hackneyed
[hak-need]
- made commonplace or trite; stale; banal: the hackneyed images of his poetry.
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Origin of hackneyed
Synonyms
See more synonyms for hackneyed on Thesaurus.comoverdone, overused.
Synonym study
See commonplace.
hackney
[hak-nee]
- Also called hackney coach. a carriage or coach for hire; cab.
- a trotting horse used for drawing a light carriage or the like.
- a horse used for ordinary riding or driving.
- (initial capital letter) one of an English breed of horses having a high-stepping gait.
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- let out, employed, or done for hire.
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- to make trite, common, or stale by frequent use.
- to use as a hackney.
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Origin of hackney
1300–50; Middle English hakeney, special use of placename Hackney, Middlesex, England
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hackneyed
Contemporary Examples
Even the harmonized choral accents are hackneyed, ripped straight from her previous mega-hit “You Belong with Me.”
Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’: Country’s Prodigal Daughter Creates the Best Pop Album of the YearMarlow Stern
October 25, 2014
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.
Woody Allen’s Best & Worst Movies: ‘Annie Hall’ ‘Match Point’ & More (Video)Malcolm Jones
July 26, 2013
Hackneyed and dull, it feels like a lazy throwback in every sense of the word.
Everything seemed too hackneyed or unconvincing or simply impossible.
Historical Examples
We amuse him more than the hackneyed comrades he has worn out.
Night and Morning, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
And are you, my dear friend, to be duped by this hackneyed word?
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
But the stranger was not to be deceived by so hackneyed a device.
The Naval History of the United StatesWillis J. Abbot.
Each gentleman addressed her with some hackneyed compliment.
The Child of PleasureGabriele D'Annunzio
How easy the hackneyed phrase "taking steps" sounded to Caius!
The MermaidLily Dougall
hackneyed
- (of phrases, fashions, etc) used so often as to be trite, dull, and stereotyped
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hackney
- a compact breed of harness horse with a high-stepping trot
- a coach or carriage that is for hire
- (as modifier)a hackney carriage
- a popular term for hack 2 (def. 1)
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- (tr; usually passive) to make commonplace and banal by too frequent use
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Word Origin
C14: probably after Hackney, where horses were formerly raised; sense 4 meaning derives from the allusion to a weakened hired horse
Hackney
- a borough of NE Greater London: formed in 1965 from the former boroughs of Shoreditch, Stoke Newington, and Hackney; nearby are Hackney Marshes, the largest recreation ground in London. Pop: 208 400 (2003 est). Area: 19 sq km (8 sq miles)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hackneyed
Hackney
late 12c., from Old English Hacan ieg "Haca's Isle" (or possibly "Hook Island"), the "isle" element here meaning dry land in a marsh. Now well within London, it once was pastoral and horses apparently were kept there. Hence hackney "small saddle horse let out for hire" (c.1300), with subsequent deterioration of sense (see hack (n.2)). And cf. French haquenée "ambling nag," an English loan-word.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper