If you describe something such as a saying or an image as hackneyed, you think it is no longer likely to interest, amuse or affect people because it has been used, seen, or heard many times before.
Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. That's the old hackneyed phrase,but it's true.
...hackneyed postcard snaps of lochs and glens.
Synonyms: clichéd, stock, tired, common More Synonyms of hackneyed
hackneyed in British English
(ˈhæknɪd)
adjective
(of phrases, fashions, etc) used so often as to be trite, dull, and stereotyped
hackneyed in American English
(ˈhækˌnid)
adjective
made trite by overuse
SIMILAR WORDS: trite
Examples of 'hackneyed' in a sentence
hackneyed
The mind tires with the second or third hackneyed phrase.
The Times Literary Supplement (2014)
It rose above the hackneyed, reproduced images of the diaspora.
Marsden, Philip The Crossing-Place (1993)
Or consider mankind's capacity for giving hackneyed phrases a graphic new twist.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
I commented last week on hackneyed phrases in the election campaign.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
(adjective)
Definition
(of a word or phrase) unoriginal and overused
That's the old hackneyed phrase, but it's true.
Synonyms
clichéd
stock
National security is the stock excuse for keeping things confidential.
tired
I didn't want to hear one of his tired excuses.
common
Earthquakes are fairly common in this part of the world.
stereotyped
Listeners seem to have stereotyped ideas.
pedestrian
His style is so pedestrian that the book is really boring.
played out (informal)
commonplace
The practice was virtually unheard of twenty years ago, but has now become commonplace.
worn-out
stale
repeating stale jokes to kill the time
overworked
`Unique' is one of the most overworked words in advertising.
banal
The text is banal.
run-of-the-mill
I was a run-of-the-mill kind of student.
threadbare
the government's threadbare domestic policies
trite
The movie is teeming with trite and obvious ideas.
unoriginal
timeworn
In the dim light the equipment looked old and time-worn.