What is another word for threadbare?

Pronunciation: [θɹˈɛdbe͡ə] (IPA)

The word "threadbare" means something that has been worn out due to constant use and is now very thin or has lost its original quality. Synonyms for threadbare include worn-out, shabby, frayed, tattered, dilapidated, ragged, faded, and threadworn. Other synonyms for threadbare include old-fashioned, passe, outdated, antiquated, and outmoded. If you are searching for an alternative word for threadbare, you can use the phrases well-worn, well-used, run-down, or timeworn. Whatever your preference, these synonyms for threadbare will help you to accurately describe an object that is showing the signs of wear and tear.

Synonyms for Threadbare:

What are the hypernyms for Threadbare?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the opposite words for threadbare?

Threadbare means something that has become worn out or thin due to overuse or exposure. The opposite of the word threadbare could be plushy, meaning soft, luxurious and well-cushioned. Another antonym for threadbare is fresh, meaning newly made or renovated. It is also opposite to shabby, meaning old, worn-out or dilapidated. Instead of being worn out, one can use pristine, meaning immaculate or perfectly clean. Some other antonyms for threadbare could be abundant, plentiful or excess, meaning something that is in abundance and can never become thin or wear out. Hence, threadbare can be interpreted in many different ways, and its antonyms largely depend on the context it is used in.

Usage examples for Threadbare

He had been very close to her, and she had had time to notice that his coat was threadbare.
"The Crisis, Volume 6"
Winston Churchill
The curtains are dingy and threadbare the walls dingy; the ceiling, though lofty, dingy; the boxes on either side for Plaintiff and Defendant are scratched and defaced by the innumerable witnesses who have blundered into them, kicking their shoes against the woodwork.
"Hodge and His Masters"
Richard Jefferies
It is Slingsby, the schoolmaster, a thin, elderly man, rather threadbare and slovenly, somewhat indolent in manner, and with an easy, good-humoured look, not often met with in his craft.
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving

Famous quotes with Threadbare

  • This age thinks better of a gilded fool Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.
    Thomas Dekker
  • Acting doesn't have to be threadbare misery all the time.
    Fiona Shaw
  • Yes, threadbare seem his songs, to lettered ken - they were worn threadbare next the hearts of men.
    William Watson
  • What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes. Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings-- they are so trite, so threadbare. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders his life according to their teachings cannot be far wrong. Has any man ever attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through fire.
    Norman Douglas
  • Americans don't like plain talk anymore. Nowadays they like fat talk. Show them a lean, plain word that cuts to the bone and watch them lard it with thick greasy syllables front and back until it wheezes and gasps for breath as it comes lumbering down upon some poor threadbare sentence like a sack of iron on a swayback horse. "Facilitate" is typical of the case. A generation ago only sissies and bureaucrats would have said "facilitate" in public. Nowadays we are a nation of "facilitate" utterers. "Facilitate" is nothing more than a gout-ridden, overstuffed "ease." Why has "ease" fallen into disuse among us? It is a lovely little bright snake of a word which comes hissing quietly off the tongue and carries us on, without fuss and French horns, to the object which is being eased. This is English at its very best. Easing is not one of the great events of life; it does not call for Beethoven; it is not an idea to get drunk on, to wallow in, to engage in multiple oleaginous syllabification until it becomes a pompous ass of a word like "facilitate."
    Russell Baker

Related words: seams and features, threads and yarns and fabric, threadbare clothes, a threadbare jacket, threads and eyes, needles and pins

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