THREADBARE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does threadbare mean? 

• THREADBARE (adjective)
  The adjective THREADBARE has 2 senses:

1. repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

2. having the nap worn away so that the threads show through

  Familiarity information: THREADBARE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THREADBARE (adjective)

Comparative: threadbarer   
Superlative: threadbarest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

Synonyms:

banal; commonplace; hackneyed; old-hat; shopworn; stock; threadbare; timeworn; tired; trite; well-worn

Context example:

the trite metaphor 'hard as nails'

Similar:

unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having the nap worn away so that the threads show through

Context example:

threadbare rugs

Similar:

worn (affected by wear; damaged by long use)

 Context examples 

A threadbare and venerable device, but useful upon occasion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They found Mary, as usual, deep in the study of thorough-bass and human nature; and had some extracts to admire, and some new observations of threadbare morality to listen to.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The attachment of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax became commonplace, threadbare, stale in the comparison, exciting no surprize, presenting no disparity, affording nothing to be said or thought.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The preacher who can touch and affect such an heterogeneous mass of hearers, on subjects limited, and long worn threadbare in all common hands; who can say anything new or striking, anything that rouses the attention without offending the taste, or wearing out the feelings of his hearers, is a man whom one could not, in his public capacity, honour enough.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was turned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, made her feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned "character" leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)