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Ragged vs Threadbare - What's the difference?

ragged | threadbare |

As adjectives the difference between ragged and threadbare

is that ragged is rent or worn into tatters, or till the texture is broken while threadbare is (of cloth) shabby, frayed and worn to an extent that warp threads show.

As a verb ragged

is (rag).

ragged

English

(Webster 1913)

Verb

(head)
  • (rag)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Rent or worn into tatters, or till the texture is broken.
    • a ragged coat
    a ragged sail
  • Broken with rough edges; having jags; uneven; rough; jagged.
    • ragged rocks
  • Hence, harsh and disagreeable to the ear; dissonant.
  • * (rfdate) .
    • A ragged noise of mirth.
  • Wearing tattered clothes.
    • a ragged fellow
  • Rough; shaggy; rugged.
  • * (rfdate), .
    • What shepherd owns those ragged sheep?
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 19 , author=Paul fletcher , title=Blackpool 1-2 West Ham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Allardyce's side had led at the break through a Carlton Cole strike but after Thomas Ince - son of former Hammers midfielder Paul - levelled shortly after the restart, the match became increasingly stretched and ragged .}}

    Derived terms

    * ragged lady * raggedly * raggedness * ragged robin * ragged sailor * ragged school

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms

    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