HACKNEYED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hackneyed mean? 

• HACKNEYED (adjective)
  The adjective HACKNEYED has 1 sense:

1. repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

  Familiarity information: HACKNEYED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HACKNEYED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

Synonyms:

banal; commonplace; hackneyed; old-hat; shopworn; stock; threadbare; timeworn; tired; trite; well-worn

Context example:

the trite metaphor 'hard as nails'

Similar:

unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)

 Context examples 

But that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I have seen a gipsy vagabond; she has practised in hackneyed fashion the science of palmistry and told me what such people usually tell.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every line, every word was—in the hackneyed metaphor which their dear writer, were she here, would forbid—a dagger to my heart.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Before commencing, it is but fair to warn you that the story will sound somewhat hackneyed in your ears; but stale details often regain a degree of freshness when they pass through new lips.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I detest jargon of every kind, and sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in but what was worn and hackneyed out of all sense and meaning.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Then take my word for it,—I am not a villain: you are not to suppose that—not to attribute to me any such bad eminence; but, owing, I verily believe, rather to circumstances than to my natural bent, I am a trite commonplace sinner, hackneyed in all the poor petty dissipations with which the rich and worthless try to put on life.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)