cliché

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Oswalt's worthy of the hoary cliché: The comedian of comedy's a revelation who delivers here the performance everyone claimed Rourke offered in

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A trite or overused expression or idea: "Even while the phrase was degenerating to cliché in ordinary public use . . . scholars were giving it increasing attention” (Anthony Brandt).
  2. noun A person or character whose behavior is predictable or superficial: "There is a young explorer . . . who turns out not to be quite the cliche expected” (John Crowley).
  3. Syntax Note
    Synonyms: cliché, bromide, commonplace, platitude, truism
    These nouns denote an expression or idea that has lost its originality or force through overuse: a short story weakened by clichés; the old bromide that we are what we eat; uttered the commonplace "welcome aboard”; a eulogy full of platitudes; a once-original thought that has become a truism.

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Examples (50)

  • It is a huge cliché but the thing that really struck me was how similar Americans all are. —  The Moderate Voice
  • Nevermind that it took the Brits and the U.S. on the Security council to highlight how biased and lop-sided was Libya's draft resolution condemning Israel hitting Hamas, with ALL the usual (cliché, by now) rhetoric: —  A Western Heart
  • The old cliché that when you save a person you become responsible for that person has never had such a literal meaning as that suggested by the ending of Gone Baby Gone. —  The House Next Door
  • Without a doubt, the Web is in constant evolution, and this concept isn't a simple cliché. —  Dev Shed - RSS Feeds
  • Imagining that childhood is all sweetness, like a cliché, would be crazy. —  Bois de Jasmin
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, past participle of clicher, to stereotype (imitative of the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a stereotype plate).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. French, past participle of clicher, stereotype, from Old French cliquer, clap (see click). Cf. German abklatschen, stereotype, from ab, = English off, + klatschen, clap (cf. E.clash).
 

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