“All I had to wear was an old worn-out pair of jeans.”
You went on a trip last week, and were invited to a formal party. However, you only had casual clothes in your suitcase. You tell the story to a friend.
All I had to wear was an old worn-out pair of jeans.
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(something) is worn-out
When something is "worn out", it means that it's been used a lot. It probably looks old and might not work very well anymore because it's been used so much:
All I had to wear was an old worn-out pair of jeans.
We're replacing our old worn-out washing machine and dryer.
You can also say that a person is "worn out". This just means that they're really tired:
When I get home from work, I'm worn out and all I want to do is lay on the couch and watch TV.
a pair of pants
Even though pants are one single item of clothing, they have two leg parts. Because of this, we always say "pants" with an "-s" at the end, and if you want to count them, you call them "a pair":
Why do you have so many pairs of pants?
You also call these clothing items "a pair":
a pair of glasses
a pair of shorts
a pair of socks
All I have is (something)
Say this when you don’t have much of something. It’s similar to saying “the only thing I have is (something.”
All I have is soda and orange juice.
All I have is a few paragraphs. I’m way behind.
As you can see from the main example, you can also use this phrase in the past tense.
All I had was some carrot sticks, so I was starving by dinnertime.
have (something) to wear
People use this phrase to talk about clothes. It means having clothes that are appropriate:
I don't have anything to wear to the Christmas party!