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Attrition vs Threadbare - What's the difference?

attrition | threadbare |

As a noun attrition

is wearing or grinding down by friction.

As an adjective threadbare is

(of cloth) shabby, frayed and worn to an extent that warp threads show.

attrition

English

Noun

  • wearing or grinding down by friction
  • the gradual reduction in a tangible or intangible resource due to causes that are passive and do not involve productive use of the resource.
  • (human resources) A gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through retirement, resignation, or death
  • (sciences) The loss of participants during an experiment
  • (theology) Imperfect contrition or remorse
  • (dentistry) The wearing of teeth due to their grinding

    • Synonyms

    * (employment reduction by natural causes) natural wastage

    Antonyms

    * accretion

    Derived terms

    * attrit * attritional * attritionary * attritive * attrition damage

    Related terms

    * contrition

    Anagrams

    *

    threadbare

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (of cloth) shabby, frayed and worn to an extent that warp threads show
  • * 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]
    • Unkempt, in threadbare clothes, with holed shoes and sun-cured hide, my costume is permanent: the traveler, the man from far away.
  • damaged or shabby
  • * Thomas Carlyle
    • Holy Virgin stood in the main Convent of Glatz, in rather a threadbare condition, when the Prussians first approached; the Jesuits, and ardently Orthodox of both sexes, flagitating Heaven and her with their prayers, that she would vouchsafe to keep the Prussians out.
  • (of a person) wearing clothes of threadbare material
  • (of speech) banal or ; trite or hackneyed
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=August 21 , author=Jason Heller , title=The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator. But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog (including “Love Is Not The Answer,” a watery echo of the epic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” from 2003’s Permission To Land''), ''Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself. And, despite Hawkins’ inveterate crotch-grabbing, there was never that much meat there to begin with. }}

    Synonyms

    * See also