Search Result for "threadbare": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (2)

1. repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse;
- Example: "bromidic sermons"
- Example: "his remarks were trite and commonplace"
- Example: "hackneyed phrases"
- Example: "a stock answer"
- Example: "repeating threadbare jokes"
- Example: "parroting some timeworn axiom"
- Example: "the trite metaphor `hard as nails'"
[syn: banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock(a), threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn]

2. having the nap worn away so that the threads show through;
- Example: "threadbare rugs"



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Threadbare \Thread"bare`\, a.
   1. Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off;
      threadbare clothes. "A threadbare cope." --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and
      threadbare quotations. --Swift.
      [1913 Webster]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

threadbare
    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(a), threadbare, timeworn,
           tired, trite, well-worn]
    2: having the nap worn away so that the threads show through;
       "threadbare rugs"