hackneyed

Modifies a noun

• phrase: They give people, in that hackneyed contemporary phrase, 'a sense of identity ' .
• stereotype: I'm not against it per-se, I just hate it when the same old hackneyed stereotypes are used over and over again.
• image: Despite the elegant phrasing, these hackneyed images risk reducing Irish history to textbook postcolonial illustrations.
• cliche: Second Half Surge Sinks Rotherham The hackneyed old football cliché, ' a game of two halves ' , was proved correct yet again.
• cliches: Why then, was the Tory's final broadcast of the campaign a return to the hackneyed clichés of yore?
• situation: This at least means that some of the fairly hackneyed situations come across as fresh and funny.

Modifying Another Word

• rather: This is a real shame as the role does have potential to really deliver a great performance, despite the rather hackneyed script.

Used with adjective complement

• become: Repeated ad nauseam, however, the whole thing becomes hackneyed, stagnant and, dare I say it, dangerously self-referential.