threadbare
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: compound
Etymology: 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.
Compound parts: thread
bare
Inflected forms:
form: more threadbare
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most threadbare
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Of cloth, clothing, furnishings, etc.: frayed and worn to an extent that the nap is damaged and the warp and weft threads show; shabby, worn-out.
pos: adj
examples: His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaſte, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled ſhoes hee vvare, […]
VVill any Freedom here from you be born, / VVhoſe Cloaths are thred-bare, and vvhoſe Cloaks are torn?
We are told, that an ancient tragic poet, to move the pity of his audience for his exiled kings and distressed heroes, used to make the actors represent them in dresses and clothes that were thread-bare and decayed.
No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea, without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.
Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but you won't find a hole in it, nor a thread-bare place. It's the best he had, and a fine one too.
The shabbiness of these attendants upon shabbiness, the poverty of these insolvent waiters upon insolvency, was a sight to see. Such threadbare coats and trousers, such fusty gowns and shawls, such squashed hats and bonnets, such boots and shoes, such umbrellas and walking-sticks, never were seen in Rag Fair.
Unkempt, in threadbare clothes, with holed shoes and sun-cured hide, my costume is permanent: the traveler, the man from far away.
gloss: In poor condition; damaged, shabby; also, poorly equipped or provided for, inadequate, meagre, scanty.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: Welth and wyt, I say, be so threde bare worne, / That all is without measure, and fer beyonde the mone.
From an Underſtanding and a Conſcience, thread-bare and ragged vvith perpetual turning; […]
Holy Virgin stood in the main Convent of Glatz, in rather a threadbare condition, when the Prussians first approached; the Jesuits, and ardently Orthodox of both sexes, flagitating Heaven and her with their prayers, that she would vouchsafe to keep the Prussians out.
gloss: Of an argument, excuse, etc.: used so often that it is no longer effective or interesting; banal, clichéd, trite.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
gloss: An argument or assertion with little in the way of substance or supporting evidence.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog (including “Love Is Not The Answer,” a watery echo of the epic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” from 2003’s Permission To Land), Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself.
gloss: Of a person: wearing clothes of threadbare (sense 1) material; hence, impoverished, poor.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
obsolete
examples: Be gon, all Honeſty, / Thou fooliſh, ſlender, thredbare, ſtarving thing, be gon!
Related words: shopworn
Derived words: threadbareness
threadbarity
Translations: