Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective used too much, or too often
  • adjective of a word or phrase hackneyed or clichéd

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

over- +‎ used

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Examples

  • KING: To use a term overused in this investigation, it is perhaps fair game for you to say everything you're saying about Joe Wilson, to question his story.

    CNN Transcript Jul 17, 2005 2005

  • Verily, when the first images of the perfectly boring new logo -- basically "Gap" in overused Helvetica, with a little blue square hovering just above and to the right -- landed on the Interweb, the outcry hit like a thunderclap made of toenail clippings and old pudding.

    Mark Morford: I Am Outraged! Are You Not Outraged? Mark Morford 2010

  • Verily, when the first images of the perfectly boring new logo -- basically "Gap" in overused Helvetica, with a little blue square hovering just above and to the right -- landed on the Interweb, the outcry hit like a thunderclap made of toenail clippings and old pudding.

    Mark Morford: I Am Outraged! Are You Not Outraged? Mark Morford 2010

  • Verily, when the first images of the perfectly boring new logo -- basically "Gap" in overused Helvetica, with a little blue square hovering just above and to the right -- landed on the Interweb, the outcry hit like a thunderclap made of toenail clippings and old pudding.

    Mark Morford: I Am Outraged! Are You Not Outraged? Mark Morford 2010

  • He didn't refer to "the war on terror," a phrase overused by his predecessor,

    Top Headlines from World Press Review 2009

  • He didn't refer to "the war on terror," a phrase overused by his predecessor,

    Top Headlines from World Press Review 2009

  • Of all the terms overused on the internet, few are invoked as quickly in heated arguments as

    Latest from PALGN 2008

  • However, the entire Clinton family has run a duplicitous campaign with an almost overriding goal of damaging the "electibility" (to coin the overused media cliche of 2008) of the likely Democratic nominee, with a possible effect of damaging their party in the process.

    Huckabee: 'I got to give Hillary some credit' 2008

  • With so many different beliefs about and definitions of success, it seems the word is overused.

    Having It All John Assaraf 2003

  • Instead, only three unifying concepts were announced: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets -- all vague terms overused by any corporate Republican.

    OpEdNews 2010

Comments

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  • This is funny. I just "random worded" this word. I think kids today (kids I know, anyway) have overused the word random to the point where I don't think they even know what it means anymore!

    November 13, 2009

  • Yeah, they use it so randomly.

    November 13, 2009

  • totally

    November 13, 2009

  • Something I've thought about for a while..."randomness" is a virtue of the 21st century...people are praised for being "funny and random" -- for doing the unexpected, for being able to produce something unconnected out of context..."randomness" is a saving grace in any social situation...normality and conformity are not noticed and not particularly cool.

    I'm not sure of all the implications of this, yet...

    November 13, 2009

  • Non-conformity also likes to use “desultory” from time to time.

    November 13, 2009

  • As a simple verb, past: 'You overused your own personal examples in your paper.'

    August 20, 2011