hackneyed

The Wilhelm scream is no hackneyed narrative device, but instead a nod to what Burtt calls the legacy of the language of sound.

The word “unique” is so hackneyed that it’s a cliche to say it’s a cliche.

If it’s a little hammy or hackneyed, it’s because it’s a pretty reliable formula that works.

Even the harmonized choral accents are hackneyed, ripped straight from her previous mega-hit “You Belong with Me.”

Hackneyed chestnuts like that are reserved for old toastmasters, and yet, there we were.

Sometimes Allen retools a hackneyed plot and the bones show through—not this time.

Hackneyed and dull, it feels like a lazy throwback in every sense of the word.

Everything seemed too hackneyed or unconvincing or simply impossible.

To use a hackneyed figure, it was as though the earth had opened and swallowed her husband.

Much like general terms, which mean something or nothing, are expressions that have become trite and hackneyed.

I shall probably be met with the hackneyed cry, The question is entirely one of price.

You can't describe them unless you label them with the hackneyed interrogation point.

Each gentleman addressed her with some hackneyed compliment.