ppl. a. [See WEAR v.1 9 b, 10 b, 11, 17. CF. OUTWORN.]
1. Of material things: Injured, damaged, defaced by wear, usage, attrition or exposure, esp. to such a degree as to be no longer of use or service. † Of graphic characters: Obliterated.
1612. Selden, Illustr. Drayton’s Poly-olb., iv. 72. The errour I imagine to be from restoring of wooren out times in Bede and others.
1615. Sandys, Trav., 40. The bases whereof did beare these now worne out characters.
1637. Spelman, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 153. A single letter in a worne-out worde, is a great help to revive what wanteth.
a. 1653. Gouge, Comm. Heb. xiii. 1. It is a very obscure and almost worn-out stamp of that glorious Image in which at first God made man.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xiii. ¶ 2. For … Triangular Punches, I commonly reserve my worn out three square Files.
1756. C. Smart, trans. Horace, Epist., I. xix. 38. For the bribe of a worn-out coat.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Pawnbroker’s Shop. The worn-out thin shoes.
1851. Richardson, Geol. (1855), 439. A worn-out vein of ironstone.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xxii. 259. The worn-out carpets and old-fashioned chairs.
1874. Burnand, My Time, xxxiv. 372. There was a worn-out old safe in a corner.
b. Of a color: Dull; not bright or vivid.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Apocynum, Small Umbels of worn-out purple-colour’d Flowers.
1812. New Bot. Garden, I. 6. These [flowers of Asclepias Syriaca] are of a worn-out purple colour.
2. Of persons, living things, etc.: Utterly exhausted and wasted in strength or vitality.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 17 Feb. 1695. The Hospital design’d to be built at Greenwich for worn-out seamen.
1758. P. Williamson, Life (1812), 49. They used all proper means to recover my worn-out spirits.
1789. Wesley, Minutes, Wks. 1872, VIII. 327. Every worn-out Preacher shall receive, if he wants it, at least ten pounds a-year.
1793. Cowper, To Mary, 55. Thy worn-out heart will break at last.
1795–6. Wordsw., Borderers, II. 927. We kill a worn-out horse, and who but women Sigh at the deed?
1796. Marshall, Planting, I. 93. The rough and the worn-out Hedges.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xi. 105. Her father was a worn-out, broken merchant.
1852. C. W. Hoskyns, Talpa, 78. The specific operation of lime upon a worn-out soil.
1854. Poultry Chron., I. 595. This practice of crossing with a Gamecock was much in vogue with the old breeders, to improve a worn-out stock.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xiv. 496. There, in the woods, worn-out men sank down on the bare, frozen ground.
b. Of a smile: Faint, feeble, ‘wan.’
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, xiv. At last, with ‘bated breath,’ and a very worn-out smile, [she] faltered forth.
3. Of ideas, devices, etc.: Hackneyed by use, trite, stale, out of fashion. Of institutions: Effete.
1713. Addison, Cato, I. iii. 7. Your cold Hypocrisie’s a stale Device, A worn-out Trick.
1782. Cowper, Mutual Forbearance, 5. Those hangings, with their worn-out graces.
1801. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., IV. 5. Under the claims of a sort of antiquated and worn-out nobility.
1819. in Croker Papers, 3 May. His speech … treated a worn-out subject so as to make it appear a new one.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 23. This composition … exhibits the worn-out Grecian mythology in an aspect of picturesque novelty.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, xv. I am too old for that worn-out quibble.
1882. Besant, All Sorts, xxviii. (1898), 194. The House of Lords … was an effete and worn-out institution.
† 4. Of time: Past, departed. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1350. This patterne of the worne-out age.
Hence Worn-outness (also -outiness).
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., ii. The worn-outiness of the old pony on which he used to ride.
1867. Atchison Daily Free Press, 2 Aug., 1/4. There is a wornoutness about reading this document [Declaration of Independence].
1898. B. Gregory, Side Lights Confl. Meth., 434. Drawing money from our charitable funds as a worn-out minister; or, from his snug retreat in York, receiving allowances from the same funds, on the same plea of wornoutness.
