Link Centre Dictionary

threadbare

thread·bare

UK/ˈθɹɛdbɛə/ US/-bɛː/ uncommon archaic obsolete

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”
  • “'”
Synonyms
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2.

having the nap worn away so that the threads show through

  • “threadbare rugs”
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Origin

PIE word *bʰosós From Middle English thred-bar, thred-bare (“of cloth, clothing, etc.: worn to such an extent that the warp and weft threads show, shabby, worn-out; (figurative) inadequate, poor”) [and other forms], from thred (“piece of textile twine”) (from Old English þrǣd (“thread”), from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz (“thread; twisted fibre”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to drill, pierce; to rub; to turn, twist”)) + bar, bare (“naked, unclothed, bare; not covered”) (from Old English bær (“naked, bare; unconcealed”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“naked, bare”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós (“bare; barefoot”)). The English word is analysable as thread + bare.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.