adj, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   simple past and past participle of hackney form-of, participle, past

Adjective

1. 1
   Repeated too often.

   "The sermon was full of hackneyed phrases and platitudes."

2. 2
   Let out for hire. dated

Adjective

1. 1
   repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

banalthreadbarebanalclichédcommonplaceshopworn

Antonyms

All antonyms

freshneworiginalwitty

Example

More examples

"A bad writer's prose is full of hackneyed phrases."

Etymology

From hackney + -ed.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.