How to Use threadbare in a Sentence

threadbare

adjective

• The plane smelled like mildew and body odor, and the seats looked threadbare.
  — Christopher Elliott, USA Today, 13 Dec. 2025
• But even that threadbare defense isn’t true.
  — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
• Need to replace threadbare tops?
  — Sian Babish, PEOPLE, 23 Apr. 2026
• The private turns public, the home threadbare.
  — Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2025
• The costumes were as threadbare as the plot, and the acting was a complete mess.
  — Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
• But even this threadbare dog-and-pony existence is under threat.
  — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 6 Apr. 2023
• This score, too, is remarkably threadbare.
  — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
• My mother read book after book sitting atop a threadbare bath towel on the rocky sand.
  — Lauren Gibbons Paul, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Sep. 2019
• Fant will remember more threadbare rosters, and tougher times.
  — Zach Osterman, The Courier-Journal, 5 Aug. 2017
• Add new brush or other cover to duck blinds or layout blinds that have grown a bit threadbare over the season.
  — Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, 17 Jan. 2018
• Wilson — who lands the most appearances on this list with four — plays this all with a threadbare layer of charm.
  — Joe Reid, Vulture, 26 June 2023
• The soldiers wore nothing but threadbare cotton clothes and straw sandals.
  — Jennifer Lin, Philly.com, 22 May 2017
• But at 3,400 miles, the carpet was threadbare at the driver’s foot rest.
  — Mark Maynard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 22 June 2018
• The fabric of communal, collective life in his movies tends to be threadbare.
  — Max Nelson, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019
• People reaching for each other on threadbare towels laid across the scorching sand.
  — Leslie Jamison, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2019
• One is a threadbare pair of Craft tights that has Windstopper panels on the crotch and thighs.
  — Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 15 Feb. 2023
• Johnson was presiding over a threadbare caucus in which a motion against his job was a daily threat.
  — Juliegrace Brufke, Axios, 25 July 2024
• The people in the train carriage—along with the narrator—are living in the threadbare moment.
  — Rachel Cusk, New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2025
• At least one of those additions is likely to come at linebacker, where the Trojans’ depth is most threadbare.
  — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2025
• Children, many in threadbare clothes, skip down rocky alleyways and boot soccer balls into rusty, netless goals.
  — Deirdre Fernandes, BostonGlobe.com, 7 July 2018
• Amanda Peet is pulling back the threadbare curtain on life underneath the spotlight.
  — Brie Stimson , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 30 Mar. 2026
• Mr Tsipras’s talk of economic success is also starting to look threadbare.
  — The Economist, 22 Mar. 2018
• The interior of the offensive line is threadbare, with question marks at center and one guard spot.
  — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2024
• After the unexpected gift of Lamb, the second day was about the need to stock a threadbare defense.
  — David Moore, Dallas News, 25 Apr. 2020
• Has there been a moment in recent American history in which words like these sound more threadbare?
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
• While her knees and parts of her shins could be seen through the holes, there were actually so many shreds all over that even the more covered sections were threadbare.
  — Avery Matera, Teen Vogue, 21 June 2018
• If they're stained, threadbare, or no longer absorb water, consider retiring them.
  — Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 1 July 2026
• The Irons' squad is currently threadbare, too, with a litany of injuries and suspensions plaguing the team.
  — SI.com, 2 Feb. 2018
• This loss was their 32nd game in all competitions this season, and was contested with a threadbare squad.
  — Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2026
• As deaf servant Firs, Howard Swain swaddles the whole clan in a delicate, threadbare gauze.
  — Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Feb. 2026