Adjacent Words

threadbare definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
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'" [syn: banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn]
2: having the nap worn away so that the threads show through; "threadbare rugs"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century 1. a. having the nap worn off so that the thread shows ; shabby <threadbare clothes> b. wearing threadbare clothing ; very poor <took in threadbare relatives — Russell Baker> c. barely adequate because of cheapness or shabbiness <a threadbare production> 2. exhausted of interest or freshness Synonyms: see trite • threadbareness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 (of cloth) so worn that the nap is lost and the thread visible. 2 (of a person) wearing such clothes. 3 a hackneyed. b feeble or insubstantial (a threadbare excuse).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Threadbare Thread"bare`, a. 1. Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off; threadbare clothes. ``A threadbare cope.'' --Chaucer. 2. Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and threadbare quotations. --Swift.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Threadbare clothes, carpets, and other pieces of cloth look old, dull, and very thin, because they have been worn or used too much. She sat cross-legged on a square of threadbare carpet. = worn ADJ 2. If you describe an activity, an idea, or an argument as threadbare, you mean that it is very weak, or inadequate, or old and no longer interesting. ...the government's threadbare domestic policies. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Napless, worn, seedy. 2. Trite, hackneyed, stale, worn out, common, commonplace.

Moby Thesaurus

back-number, banal, bare, bathetic, bewhiskered, boring, bromidic, cliche, cliche-ridden, cliched, common, commonplace, corny, cut-and-dried, damaged, deep-worn, dilapidated, dingy, dog-eared, down-at-heel, dull, fade, faded, familiar, frayed, fusty, hack, hackney, hackneyed, imitative, impaired, injured, monotonous, moth-eaten, musty, old hat, overused, overworked, platitudinous, played out, prosaic, ragged, run-down, scruffy, seedy, sere, set, shabby, shelfworn, shopworn, slovenly, sorry, square, stale, stereotyped, stock, tacky, tattered, tatty, tedious, timeworn, tired, tiresome, torn, trite, truistic, uncreative, unoriginal, warmed-over, well-known, well-worn, worn, worn out, worn ragged, worn thin, worn to rags, worn to threads, worn-down, worn-out, wretched