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Moth-eaten   /mɔθ-ˈitən/   Listen
Moth-eaten

adjective
1.
Showing signs of wear and tear.  Synonyms: ratty, shabby, tatty.  "Shabby furniture" , "An old house with dirty windows and tatty curtains"
2.
Worn or eaten away by (or as if by) moths.  Synonym: mothy.
3.
Lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new.  Synonyms: cold, dusty, stale.  "Stale news"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Moth-eaten" Quotes from Famous Books



... hotel with veneered panels, which already showed signs of wear. Imitation antique chairs stood about, and in front of the fireplace, which was certainly never intended to contain a fire, was spread a somewhat moth-eaten polar bear skin. Still it was grand after a fashion, and the old man in his hand-me-downs looked oddly ...
— The Deaves Affair • Hulbert Footner

... observation of spiritual tides, winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the devout men and women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What is sanctification? What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of the pulpit and of the church editor something more than the time-worn and moth-eaten excuses for not teaching a deeper work of grace. The "seven thousand" who have not "bowed the knee" to the modern Baals are insisting that, if God's Word teaches entire sanctification for the disciple of Christ obtainable by faith now, they must possess ...
— The Heart-Cry of Jesus • Byron J. Rees

... wherefore I made quickly towards that tree, but ere I reached it, a man stepped out. A tall, loose-limbed fellow he was, clad in rough clothes (that somehow had about them a vague suggestion of ships and the sea), and with a moth-eaten, fur cap crushed down upon his head. His face gleamed pale, and his eyes were deep-sunken, and very bright; also, I noticed that one hand was hidden in the pocket of his coat. But most of all, I was struck by the extreme pallor of his face, and the burning ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol

... unstrained, unpurified^; squalid; lutose^, slammocky^, slummocky^, sozzly^. nasty, coarse, foul, offensive, abominable, beastly, reeky, reechy^; fetid &c 401. [of rotting living matter] decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid^, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral^, lentiginous^, touched, fusty, effete, reasty^, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty; putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied; saprogenic, saprogenous^; purulent, carious, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... chapel as proof, and in it the lantern from the prow of the vessel, which the conscienceless wretches declared dated from many centuries after the supposed battle; and there were the guild drums, and the glorious banner; and the moth-eaten hide of the lion, in which all his predecessors had encased themselves, lay now forgotten behind the altar, covered with cobwebs and dust, but it was none the less as authentic and worthy of reverence as the ...
— Luna Benamor • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... rich, weep, wailing for your miseries that are coming upon you. (2)Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are become moth-eaten. (3)Your gold and silver is rusted; and the rust of them will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as fire. Ye heaped up treasure, ...
— The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. • Various

... saw a tall young man coming toward her, with long strides. Instantly, she forgot Simeon Harp, and did not even see him as he hobbled away, pulling on to his head the moth-eaten cap of squirrel fur which he always wore, summer and winter, as if for a sign of ...
— The Port of Adventure • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... supposed, was the main thing in this establishment; insomuch indeed that it shouldered comfort out of doors, and jostled the domestic arrangements at every turn. Thus in the miserable bedrooms there were files of moth-eaten letters hanging up against the walls; and linen rollers, and fragments of old patterns, and odds and ends of spoiled goods, strewed upon the ground; while the meagre bedsteads, washing-stands, and scraps of carpet, were huddled away into corners as objects of secondary consideration, ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... containing these relics inclosed also the skin of a small rodent (Spermophilus sp.?) but in a torn and moth-eaten condition. This was used by the owner for purposes unknown to those who were consulted upon the subject. It is frequently, if not generally, impossible to ascertain the use of most of the fetiches and other sacred objects ...
— The Mide'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa • Walter James Hoffman



Words linked to "Moth-eaten" :   worn, unoriginal



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