cliché

Word family

Related topics: Linguistics

SLan idea or phrase that has been used so much that it is not effective or does not have any meaning any longer 陈词滥调，老生常谈，老套

There is plenty of truth in the cliché that a trouble shared is a trouble halved.

“有人分担，烦恼减半”这句老话说得很有道理。

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—clichéd adjectiveadj

n COLLOCATIONS

adjectives

an old cliché

He seemed to believe that old cliché about a woman’s place being in the home.

a tired cliché (=boring because it has been used so often)

The story is based on a series of tired clichés.

a worn-out cliché (=very boring)

His writing is full of worn-out clichés.

a popular cliché (=one used by a lot of people)

The term 'information revolution' is a popular cliché.

a romantic cliché (=something romantic that is rather boring because many people do it)

Giving a girl red roses is a bit of a romantic cliché.

verbs

use a cliché

'Time marches on', to use the old cliché.

be full of clichés

Sports reporting tends to be full of clichés.

avoid cliché/clichés

Try and avoid clichés.

become a cliché

It has become a cliché to say that Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe.

Examples from the Corpus

cliché• At the risk of repeating an old cliché, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.• The pretence that his, Surkov's, opening had been merely a dream was a pathetic cliché.• It's a cliché, I know, but the game isn't over till the final whistle blows.• It's become a cliché to say that presidential candidates are being marketed like bars of soap or boxes of cereal.• The cliché that "truth is stranger than fiction" certainly applies here.• Gedge pointed out the inherent stupidity of the famous theatrical cliché.• I shall vote Tory because they have a better class of cliché.• It's like looking back and reflecting, with a certain wisdom that maybe the cliché of rock'n'roll doesn't address.• Mr Davenport now worries that re-engineering is passing from a fad to a cliché.• Such works bear out the cliché that western high art challenges preconceptions, is experimental, disorientating and incomprehensible to the uninitiated.

Origin cliché

(1800-1900) French past participle of clicher “to print from a metal plate”

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Syllable

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