1. Of a garment, etc.: Having the nap worn off, leaving bare the threads of the warp and woof; worn to the thread; shabby; worn-out.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 113. But ȝif a lous couþe lepe I con hit not I-leue Heo scholde wandre on þat walk hit was so þred-bare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 260. He was nat lyk a Cloystrer With a thredbare cope as is a poure scoler.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VI. 449. Thi ald hud, becaus it is thred bar.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 28. Thred-bare cote, and cobled shoes, hee ware.
1693. Bowles, Juvenal, V. 193. Will any Freedom here from you be born, Whose Clothes are thread-bare?
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 42, ¶ 2. Dresses and Clothes that were thread-bare and decayed.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 196. Wit and coin are always doubted with a thread-bare coat.
2. fig. Resembling a threadbare garment; hence, poorly furnished or provided; meager, scanty, poor, beggarly; contemptible, ‘sorry.’
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 1431. Som person is so threde-bare of konnynge.
1462. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., II. 83. Yelverton is a good thredbare frend for yow.
c. 1518. Skelton, Magnyf., 223. Welth and Wyt, I say, be so threde bare worne.
a. 1500. Fane wald I luve, 19, in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), 308. Sum strykis down a threid bair cheik.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1625), 44. With bad attire, and thred-bare dyet, he liued with him a pretty season.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, 10. What Power they have, they will not wear it thred bare.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, Introd. ¶ 25. A conscience thread-bare and ragged with perpetual turning.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel (1876), 438. We should often have had but a threadbare history.
b. esp. Having lost its influence, freshness, or force by much use; trite from constant repetition; commonplace, stale, hackneyed.
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 26. So long he hath vsde to cry, oh rare, That now that phrase is growne thin & thredbare.
1657. J. Watts, Vind. Ch. Eng., 107. A trite, and thredbare exception.
1746. Chesterf., Lett. (1870), 23. The trite, threadbare jokes of those who set up for wit without having any.
1825. Scott, Lett., 29 April. If this quotation is rather threadbare.
1891. Mrs. Oliphant, Jerusalem, I. iv. 157. A strange sermon upon … the fallacy of the hopes of men, which is a threadbare subject.
3. Of persons: Wearing threadbare clothes; shabby, seedy; hence, impecunious, hard up; down-at-heel, out-at-elbows. Now rare or Obs.
1577. R. Wrighte, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. III. 75. He shall not onley be thrid bare but ragged.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., Prison (Arb.), 82. Onely to be out at elbowes is in fashion here, and a great Indecorum, not to be thredbare.
1672. Shadwell, Timon, I. Wks. 1720, II. 298. Honesty, Thou foolish, slender, thread-bare, starving thing.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 16. 108. You shall see him … in close Whisper with a thread-bare Philosopher.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 136. [He] took the thread-bare Longfield … under the arm, and carried him away.
4. Comb., as threadbare-genteel (cf. shabby-genteel).
1849. Clough, Amours de Voyage, I. 130. Some Threadbare-genteel relations.
