See the Dictionary Definition 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wore down
Verb
-
John Tortorella was hired as head coach in June 2022, helped establish a culture, had the young Flyers overachieving and then wore out his welcome — such is life as an NHL head coach and especially one named John Tortorella.—
Tom Dougherty,
CBS News,
14 Apr. 2026 -
Its burgundy spine wore out many years ago, so layer on layer of tape tries desperately to cradle over 60 pages of newspaper cuttings documenting every word ever published about her son, Jamie Mitchell.—
Jordan Campbell,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
With no usable video from the night of the robbery, prosecutors released footage from the night before that showed a museum employee entering the building after his car broke down.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
26 Apr. 2026
-
One commenter broke down the dog’s couch strategy in football terms.—
Sara Vallone,
Charlotte Observer,
26 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Spodek said the safety benefits of ensuring bus drivers are not impaired far outweighs any concerns about hassles for the drivers.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
23 Apr. 2026
-
The director, whose father is also hearing impaired, shared the main reasons the opportunity stuck out to him.—
Kayla Grant,
PEOPLE,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Kinahan escaped unscathed, but his friend David Byrne was killed in the attack, and McGovern was injured by gunfire.—
Ed Caesar,
New Yorker,
30 Apr. 2026
-
The United Nations' Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a statement that March saw a 49% jump in civilian casualties versus February, with at least 211 killed and 1,206 injured across the course of the month.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
But the war has damaged that argument.—
Sudarsan Raghavan,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Oil infrastructure in the Middle East has been damaged or disrupted in the Iran war.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
28 Apr. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Wore down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wore%20down. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
