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Hackneyed   /hˈæknid/   Listen
Hackneyed

adjective
1.
Repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse.  Synonyms: banal, commonplace, old-hat, shopworn, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn.  "His remarks were trite and commonplace" , "Hackneyed phrases" , "A stock answer" , "Repeating threadbare jokes" , "Parroting some timeworn axiom" , "The trite metaphor 'hard as nails'"






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"Hackneyed" Quotes from Famous Books



... That too truthful man in the restaurant; that too truthful man in Burmah, is Mr. Bernard Shaw. He appears eccentric and grotesque because he will not accept the general belief that white is yellow. He has based all his brilliancy and solidity upon the hackneyed, but yet forgotten, fact that truth is stranger than fiction. Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction ...
— Heretics • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... sun shone brightly in the cold blue sky, giving a warm appearance to the scene, although no sensible warmth proceeded from it, so cold was the air. Countless millions of icy particles covered every bush and tree, glittering tremulously in its rays like diamonds—psha! that hackneyed simile: diamonds of the purest water never shone like these evanescent little gems of nature. The air was biting cold, obliging us to walk briskly along to keep our blood in circulation; and the breath flew thick and white from ...
— Hudson Bay • R.M. Ballantyne

... article, the writer should eliminate (1) superfluous words, (2) trite phrases, (3) general, colorless words, (4) terms unfamiliar to the average reader, unless they are explained, (5) words with a connotation inappropriate to the context, (6) hackneyed and mixed metaphors. The effectiveness of the expression may often be strengthened by the addition of specific, picture-making, imitative, and connotative words, as well as of figures of speech that clarify the ideas and stimulate ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... Santa Croce, is seen under most unfavourable conditions, and would look infinitely better in the low niche of Or San Michele. Its proportions would then appear less stumpy, and we would then be captivated by the beauty of the face. It has real "beauty"; the hackneyed and misused term can only be properly applied to Donatello's work in very rare cases, of which this is one. The face itself is taken from some model, which could be idealised to suit a definite conception, ...
— Donatello • David Lindsay, Earl of Crawford

... praevalebit."—I was asked the other day whence came this hackneyed quotation. It is taken from the uncanonical Scriptures, 3 Esdras ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 195, July 23, 1853 • Various


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