threadbare

adjective5

1. •
   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.

   • His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaste, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled shoes hee vvare, […] — 1590
2. •
   (figurative) worn very thin from long use so that the weave shows through, said of cloth, clothes and carpets

   • Welth and wyt, I say, be so threde bare worne, / That all is without measure, and fer beyonde the mone. — 1530
3. •
   (figurative) repeated so many times that it has become boring and no longer has any effect, said of an excuse, argument or idea
4. •
   (figurative) An argument or assertion with little in the way of substance or supporting evidence.
5. •
   (no longer used) (of a person) poor and dressed in clothes worn thin from long use

   • Be gon, all Honesty, / Thou foolish, slender, thredbare, starving thing, be gon! — 1678