Word.ws English Dictionary

worn thin

worn thin is the past participle of wear thin.

Meaning of wear thin

Verb

wear thin (third-person singular simple present wears thin, present participle wearing thin, simple past wore thin, past participle worn thin)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To lessen or weaken over time, as from overuse.
    • Your jocose wisecracks have already worn thin.

Questions about worn thin

What is worn thin the past participle of?
Worn thin is the past participle of wear thin.

Words near worn thin in the dictionary

  1. worn sackcloth and ashes
  2. worn something on one's sleeve
  3. worn the breeches
  4. worn the pants
  5. worn the trousers
  6. worn thin
  7. worn through
  8. worn too many hats
  9. worn up
  10. worn yellow stockings
  11. worn't

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worn thin (page history and authors); wear thin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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