He had been very close to her, and she had had time to notice that his coat was threadbare.
"The Crisis, Volume 6"
Winston Churchill
The curtains are dingy and threadbare the walls dingy; the ceiling, though lofty, dingy; the boxes on either side for Plaintiff and Defendant are scratched and defaced by the innumerable witnesses who have blundered into them, kicking their shoes against the woodwork.
"Hodge and His Masters"
Richard Jefferies
It is Slingsby, the schoolmaster, a thin, elderly man, rather threadbare and slovenly, somewhat indolent in manner, and with an easy, good-humoured look, not often met with in his craft.
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving