threadbare Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    well-worn; commonplace; hackneyed; tired; old-hat; timeworn; trite; banal; shopworn; stock.
    • 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'
  2. adjective satellite having the nap worn away so that the threads show through
    • threadbare rugs

WordNet

Thread"bare` adjective
Definitions
  1. Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off; threadbare clothes. "A threadbare cope." Chaucer.
  2. Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and threadbare quotations. Swift.

Webster 1913