Word of the Day Archive
Thursday December 18, 2008
hackneyed \HAK-need\ , adjective:
1. used too often; commonplace
2. habituated; experienced
Within earshot of flushing toilets, under the unflinching surveillance of a fake security camera, and accompanied by cheese curls and brightly-colored Kool-Aid, the Museum of Bad Art's newest exhibit, "Hackneyed Portraits," opened earlier this month.
-- Carolyn Y. Johnson, Boston Globe, 6/25/2006
"The supply demand dynamics just don't warrant where we are today. It's becoming incredibly hackneyed to say it's all coming from demand in China," he said.
-- Tim Paradis, San Diego Union, 6/6/2008
To speak of "the dream of paradise" seems hackneyed or else derogatory, as if it were just a daydream or a pipe dream.
-- Evan Eisenberg, The Ecology of Eden
Special sense of "one who writes anything for hire" led to hackneyed "trite" by 1749.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for hackneyed
