Threadbare
['θredbeə] or ['θrɛdbɛr]
Definition
(adj.) having the nap worn away so that the threads show through; 'threadbare rugs' .
Typed by Brandon--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off; threadbare clothes.
(a.) Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and threadbare quotations.
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Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Napless, worn out.[2]. Trite, hackneyed, stale, beaten, common, commonplace.
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Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Hackneyed, commonplace, trite, stale, worn_out,[See THOUGHTFUL]
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Examples
- Christy glanced at his own threadbare knees, and then at Fred's beautiful white trousers. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The whole indecorous threadbare ruin, from the broken shoes to the prematurely-grey scanty hair, grovelled. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He looked a complete gentleman in his rather threadbare coat and well-worn hat. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- A threadbare and venerable device, but useful upon occasion. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- It certainly was plain--threadbare--almost shabby. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Rustily drest, with his spectacles in his hand, and their very case worn threadbare. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Mary admired the keen-faced handsome little Vicar in his well-brushed threadbare clothes more than any man she had had the opportunity of knowing. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
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