threadbare : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: threadbare	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for threadbare
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
threadbare adj 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'" Synonym(s): banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock(a), threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn having the nap worn away so that the threads show through; "threadbare rugs"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Threadbare \Thread"bare`\, a. 1. Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off; threadbare clothes. [bd]A threadbare cope.[b8] --Chaucer. 2. Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and threadbare quotations. --Swift.