shopworn
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of shopworn
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Spielberg keeps up a certain suspense via a shopworn device: withholding information known to the characters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Although she states repeatedly that she doesn’t want to rely on the shopworn story of motherhood as the ultimate expression of the female experience, some passages flirt with this trope.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2023
“Knowledge is power” might be a shopworn cliché, but when it comes to emergencies, it’s absolutely true.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
Yet his portraits often seem constrained within narrow, shopworn categories.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
He was fat and looked shopworn around the nose and mouth as though he had hayfever.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
