Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

worn-out

UK/ˈwɔːn.aʊt/US/ˈwɔɹnˌaʊt/
adjectiveB22 meaningsneutral

Worn-out means used until it is useless — or, of a person, completely exhausted.

The object sense is about wear rather than breakage, so worn-out shoes have thinned rather than split, and a worn-out excuse has been used too often to work. The person sense is very common and means beyond tired. It goes before a noun with a hyphen and follows a verb without one. Its neighbours are threadbare for fabric and shattered for people, which is the strongest British word available.

Arc1977 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of worn-out

  1. 1adjectiveuntilUsed until no longer serviceable.B2

    “He was still wearing a pair of worn-out boots.”

  2. 2adjectiveworn-outCompletely exhausted.B2

    “She came home worn-out every evening that month.”

Where it comes from

From worn + out.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 31 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word