[f. prec. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being threadbare.
1530. Palsgr., 280/2. Threde bareness, deureur.
c. 1600[?]. Distr. Emperor, I. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 169. Thou that hast worne thy selfe and a blewe coate To equall thryddbareness.
1771. Mackenzie, Man Feel., xxi. (1886), 60. His look … spoke of the sleekness of folly and the threadbareness of wisdom.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 355. A little threadbareness in the similes.
So Threadbarity nonce-wd., in same sense.
1892. Besant, Ivory Gate, 69. The rags and duds and threadbarity too often enter largely into the picturesque.
