

Bulgarian 

с износени дрехи, овехтял (rattletrap, ratty, rusty, shop-soiled, worn out), неубедителен (inconclusive, lame, unconvincing, unpersuasive), изтъркан (bare, hack, hackneyed, napless, old hat, outworn, platitudinous, played out, raunchy, shabby, stale, stereotypical, time worn, trite, twice-told, warmed-over, well worn, worn out), изтрит, износен (burnt-out, inexpensive, napless, old, outworn, profitable, scruffy, shabby, shiny, well worn, worn out). (various references)

Czech

prošoupaný, otřepaný (corny, hackneyed, jaded, outworn, overworked, platitudinous, stale, trite, well worn), obnošený (shabby, used, well worn, worn out), ošumìlý (disreputable, dowdy, dowdyish, down at heel, scruffy, seedy, shabby, shoddy), nepřesvìdèivý (inconclusive, unconvincing, unpersuasive), chabý (faint, frail, lame, torpid, vapid, wan, weedy). (various references)

Farsi 

مندرس (Rundown, Seedy). (various references)

Finnish

nukkavieru (seedy-looking, shabby), kulunut (hackneyed, shabby, stale, well-worn, worn-out). (various references)

French

usé, rebattu, râpé, élimé. (various references)

German

fadenscheinig (flimsy, poor, specious, thin, threadbarely, transparent). (various references)

Greek 

πτωχικόσ, φτωχικόσ (slummy), τετριμμένοσ (banal, commonplace, hackneyed, outworn, platitudinous, prosaic, prosaical, shopworn, trite, well worn, worn out). (various references)

Hebrew 

מרופט (ragged, seedy, shabby, tattered), בל�" (mixture, worn out). (various references)

Hungarian

kopott (aged, dilapidated, dingy, ragged, rinky-dink, rubbed, rusty, scuffed, seedy, shabby, to be out at elbows, to be out at heels, worn, worn out), foszlott, elcsépelt (banal, commonplace, corny, hackneyed, overworked, rinky-dink, stale, trite, trivial, well-trodden). (various references)

Indonesian

aus (worn out, worndown). (various references)

Italian

logoro (effete, exhausted, jaded, outworn, ragged, ruined, shabby, well worn, worn, worn out), liso (worn out), consumato (consummate, expends, worn out). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

古い (aged, ancient, antiquated, obsolete article, old, outmoded, stale). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ふるい (aged, ague, ancient, antiquated, obsolete article, old, outmoded, shaking, shivering, sieve, stale, trembling). (various references)

Manx

ceaut lhome. (various references)

Pig Latin

eadbarethray.(various references)

Portuguese

trivial (banal, blanket, bread and butter, common, commonplace, course, dismal, inelaborate, light, pedestrian, petty, piddling, platitudinarian, platitudinous, potty, prosy, puerile, quotidian, slight, small, trifling, trite, trivial, unimportant, uninspired, vulgar), velho (aged, ancient, antiquated, antique, elderly, graybeard, hunker, old, old man, olden, shabby, stale, superannuated, trite, worm-eaten), surrado (beat-up), puído (seedy, shabby), no fio, maltrapilho (ragamuffin, rat, ratty, shabby, shake-rag, tatterdemalion, tattered), gasto (consumption, cost, effete, exhausted, expenditure, expense, impoverished, jaded, offscourings, old, out, outgo, seedy, shabby, spent, trite, untrue, waste, wear), batido (whipped). (various references)

Romanian

uzat de tot, ros (gnawed, jaded, napless, obsolete, seedy), rãsuflat (flat, mawkish, stale), jerpelit la culme, banal (banal, cheap, commonplace, daily, dusty, everyday, hackneyed, humdrum, indifferent, indistinctive, insipid, mediocre, puerile, small, trite, trivial, unimaginative), învechit (antediluvian, antiquated, back, crusted, dated, disused, grey headed, inveterate, lapsed, musty, obsolescent, obsolete, old, old fashioned, out of date, outdated, outworn, passe, rusty, stale, superannuated). (various references)

Russian 

потертый (down-at-heel, napless). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

pohaban (battered, dingy, frayed, napless, outworn, shabby, worn, worn out), otrcan (commonplace, corny, hackneyed, outworn, shabby, stale, tame, trite, well worn), iznošen (outworn, slipshod, well worn, worn, worn out, worn-down). (various references)

Spanish

trillado (hackneyed, hard-worked, played out, stale, threshed, trite, worn out, worn-out), raído (bare, frayed, fret, seedy, shabby, tacky, tatty), poco convincente (inconclusive, lame, thin, unconvincing, weak), gastado (hackneyed, old, outworn, shot, spent, trite, used, wasted, worn, worn out), flojo (dull, fading, feeble, flabby, flagging, floppy, fluffily, forceless, groggy, idle, lame, lax, limber, limp, loose, loosely, milk and water, nerveless, sagging, slack, sluggish, soft, supine, thin, tipsily, unfirm, unformal, ungirt, unsteadily, watery, weak, wishy washy, wobbly, wonky), calvo (bald, bald-headed, bald-pated, hairless). (various references)

Swedish

trådsliten, luggsliten (napless, shabby), banal (banal, commonplace, corny, dismal, flat, hack, hackneyed, humdrum, insipid, novelettish, platitudinarian, trite). (various references)

Thai

เก่าจนหม�"ขน (เสื้อผ้า). (various references)

Turkish

kabak tadı veren, eski püskü (moth-eaten, shabby, tatty, worn out), bayat (corny, cut and dried, dated, detrited, not fresh, old, stale, trite, twice-told, worn, worn out), çok eskimiş. (various references)

Ukrainian

заяложений (commonplace, ordinary, outworn, platitudinous, ready made, shiny, stale, stock), потертий (frayed, trite, worn out). (various references)

Vietnamese 

mòn xơ cả chỉ. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "threadbare": threadbareness, threadbarenesses. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: aberrated.

-2 letters: barehead, bartered, breathed, breather, rethread, threader.

-3 letters: abrader, adherer, aerated, berated, berthed, breadth, breathe, debater, earthed, hearted, hetaera, rebated, rebater, reheard, retread, tabered, treader.

-4 letters: abated, abater, abrade, adhere, aerate, aether, barred, barret, barter, bathed, bather, bearer, beater, behead, berate, bertha, breath, darter, dearer, dearth, debate, derate, errata, harder, hatred, header, hearer.

-5 letters: aahed.

+2 letters: rehydratable, weatherboard.

+3 letters: weatherboards.

+4 letters: featherbrained, threadbareness, weatherboarded.

+5 letters: weatherboarding.