Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use threadbare in a sentence

18 example sentences · adjective

Threadbare means 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. Example: “He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.”

Examples of threadbare by meaning

adjectiveOf cloth, clothing, furnishings, etc.: frayed and worn to an extent that the nap is damaged and the warp and weft...

  • Unkempt, in threadbare clothes, with holed shoes and sun-cured hide, my costume is permanent: the traveler, the man from far away.2014 December, Paul Salopek, “Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. On Foot through the Holy Lands”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National...

More sentences with threadbare

  • He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.From the entry ragtag
  • But upon his arrival, Lewis discovers that his uncle’s place is no threadbare bachelor pad.2018 September 19, Katie Rife, “Eli Roth, of all directors, brings Amblin magic to the kid-lit horror of The House With A Clock In Its…. From the entry bachelor pad
  • But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog . . .2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club. From the entry golden age
  • As we said yesterday, the case for antidisestablishmentarianism has never been more threadbare.2005 April 9, “Crowning nonsense”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry antidisestablishmentarianism
  • He was dressed casually, expensively, a contrast to his older brother's ragged, threadbare clothes and general scraggliness.2004, Carla Neggers, White Hot, →ISBN, page 195. From the entry scraggliness
  • One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor.1999, Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True. From the entry pill
  • It was really badly decorated – all peely patterned wallpaper and threadbare furniture.1999, Anouchka Grose Forrester, Ringing for You: A Love Story with Interruptions, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 192. From the entry peely
  • I am partial to the more threadbare gems and find the more distressed pieces to be the most beautiful.2017 September 5, Lili Göksenin, “How to Buy, and Live with, a Seriously Good Antique Rug”, in GQ. From the entry desaturate
  • The threadbare red and gold carpeting rugburned his cheek, but he rolled over at once and kicked the door shut.2014, Keith Melton, Dark Ride Dogs, Etopia Press, →ISBN. From the entry rugburn
  • Petersburg and Moscow barrels through the threadbare town of Lyuban.2013 October 13, Ellen Barry, “The Russia Left Behind: A journey through a heartland on the slow road to ruin”, in The New York Times. From the entry Lyuban
  • When Nancy entered, she was clutching a bedhanging, her cold toes curled on the threadbare India rug by her bed.2007, Lesley-Anne McLeod, The Beggarmaid. From the entry bedhanging
  • Beneath the pale light crouched an ancient white-haited man, wrapped against the rain in a threadbare maroon pelerine.2004 09, Julie D'Arcy, Silverdawn, Mundania Press, →ISBN, page 17. From the entry pelerine
  • They were worn and threadbare and tight around his groin.2001, Joe Meno, How the Hula Girl Sings, published 2005, page 165. From the entry skivvies
  • Here it was now, by the side of a Swamp in the Barrens of Newfoundland, threadbare, wet, dirty.1968 (originally written: 1794), Aaron Thomas, The Newfoundland Journal of Aaron Thomas, page 104. From the entry barren
  • Every piece of furniture, from the threadbare sofa to the rickety center table, seems kind of sad and sobby.1917, Sewell Ford, Wilt Thou Torchy. From the entry sobby
  • For a time the intellectuals will seize madly upon a word, use it until it is threadbare and then toss it into the vocabularian ragbag.1918 December 5, “Words Worn Threadbare”, in The Advocate-Democrat, volume XXXIV, number 15, Marysville, Kan., →OCLC, section 2, page [2]…. From the entry vocabularian
  • Unkempt, bearded to the eyes, there he stood clutching his shapeless old cabbage-tree, in mud-stained jumper and threadbare smalls—the very spit of the unsuccessful digger.1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Echo Library, published 2007, page 31. From the entry smalls

Meaning of threadbare

  1. adjective 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.
  2. adjective In poor condition; damaged, shabby; also, poorly equipped or provided for, inadequate, meagre, scanty.
  3. adjective Of an argument, excuse, etc.: used so often that it is no longer effective or interesting; banal, clichéd, trite.

Full definition of threadbare

Questions about threadbare in a sentence

How do you use threadbare in a sentence?
Threadbare is used as an adjective. For example: “He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.”
What is a short sentence with threadbare?
“Petersburg and Moscow barrels through the threadbare town of Lyuban.”
What does threadbare mean?
Threadbare means 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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: threadbare (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use threadbare in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/threadbare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.