Definition of "threadbare" []

• Having the nap worn down so that the filling or warp threads show through; frayed or shabby: threadbare rugs. (adjective)
• Wearing old, shabby clothing. (adjective)
• Overused to the point of being worn out; hackneyed: threadbare excuses. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "During office hours, he tools around in threadbare denim shirts and old motorcycle jackets."
• "Replied he, O Kings of the Age, the strangest thing that happened to me was that one day, two-and-twenty years ago, I snatched a girl who belonged to the Holy City; she was gifted with beauty and comeliness, despite that she was but a servant and was clad in threadbare clothes, with a piece of camlet-cloth on her head."
• "Let us leave it to the Reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans."