Cliches drive me bonkers, especially when it comes to writing. They are boring and abused and about as fun to read as the instruction manual of a Dustbuster. Writing is supposed to be a creative process, and there’s nothing creative in rehashing some trite phrase that is so old it was probably used by Moses as he parted the Red Sea.
So I asked the Writer’s Digest team of editors to help me compile a list of the 12 cliches in writing that need to be permanently retired. Here they are (in no particular order):
1. Avoid it like the plague
2. Dead as a doornail
3. Take the tiger by the tail
4. Low hanging fruit
5. If only walls could talk
6. The pot calling the kettle black
7. Think outside the box
8. Thick as thieves
9. But at the end of the day
10. Plenty of fish in the sea
11. Every dog has its day
12. Like a kid in a candy store
And those are just the tip of the iceberg (oh wait, there’s bonus cliche #13!).
Now that you’ve seen ours, what I want to know is: What cliches annoy you the most? Post it below in the comments section. Also, feel free to share this on Twitter to help us build the ultimate list of cliches that need to be retired:
12 Cliches All Writers Should Avoid - http://bit.ly/QBBT2o (via @BrianKlems) #wdCliches
[Editor's Note: Winners of the Cliches Contest are listed here.]
Another article you may also enjoy on the topic is:
10 Tips to Avoid Clichés in Writing
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A little late in the game
If you believe that I got a bridge to sell you
did you get your license from a cracker jack box
roller coaster of emotions
mad as a hornet
busy as a bee
I had this thought rattling around in my head
count your chickens before they hatch
Kennywoods open ( from Pittsburgh, meaning your pants are unzipped. )
Cute as a Fox ( they use this in Ireland to say someone is very clever)
- Not sure if all of these would be considered cliches but they are a bit overused.-
“Haters gonna hate.” It’s relatively new, and probably the most disrespectful and dismissive response to valid criticism I’ve ever heard. And to not-so-valid criticism as well.
I am a hater of that phrase, and proud of it, and I’m gonna keep hating it. That’s right. I’m a hater. And I’m gonna hate.
And while I’m at it, I used to have a boss that started too many sentences with, “The point being, is…” That was always the point at which I became emotionally absent from the conversation.
I forgot to mention the cliche party I once attended. They pinned a cliche to your back and you had to guess it from their hints.
Have a nice day, folks (but don’t tell me to do that again)!
Is no one tired of “moving forward”? How did the politicians ever manage without it?
I have enjoyed “not anytime soon” as a local expression, but now it seems to have “gone viral” (uh oh) and “at the end of the day” (but I like that one; it’s British) will join the list of annoying cliches.
“begs the question”; “that being said”
Psychobabble
Low hanging fruit
Been there, done that.
No pain, no gain.
Some of these have been mentioned before.
Blood is thicker than water.
It is what it is.
But at the end of the day (oh so tired of that one)
Get hitched
BALL AND CHAIN (hate that one)
Between a rock and a hard place
No such thing as bad publicity (really – tell that to Todd Akin)
kick-ass (does every urban fantasy heroine have to be “kick ass”)
More cliche’s:
I’d like to be a fly on the wall
Flat out like a lizard drinking
Rare as hens teeth
Couldn’t fight your way out of a wet paper bag
Red as a beetroot
Chasing your own tail
Dead as a door nail
Quiet as a church mouse
I’ve always tired of hearing,
It is/was like stealing candy from a baby.
Let me try again,
“Like flies on shit”
There are so many . . . here are my additions:
Shook her like a rag doll
Light as a feather
As I’m sure you know
Obviously
Mad enough to spit nails
Soft as a baby’s bottom
White as a ghost
I admit it, I hate exercising and folks who think the world would be a better place if everyone used their spare time to exercise, so let me add my cliches:
I admit it
The world would be a better place if….
spare time
couch potato
No pain, no gain.
110%. (Really? How does anyone go above 100%?)
Leave it all on the field.
Leave it all in the gym.
Leave it all in the locker room.
workouts (too often they’re work ins)
work up to your full potential
and the infamous lie – give me 1 more.
“Twinkle in (his, her) eye.”
Anything “as a summer’s day.” Peaceful, pretty, whatever. Same for “winter’s day,” “spring morning,” etc.
“Dumb as a box of rocks” or “…bag of hammers.”
Anybody “yelling and screaming.” (I actually heard this twice in less than an hour while listening to an audiobook — of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings!)
Incidentally, “It was a dark and stormy night” was not only the opening line for Snoopy’s erstwhile book, but for Madeline L’Engle’s classic, A Wrinkle in Time. Honest.
“It was a dark and stormy night, the rain fell in torrents–” is the opening of the 1830 novel “Paul Clifford” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. See Wikipedia for more about this infamous “purple prose” (yes, Wikipedia uses this phrase).
Stages to clichehood:
1. Fresh metaphor or aphorism created and published. Author lauded. Others accused of plagiarism if they use it.
2. General public begins using the metaphor or aphorism in day to day life. Lazy writers use it in newspaper articles and business memos.
3. Everyone tires of hearing and reading the metaphor or aphorism. CLICHEHOOD REACHED!
Moral of the story? (another cliche?) Every cliche started out as someone’s fresh way of making a point or teaching a lesson.
How about these?
At this point in time.
The fat is in the fire.
“The expression on her (his) face.”
“Your’re dead meat”
” copy cat”
” generally speaking”
” send my blood boiling”
Ooh, my husband heard “dead meat” from his granddaughter, and can’t stop saying it. It makes my blood boil!
“It is what it is”
“At the end of the day”
“In the grand scheme of things”
“Get in on the ground floor”
“The writing’s on the wall”
* Dead tired (as if the dead could be tired)
* Dead as a door nail ( door nails were never alive to begin with )
* It”s not rocket science
* Makes my skin crawl ! (this one just makes me feel like bugs are crawling all over me )
* The well’s run dry
* Naked as a Jay bird
* Blood is thicker than water
The list could be so long! I try to avoid outdated or culturally poor cliches like these:
Black as coal (Name me a teenager that has actually seen coal?)
Running around like wild Indians
Busy as a one-armed paper hanger
Sharp as a tack (Again – who really has used tacks and why use that to describe a smart person?)
Slower than my grandma (you never saw my grandma drive)
Chip off the old block (what?)
The phrase I hate the MOST “I could care less” The phrase makes no sense at all. What the writer
is trying to say she/he couldn’t care about a subject. Why doesn’t he/she just say “I couldn’t care less.”
It IS I couldn’t care less. Anyone interpreting it as ‘could’ is simply misquoting. And plenty do . . .
*neocons (sticky ‘s’ key)
No one has covered the political arena, and that can be the most annoying – mainly because people “suck it up”! (which isn’t a cliché- it is an actual description).
How about
“We must move forward!”
“We need change!”
If you didn’t barf when Hillary used those, and you say you hate clichés, then you are a hypocrite…
Any phrase with the word “gravitas” in it from the news. (I haven’t heard it recently. and I hope it is out of fashion already!)
It’s getting to the point where people mindlessly spew out anything they hear concerning politics – not having given politics any thought – they are just going along with the crowd, things like
“Bush ruined the economy.”
“It’s those neocon!”
Some I still get a kick out of:
“Demtards.” lol
So any phrase with a ‘tard-suffixed’ word in it will soon be overused, because right now they are so fun to create! (and here we are talking about cliché-tards!)
(and I will forever use ‘lol’ – since I see the most trite and shallow people annoyed by it – and they are the most fun to annoy…!)
and about cliches that originated on farms and in the country – I been wondering where they went – I haven’t heard any in so long (living in the suburbs), and yet I think they’re going to make a comeback – like a fleeting fashion trend, though by then people won’t have a clue as to what they mean, or even know what the animals look like…
and how about that exclamation point? I wouldn’t go avoiding it unnecessarily – especially when it means either sounding dour and angry or sounding alive and upbeat.
Like that. Upbeat with a period. dead. Might as well stop reading right there. It’s over. Unhappy ending. Sour. Like this.
Periods are deadening. Come to think of it, I’m submitting periods as an overused cliché. If you want to be a furrow-browed old grump, go ahead. I really hate them!
Dour!
So my biggest hated cliché?
Periods.
Ech! They are pretentious!
The typical family and their 2.5 children… okaaay, because i know heaps of people who give birth to HALF A CHILD
Actually it might be 1.5. oh well, either way…
Wow. There are a TON of cliches!
“hitting the nail on the head”
Well, everything seems to come in tons these days, even things that can’t be weighed. I have a ton of complaints about that!
Didn’t realise there were that many cliches in use. I imagine many of the posters here are cringing at other posts quoting cliches THEY like, and use.
Let’s be honest: we all use cliches – or they wouldn’t be cliches. And when writing fiction, if your characters don’t use some cliches, they are probably a little less believable than they should be.
Stick the landing – folks on TV can’t seem to get away from it since the 2012 Olympics – enough already!
And an old but still bothersome one is when someone says “impacted” instead of affected.
Love the list – this has been an enjoyable read.
“You win some, you lose some.” This sounds like a loser’s attitude to me.
“It is what it is” makes me want to “go postal”. I also intensely dislike the phrase “shot dead”. Really? When is the last time someone was “shot alive”? Whatever happened to just saying “killed”?
Hit the nail on the head
You don’t have a dog in the fight
Skating on thin ice
Not sure if this one is a true cliche’ but my dad used this one – “You are cruising for a bruising”
Anything involving the word “amazing.” (Especially when celebrities use it at funerals: “She was such an amazing individual.” /sniff/ )
“Game-changer”
“Sea-change”
1. “when vultures are circling”
2. “When sharks are circling”
3. “Honest as the day is long”
4. “Till the cows come home”
6. “Cats and dogs”
7. “An iron hand in the velvet glove”
8. “Beat them at their own game”
9. “Throw the gauntlet”
10. “Swallow the bitter pills”
11. “As cool as the cucumber”
12. “Wheels within wheels”
13. “Throw spanner into the wheel”
“Fire at will”
It’s always funny to me when I her, “Shoot at will!” Makes me wonder how often during a movie seen that everyone turns toward the actor named Will . . .
If it’s Will Ferrell, I’m OK with it…
“It is what it is.”
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
“When hell freezes over” (if you’ve read Dante’s Inferno, you know the bottom level of hell is already frozen)
“When pigs fly”
Anything “epic.” Not everything that happens is that amazing. The only things that should be referred to as epic are epic poems like that of Homer and Virgil, Paradise Lost, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and The Avengers.
Misusing “That’s ironic.” Learn what irony is first, then we’ll talk.
This is so not a Catch 22 situation, and can I say (?) not a sexy policy by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that, yours truly just wants to articulate that we are all singing from the same song-book to get to that level playing field. Basically, we have to join the dots to get to the coal-face of our mission statement. Essentially, this little black duck will never throw the baby out with the bath-water. Are you with me? Well, in point of fact yours truly must away now. Have a nice day!
While sitting in the shade of an old cottonwood trying to snag a bullhead for supper, and had to think outside the box on this one. Glad to see “A fish out of water,” finally come up. However, since people speak cliches, dialogue might lean into the stupid realm if not used. Certainly they can be exorcised from . . . whatchimacallit? . . . oh yes, narration.
Take the bull by the horns
Run away with his tail between his legs
His/her blood ran cold
His heart was in his throat
She broke into a cold sweat
It took her by surprise
If you ask me…
Get off your high horse
He’s just sewing his wild oats
Scared the hell out of me
Scared me to death (which isn’t even accurate for a still-living person to say)
I know it’s not a cliche, but I hate the words “suddenly” when used more than once in one story. How often can a sudden thing really happen?
I think there are still some that haven’t been touched on (oldies but moldies, which is another one):
Flat as a pancake
Stiff as a board
Dark as night
Dark as dago
Too dumb to be funny
Blow the stink off you
Quiet as a mouse
Skinny as a mealy cow
White as a sheet
Stronger than a bull
Soft as a butterfly
Creamy as churned butter
Milky-white skin
Like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
Like a bull in a china shop
And cheesy, over-used phrases like:
Midnight hair
Chestnut eyes
Languid form (don’t use ‘form’ in general when describing a person’s body – ugh!!!)
Subtle moves
Thick mane (this is used all too often to describe a woman, not a horse, sheeze)
Her eyes flew to him (Really? Eyes can fly?)
I can’t stand “like taking candy from a baby”.
And I don’t know if it’s a cliche or not, but I hate when I see in novels “more than one/a little”. Why not just say “a lot” or “many” so it won’t be so wordy?
I agree…a very common cliché would be one of the many versions of “The grass is greener…”
I heard a song the other day on the radio and the male rapper said, “The grass is greener where you water it.” I found that to be great way to make new use of an old cliché.
My grandmother had a couple I loved. If I wore tight pants she would say, “Lord! You look like you were melted and poured back into those pants!” Back in my youth I heard that often.
It is what it is.
Work smarter, not harder.
And I, too, am a hater of that box and thinking outside of it.
hopeh1122 response is hilarious . . . ☀
“It goes without saying” ————————————–
Go figure: He thought she was hot to trot, but now he’s knee deep in trouble. And I warned him that she can’t hold a candle to what was…I mean, she eats like a horse, and never lifted a finger to boot. C’mon, it was clear as mud that she was too hot to handle. But ol’ eagle eye, just like clock work, said “Piece of cake.” Yep, he takes the prize, because now he’s boxed in a corner, tied up in knots and swimming against the tide. And now his life is up for grabs. Well, no use crying over spilled milk, I told him, I mean, you can’t eat your heart out over someone who’s not pencil perfect. You gotta turn another page, or you’ll be dead meat. After all, she’s not the only chicken in the pot. Well, I could go on and on…but I think I’ll just sleep on it—wait! I just decided he’s not my cup of tea, either, so why bother with such nonesense. He’s a real fruitcake!
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Please erase this, if possible. I got the answer—thank you. Sookie
I abhor “Apples to Oranges”
My “unfavorite” phrase is “Behind the eight ball.”
Cliches are a dime a dozen, so I will be hard-pressed to come with a few that are as good as gold. Needless to say, even though most are old hat, there are a few that really rock my world. I am absolutely head over heels for the southern fried cliches like “mad as a wet hen” and “fits him like a bad suit” but then there are some like “caught like a deer in the headlights”, and “too big for his britches” that really don’t float my boat.
I think writers should start from scratch and come up with their own unique cliches, go out on a limb a little bit, but then again, why reinvent the wheel if there are all ready so many good ones out there ripe for the picking? Just pick one that fits like a hand in a glove with what you are trying to convey. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the show must go on, so just be clear about your meaning (the creme de la creme of good writing) and let the cliches flow like water downhill.
I may be overly sensitve, but the phrase “to no avail” causes me to chuck whatever it is I happen to be reading. I close the book, put down the paper, turn off the computer, and never read another word written by that writer. Please stop using it.
The overly dramatic “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
That’s water under the bridge.
How’s your mama and them?
I’ve been working my butt off trying to think of annoying clichés, but I can’t get down to the brass tacks of just doing it. All you other people offer them up easily, as though you were shooting fish in a barrel. I feel like I’m behind the 8 ball or worse, up a tree, or simply a small fish in a big pond and sinking like a stone. I know, that seems like an open and shut case of bad omens. I wish I had more imagination, but I’m just lost when it comes to the nitty gritty of using the right side of my brain. It feels like I’m running against the wind or spitting into it. I’m off to a bad start. I know it’s late, and my back’s against the wall. I just can’t think, my mind is running amok. Holy cow! That’s sick. It would be really righteous if I could put two and two together here, hopefully crank it up a notch.
Maybe we could circle the wagons and start afresh. But we might get off on the wrong foot. That would be one giant step for mankind, but one foot in the grave for me. I need to sharpen my wits, perhaps get in the zone, instead of looking at life through the bottom of a bottle. Maybe I could somehow get on the same page as you all, perhaps pull the plug on ennui. I feel like I’m living off the grid but writing from the heart. I feel like I need to buy a vowel. I’m not at the top of my game by any stretch of the imagination. It feels like someone else’s tail is waggin’ the dog here, while I’m chillin’ in my crib. Please, beam me up, Scotty.
Not that that would help because, again, my head is stuck so far up my butt, I can only see where the sun don’t shine. And my imagination is so weak, it won’t let me walk down any yellow-brick road toward that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Maybe I’ll google it. I’m no quitter, but it feels like I’m fighting for my life. I’m just some Plain Jane or John Doe trying to make it through another day of writing what you know. No rest for the weary.
You think you could help a brother out?? No…got enough troubles of your own, got your own damn bucket list? Then fine, why don’t you just go, leave on the horse you rode in on. Catch my drift, dude?
Anything that appears on a bumper sticker, hat or T-shirt. Also, that which could be considered “hip” such as starting a sentence with “Oh, FYI …”. Unless, of course, you are writing for a YA TV show when at least one of the aforementioned should appear in every scene.
Dancing on my grave
Greener on the other side (of what?)
In the business world … when a program (or something else) is referred to as “sexy”
One horse town (I’ve seen towns with all the resources you need, except for a horse)
Out to lunch (crazy?)
I’ve lost my mojo (what is that?)
Sad, but true
Can’t think of anymore, but I’m sure they’re out there, being spoken to death … hehehe
Much of what has been dissed here already is actually slang terms, not really cliches, but some of both that bug me are:
“we’re on the same page” and its follow-thru “Going forward”
“Cute as a button” (Never liked buttons- maybe cute as a zipper or velcro would be more current)
“Silent as the grave”
“Black as night”
“On the down-low”
“the minute seemed to last an hour” (Or variations- the hour semed to last a day etc)
“don’t kid a kidder”
“You’re gonna want to see this!” the chosen method of evidence reveal in most police dramas.
SO many cliuches, so little time – woops there’s another one…..
Has anyone mentioned “that’s so cliche?” Or is that too much of a Catch-22 ? (whoops! was that another one?)
Read them all.
Agree with them all.
Can you imagine what it would be like to have them all in one book!!!
Aaargh!! Horrors!!!
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
“This little black duck”
“Build a bridge and get over it”
“Patchwork economy”
“____ -driven”
I have to take issue with the 2nd cliche on your list. Charles Dickens proved that you can use “dead as a doornail” and be quite entertaining. The cliche on my list is “fly on a wall.” Miley Cyrus proved you can’t make that one entertaining.
The two cliches I hate are:
Catch 22
Like white on rice.
I don’t mind Catch 22, as long as they’re using it correctly.
1) Its time.
2) Avoid using cliches.
3) Words cannot express.
4) So just dive in!
5) We’re taking the next step.
6) Onto another level.
7) To go the extra mile.
8) Strictly speaking.
9) Live a little.
10) On the wild side.
11) “Raising” or “lowering” everyone’s expectations.
12) You never know.
I especially hate
Totally awesome!
It is what it is.
Think outside the box.
Get with the program!
Man up!
Suck it up!
Team player
Don’t get your knickers in a twist.
Going off half-cocked.
On the same page
110% effort
Old-timers disease
Crazy as a fox
Hot as a fox
Silly as a goose
Fat as a pig
Ugly as a mud fence
Plain as an old shoe
Ugly as homemade sin
bromance
ginormous
work like a horse
fly off the handle
hell-bent for . . .
Literally (for something that is anything but literal)
You know, like
Fly in the ointment
Mad as a wet hen
It goes without saying . . .
To make a long story short
put in my 2 cents worth
booty call
omg (or any of its variants with actual words)
Some of these would fit some fictional characters for dialogue. Too much of any one of them could “send me off the deep end.”
Cliches are a unique language that identify like minded people; discriminately selected cliches do not bother me as much as fashion phrases that seem to come and go without warning; “it was surreal” for example or “it was the perfect storm” and more recently, “uber…”. ugh!
Here’s one I just caught myself writing (don’t worry, I’ll change it): “flew out the door.”
I actually like ‘glass half full’ – I just wish it wasn’t so overused.
For an international perspective:
‘spat the dummy’
‘ran around like a blue-arse fly’
At the end of the day!
The cliche that most bothers me is: new paradigm.
I absolutely cannot stand;
“By the skin of your teeth.” Ugh!! I HATE it. Makes my skin crawl, and no, not the skin on my teeth (whatever that is supposed to mean anyway.)
I also hate the “think outside the box” and “practice makes perfect.” Every time I read those, I imagine a nasally, high pitched voice saying it, because usually that is the type of person I hear it from. If you can’t think of half the things I did that morning, you have no right to tell me to think outside of anything, much less your box.
Get back to work. … Just sayin ….
Come on folks, not all things considered cliché deserve debasement. Try thinking of some of these well used phrases as a way of compressing a lot of culture and feeling into just a few words.
“Between a rock and a hard pace, “is one of my favorites. I use it often, and intend to use it thousands more.
Imagine a miner trapped on the 4800 foot level. The substation is blown to shards, the face pumps are down, and the water is already to his waist. He feels the need to state the perfectly obvious to his fellow workers. “Boys, we’re between a rock and a hard place. “ It covers the place and the situation, and all the little nuance in between, rather nicely. It’s hard for me to imagine this individual, considering where he came from, what he does, who he associates with, his station in life, and his situation, saying anything else.
If “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” were done up in Latin it would end up somewhere around “que roche roche alum”, would be contributed to a great scholar, and considered a motto. It would sprout wings and fly in the worlds most prestigious universities.
Not all cliché are cliché.
But as we go forward, we will endeavor to persevere, in the face of pervasive intellectual snobbery.
“Sick as a dog” and “set the ball rolling” are certainly my top two!
I hate:
It’s all good.
Awesome.
Amazing.
Dumber than a bag of hammers.
Be a team player.
Yeah some of those listed cliches are really annoying but I have to admit I still use a couple of them from time to time when talking. Not so in writing. One cliche that bothers me is: It was a lightbulb moment. On the other hand a couple that I like are: Don’t judge a person until you have walked around a few miles in their shoes; The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ( Not really sure if these two are cliches or if they fall under some other category.)
Been there, done that. Got the teeshirt.
So thick you could cut the stress, fog, tension with a knife.
No problem.
My bad.
Smart as a tack.
Dumb like a fox.
… (Comes from, lived on, Born on) The other side of the tracks.
My son says until I am nauseous: Oh chill-ax (chill and relax)
Smoking hot! Okay, someone get the fire extinguisher!
Drop, dead gorgeous. Well, if she drops dead, the gorgeous will end rather suddenly…once decay sets in!
One tall drink of water. Well, if he is a human, he is mostly water anyway. So, really we are all tall drinks of water!
Step up to the plate. If we are not playing baseball, why should we?
Cute as a bug in a rug. Am I the only one that does not find a bug in the rug cute?!!
It was a dark and stormy night. Yes, people still use it. No, it isn’t published, though…lol!
I am loving this!
The grass is greener on the other side.
This has been fun!
Shut the Front Door is much nicer than Shut the F*$k Up, but I don’t like either one.
See a man about a horse.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Your ass is grass and I’m the lawn mower. I rarely hear this one now.
Who spit in your cheerios? I think I am having early 90′s flashbacks. I’m going to stop now and get back to writing
As cliched as it may sound …..
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Knee high to a grasshopper.
He/she was hit with an ugly stick.
Just like two peas in a pod.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist.
She wears her heart on her sleeve.
He was fit to be tied.
While I dislike low-hanging fruit, that being said, at the end of the day, long story short, and that dog won’t hunt — I really despise the constant misuse of the term “actionable” as in “We need actionable suggestions.” Uh, no you don’t, unless you enjoy being sued.
There are some clichés that I like and use in speech only, just because they are word paintings AND ear candy: “busier than a short-tailed bull in the height of fly season” is a favorite.
Bull in a china shop.
I’m so tired of people writing (and saying) ‘as well’ at the end of a sentence when they mean ‘too’. As in:
“John and Mary went to the park, and we went there as well.” I think it started as a British colloquialism and migrated over to the U.S., but it doesn’t work with our speech patterns here–it just sounds stilted.
I think it’s a regional thing. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and “as well” is commonly used. It’s never sounded stilted to me. But then my mom was Canadian so maybe it was that sneaky British influence after all. ;+}
The fact of the matter is . . .
When all is said and done . . .
“Stop strangling the cat!”
Which usually gets yelled at me whenever I start singing in the shower. Some people have no respect for my talent!
My personal un-favorite was, ‘What did you do with the money for singing lessons?’
Adding to the above lists:
…”rubs me raw”
That’s “peachy keen”
“Built like a brick Sh%@ house”
“watching the grass grow”
,
Here are a few “off the top of my head.”
Been there, done that
Don’t go there
In terms of
It is what it is
It’s a beautiful thing.
It’s a good thing
It’s all good
Know what I’m saying?
I’m just saying
Let’s do this.
Oh-My-God
Quality of life
That being said
Whatever
Let’s not forget my dad’s favorite:
“It’s colder than a witch’s teat out there.”
- Hell hath no fury…
- The road to hell is paved in good intentions
- Drunk as a skunk
- Old as Methuselah
- She’s a man eater
Cliche concepts bother me, too:
the hard-nosed detective chick who is never taken seriously by her male counterparts… and yet somehow she’s made detective;
the hooker with a heart of gold;
sex-kitten cougars who seem to have all the money in the world and are still somehow NOT involved in any kind of relationship (whether married or not);
the psycho/sociopath who was abused as a child and now takes it out on women/men/children;
ANY author who is too nice to their protagonist (BORING!);
the male-bashing, hygiene-challenged, charity-wielding feminist who studies animals and is clearly more genius than anyone else ever.
Overused words I can’t stand:
totally, brutal, rad, nice, like, awesome, cool, bro, man.
Words used in the wrong context… or otherwise used unnecessarily:
plethora, advantageous, awesome, amazing, hysterical, scream(ed), whispered, smirked, grinned, the color of anyone’s eyes other than blue/brown/green/hazel (emerald, steel gray, etc). Really, any extreme words used for ordinary occurrences.
Cliches. I Hate the following:
It is what it is. (No kidding!)
Looking out for number one. (The only person saying this should be a member of a sports team playing defense)
Have a good one. (I hated this damn phrase from the first time I heard it and it hadn’t become a cliche yet!)
It ain’t over until the fat lady sings. (Yogi Bera had a way with words. Not!)
Cliche phrases:
“Hooking up” – for anything from meeting a member of the opposite sex (in some cases the same sex) to having sex with that person.
Statement. “NOT!” (See my last one on the phrase list.)
“need to give 110%” (or anything over 100% – this really “grates on my nerves”)
“let’s circle back on that”
‘ever seen’ as in, ‘most beautiful thing he’s ever seen’, ‘the best thing she’s ever seen’ etc (ha, I think ‘etc’ at the end of that sentence is a bonus cliche!)
That one I mentioned I’m sure I’m guilty of, but it also drives me nuts (there’s another one) because it’s used constantly. Does that make sense? (another one!)
“A word to the wise is sufficient.”
So,as quiet as it’s kept,
don’t go there
for six in one hand and a half dozen in the other reasons
because everybody who’s anybody knows
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
I’m just saying.
The possibilities are endless.
…and the list goes on.
Nedless to say… (Really? Then why say it?)
Great post, wonderful clichés, really enjoyed it, both your post and the (numerous) comments…raining like dogs and cats!! Awsome, ha ha! I’ve been laughing so hard I’m belly up, ugh! Okay, let’s put it this way: clichés are useful in that you could write about just anything using ONLY clichés!
“That said…”
“The lights aren’t all on upstairs” and/or “Got a screw loose”
“Make my day”
“Dumber’n a bag o’hammers” (my family uses this ALL THE TIME…)
“Give them the time of day”
“Pig in a poke” I have never, EVER seen a pig in a poke; getting poked, yes. Inside one? No.
“I never kiss and tell.”
“Give me a break.”
Actually, the poke referred to is a paper bag, in the hills and hollers of the rural South.
What the pig is doing in it, or what the expression means, is beyond my ken.
“A kangaroo short of the top paddock” (my husband uses this one just for fun)
“Having said that,”
“level playing-field”
“articulate” used as a verb meaning “say”
Judge a book by its cover
Best thing since sliced Bread
As the crow flies
More than one way to skin a cat
Easy as pie
Everything happens for a reason
Comparing Apples and oranges
The grass is always greener on the other side
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Sweat like a pig (pigs don’t sweat)
Eats like a bird (birds eat a lot!)
Could eat a horse
AWKS (a new one I just hate, means awkward)
faster than the eye can see (I used that one recently, oops)
Classic (seems like everything is “classic” these days)
Pardon my French
long story short
Her hair was like gold / her golden tresses.
Pa-leeeese!! If her hair was like gold she’d have cashed it in by now and gotten the going rate from Rio Tinto or whoever. No man would ever be able to run his hands through it. Give it a rest. She is not wearing a helmet.
“The dimple in his chin…” or “she dimpled”…
Pardon my sarcasm but I’m about to vomit. Nobody ‘dimples’. ‘Dimple’ is not a verb.
The final shocker: “He crushed his lips to hers…”
Only the most well-seasoned authors should use this. It does not make a B-grade book instantly better. The words either side of this phrase should be exceptionally well-crafted or else it’s completely unrealistic. Seriously, when was the last time your lips were “crushed” against anything?
Lovin’ the other suggestions above
Brian: How about “as [much] fun to read as [...]” rather than “as fun to read as [...]” in your second sentence above?
I’m sick of “It is what it is”. Well, duh, what else would it be? And, as much as I love How I Met Your Mother, I am so tired of the word “legendary”. I also despise the word “ridonkulous”. I’m not sure where it comes from, but it sounds like it has obscene origins. Another one is “bootylicious”. It’s a combination of the words booty and delicious- did you find that out from personal experience? Not something I care to taste, thanks.
Anatomically speaking, there are many cliches. Is this because cliches reflect our common humanity? Starting from the top and working my way down the body- This is getting sexy!
1. I’ve got a good head on my shoulders
2. For meeting a situation head on and facing facts
3. My ears are burning, and I’m keeping my eyes peeled, but in the blink of an eye, it could change.
4. It’s jaw dropping, but I’m still sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, and it might get put out of joint.
5. It’s better to keep a zipped lip, than have loose lips, which sink ships, but still the tongue wags at both ends, which is difficult when you hold your head high, have your chin up, and keep a stiff upper lip, because butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth.
6. I’ll still stick my neck out, but I’ll suck it up, eat my words, and swallow my emotions
7. I’ll get my tits in a wringer, and my ass in a sling, but
8. I gotta go with my gut
9. I’ll shoulder the burden and bend over backwards for you
10. Then crawl there on my hands and knees
11. So, at least I’ll know I’m all heart as I do my soul-searching
I’m missing a few body parts, but I’m still working on it-
I just realized I’d really be bent out of shape, if I did all these things-
I can really sink my teeth into this, while keeping my nose to the grindstone, and be head over heels in love with cliches!
In Defence of Clichés
A cliché is a wonderful thing,
a means of encapsulating
a truth universally acknowledged.
Or is it?
At the end of the day,
to be perfectly honest,
safe as houses
makes much more sense
than safe as banks.
I hear what you’re saying
but I want to move the goalposts.
When push comes to shove,
the fact of the matter is that
we need to think outside the box.
In terms of ballpark figures,
a hundred and ten percent
of what I say
is pushing the envelope
of credibility.
Literally, in terms of
blue sky thinking,
the cliché is an awesome resource
for adding value.
Let’s face it,
the mind boggles
at the crackpot idea
of doing without.
the comfort blanket
of received phrases.
The long and the short of it is,
we should all sing from the same hymn sheet:
and agree the bottom line:
a cliché is A Good Thing.
Thumbs up!
I enjoyed your poem.
However, it is what it is, just cute.
Hoping against hope
Back in the day
Elephant in the room and dead as a doornail are the worst!
Oh, I forgot to add that she was no spring chicken.
She dove in head first and crashed like bull in a china shop. Her life wasn’t coming up daisies because she put the cart infront of the horse. All she wanted was for her ship to come in, but what goes around comes around. Since she didn’t know what side was up, she could try until the cows come home and still fail. Her mom always told her that a guy wouldn’t buy the cow if he got the milk for free. She finally decided to throw caution to the wind because, after all, she is as cute as a button. This story doesn’t make since, because it was written by someone who had lost her marbles.
I think cliches have their place in prose in the service of painting a picture of the character in their dialogue. Any character using one of the phrases on my personal sh1t list of annoying phrases will immediately set my teeth on edge:
5. At the coalface
4. Horses for courses
3. Giving it 110%
2. “Your call is important to us” or anything like it (I agree with Fishesandirt above – this one makes me want to smack the reciever on my desk)
1. With all due respect (automatically promotes user to the list I keep of people to be slowly and brutally murdered when society breaks down)
Having said this though there are some phrases which are probably verging on cliche but are fun to use and hear. In Australia we have many of these loitering around the edges of polite speech. My first entry into the WD short-short story competition was almost entirely made up of these (which porbably explains why I didn’t even get a mention…).
Australian cliches are the best kind because they’re so unlike everyone else’s, don’t need translating, and everyone understands them.
Instead of “Comparing apples to oranges” I compare apples to elephants. After all (OOOH! Cliche!), there’s more than one way to skin an elephant.
(They’re bigger than cats, and you have more options)
Great cliches and comments and I’m certainly going to use some of them in combination with “Haiku”- for my humor writing (hope this is not against the rules of the blog) but to illustrate how this is creative fuel for me, I’ll offer the following http://preview.tinyurl.com/bmy88yu Thanks!
“The sky is the limit.” (I, too, have been guilty of using that cliche. It is said way too much, I’ve realized.)
“Hot as hell.”
“Cold as hell.” (Is there really any proof that Hell is either hot or cold? Yes, those two cliches have to go, as well.)
How about:
Another article you may also enjoy on the topic is:
Any phrase over-used can become a cliche.
I agree. That goes for words, too. The more noticeable the word, the worse the crime.
Wonderful, used twice in the same paragraph, isn’t.
Heinous, used twice in the same story, is.
Hey, what’s wrong with the Dustbuster Insert?
And what’s wrong with cliches, when they’re used with irony?
The key thing is to be able to spot them — they sneak into common parlance like a thief in the night.
But my pet peeve is when people confuse literal with virtual.
Loaded for bear
There’s more than one way to skin a cat
Keep your head in the game
Give it your all
Blind as a bat
The Lord works in mysterious ways
So many cliches and no where to write. I haven’t seen this one yet -
“That beats anything I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Not bad once, but twice is not nice.
My wife helps me with cliches because she gets them all mixed up. She once said everything was going to Hell in a breadbasket, to which I thought, well, at least we’ll have something to eat along the way.
I once had a wizard mention that the servant was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, to which the Queen responded that he was not even the sharpest spoon in the drawer.
For those who are a bit older, I might mention that I am actually thinking of voting for Pat Paulson for President this year because now that he is dead he does all of his thinking inside the box.
A writer plucks a cliche out of the hat when he wants a quick picture without added words for his readers to grasp, but does so at the risk of losing the reader because the picture is tired and worn and not worthy of the setting in which he placed it. I choose them very carefully, and sparingly!
Can’t stand
“In real life” he/she is…
She wanted to win so badly she could almost taste it. She wracked her brain with all her might, trying desperately to come up with plump, juicy words that burst in her mouth, but the words escaped her. Her brain was fried…grilled to perfection. Feeling like a complete basket case, she wrung her hands and drummed her fingers on the table. “This should be a snap,” she muttered under her breath. Then suddenly it struck like a bolt of lightning: this is it! End of story.
Whatever.
In answer to the question, “Why?”
Cat fur to make kitten britches; ever see any on wooden ducks?”
Courtesy of my MIL…she repeats this every time someone asks the question, “Why?”
Okay, I know this isn’t exactly a cliche, but I really, really hate the word “chillax.” How about least favourite slang expressions as a future topic?
I disagree! Many of these “clichés” are time-honored phrases that can be very descriptive. It’s not that we use them, but how frequently and in which situations. They can be helpful, for examples, in novels; if your characters use them occasionally, a sense of time and place can be established. Many great phrases eventually become a bit worn out and clichéd; but, like an piece of art of which we’ve grown a bit tired and place in the attic or an article of clothing that’s gone out of style and is consigned to the back of the closet, these items can be brought out at some future time, dusted off and used and enjoyed again. And, there are others that just always fit perfectly when trying explain something. Creativity is a mix of the old and new, the familiar and unknown. So, I say to my on-line colleagues: not so fast. Just because something grows old there is no need to deep-six it –
. Let’s allow these once-new and clever phrases to live on; after all, there will always be new people to appreciate these old-timers, some of which are real gems. And, in cleaning out our clichés, we certainly don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. 
Exactly.
Had a boss who invariably prefaced his arguments with “The truth of the matter is….”
It drove me nuts!
My granny used to say “more than one way to skin a cat.” That always rubbed me the wrong way because I love cats.
It also “rained cats and dogs.” Sayings like this don’t make sense to a pre-schooler.
I’m a little tired of “underwhelmed” but I suppose that’s anword, not a cliche.
“Basically . . .” An innocuous word, because, a thought or action IS or IS NOT. I’ve heard instructors and speakers use this word multiple times in presentations. Also, I note some writers use “basically” in professional article writing.
The dictionary states “basically” is an adverb; however, why modify a verb with this insipid word?
Example. If the World is coming to an end, do you say: “Basically, the World is ending”?” No, you’d scream out: “The World is ending!”
Some speakers and writers use “basically” as an effete attempt to sound intellectual. My opinion is: strong writers and speakers rely on facts rather than self-indulgent modifiers.
I admit: I tried using “basically” on a few occasions. Each time, I embarrassed myself. I later substituted “essentially”. Equally nauseating. “Just the facts, ma’am . . .”
I believe there is a time when cliches should be acceptable. When wishing to address the vocabulary of one who would speak in that manner. I wrote a short story and the hero was uneducated. His language was language of an uneducated person. Finding a dead body, he exclaimed that it was dead as a door nail. I hesitated to write it but…that’s the way he would have addressed that fact.So…am I wrong? Should I have had him say something that would never have come from his mouth?
It is my opinion that before using said cliché, if it is well-established (with description and other dialogue) that it would be something that the character would say, then use it. I used a cliché to establish a time period…back when it was slang, and not cliché. I’ve also used “Older than Moses” in a Biblical period short as an anachronistic pun. If the shoe fits…put it in the story.
He who laughs last, laughs the longest.
Great cliches. I love this kind of brainstorming.
Have you heard… “He’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal”!
That’s a funny one I have not heard!
“Mind over matter”
“Money talks and bullish*t walks”
“Blacker the berry the sweeter the juice”
“Holy cow”
I dislike:
– white as a ghost (maybe ghosts in horror movies once wore sheets, but now they are decidedly dark… And the cliche remains…)
– …like she’d just seen a ghost (I’d be much more terrified if I saw, say, an axe-murderer, than just an already-dead person in front of me!)
ARG!
A fish out of water.
A few cards short of a deck.
Has a screw loose.
“Beating a dead horse.” Always produces such an unpleasant image in my head.
I also dislike “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Another couple I find unbearable:
At this point in time
Singing from the same song-book (similar to ‘on the same page as’)
havingfun, I completely agree: cliches have their place and are appropriate in some instances. They’ve lasted this long for a reason. Sometimes they are just plain fun.
“the perfect storm” it’s so overused by the news and entertainment media
Stop on a dime
He could charm a rattlesnake.
He could sell ice to an Eskimo.
He’s sorrier than whale manure on the bottom of the ocean.
My grandmother used the last one frequently when discussing men!
My favorite, or least favorite in this case, is when I’m on hold waiting to talk to someone and a lovely lady’s voice comes on every 20 seconds or so to remind me that “Your call is important to us.”
It goes hand in hand with “Good things come to those who wait.” Everytime I hear it I know that I’m going to be spending a long time waiting for a whole lot of nothing.
Lights are on, but nobody’s home. There has to be new ways to say this.
I’ve actually used, happy as a pig in sh*t to describe a mother using a cliche on her daughter. Sometimes you can make them work. But there are a couple that I absolutely hate to hear or read the top two;
Old school (especially when used by a 20 something that has no idea what Old School really is)
And recently since our beloved President used it in his campaign in 2008, unprecidented. What the heck! Everyone is using it as if there is no precidence for anything. In almost every instance that it is used I can think of at least one instance where precidence had been set. Do they even know what the word means?
I hate when people say, “that one is for the record books”, i mean who in the world one actually say that, especially when someone did something stupid
I hate it when people say they had to wait on line when they mean IN line. Also, one short of a six pack is worn out. Think of something else, please.
Yet another horse cliche I missed—what is it with horses? I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising given the role they once played in our lives.
Sorry—this was meant to be a reply to “mare ball” ;+}
Forgive and forget
Join the dots (particularly when used by politicians)
Steep learning curve
It’s all good
On the same page as
And one that still haunts me from the 90s – Throwing the baby out with the bath-water. Believe me – it’s still around.
The ones that most irritates me the most are: Beauty is in the eeye of the beholder and Beauty is only sskin deep
Beauty they say, is in the eye of the beholder. It is a good thing it is, or there would be a lot more single people in the world.
Additional cliches: (1) up the creek without a paddle (2) Not the brightest bulb in the box (3) Well, aren’t you special. (4) No-one gets out of this life alive. (4) 90 years young (5) What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (6) If I told you that I’d have to kill you. (7) pot calling the kettle black (8) Life is a merry-go-round.
It’s smooth sailing from here.
I once killed two birds with one stone
On a day I was chilled to the bone.
If you want the straight dope
‘Bout that slippery slope,
Watch out where your wild oats are sown.
Someone after my own heart. ;+}
following in your footsteps….
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
Good one, honeykat.
“You cal lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
I’m tired of “It is what it is” and “whatever.” Also, tired of hearing “like” and “ya know” inserted in every sentence.
Comparing women to flowers.
Most pet names for people.
When heroes finish the battle, they have to sleep for four days because it was so rough (especially in fantasy worlds that don’t have IVs).
People’s obsession with cutting hot butter.
Know what really sticks in my craw? People who start their sentences with “I mean…”
death warmed over
tried and true
give it the old college try
hope springs eternal
eager as a beaver
bun in the oven
quiet as a mouse
as smooth as a baby’s butt
when it rains it pours . . . cats and dogs
don’t ask, don’t tell
you’ve made your bed, now lie in it
let sleeping dogs lie
boys will be boys
My smart and funny mom used cliches in most of her conversations. I loved hearing them back in the olden days and I occasionally use them now. I will not use them in my writing come hell or high water. (I accidentally did and a friend pointed it out just in the nick of time.)
Doesn’t anyone out there think that a cliche fills the bill once in a blue moon? Do you honestly always and forever think they are not appropriate. They were coined for a reason. Maybe some of you are still too wet behind the ears to know what some cliches mean. I’m just sayin’…besides, rules are made to be broken. I would be happy as a clam if there weren’t so many rules in writing.
Recent cliches that are used far too frequently:
“Reached out to…” instead of “contacted”
“iteration” — not really a cliche, but why is everyone suddenly using this word?
“back in the day”
“not a problem” — used in response to “thank you” instead of saying “you’re welcome”
“it is what it is”
A stitch in time saves nine! Who says?
I gotta tell you…
you guys crack me up…
The worst one for writers is:
‘Get your creative juices flowing’
It’s so uncreative!
I couldn’t agree more one of my favorites is: great minds think alike.
Here’s a tired old cliche: tired old cliche.
Still haven’t seen
“It was quiet. Too quiet.”
(well, now that it’s typed, guess it’s being seen)
Cat on a hot tin roof
Hot as hades
Slow as molasses
Fast as lightening
Throbbing like a red robbins behind
That’s how the ball bounces
I about gag when I read, “stop and smell the roses.”
“Gin clear” is so overused in fly fishing articles that when I see it I stop reading.
If you must use them, mix them up like Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers do with comic strip character, Crankshaft.
Or, if it fits with a slight change and that change is relevant: “Think outside the fly box” when writing about fly fishing (Fly fishermen keep their flies in fly boxes).
Great replies here. Enjoy them all.
surreal (unless you happen to be talking about Salvadore Dali)
Any modifying of a number (firstly, secondly, etc)
Whatever
Have a great day!
Ok, but you all have made me rethink our corporate tag line which we’ve had since 1997: “We color outside the lines” and the logo reflects that. Is that too close to the much hated “think outside the box”?
I hate to say it, but I think that “color outside the lines” is the cliche someone was trying to avoid when (s)he came up with “think outside the box.”
How about drunk as a skunk ( where do they get served?), not a cliche but watch your head( impossible unless you are I front of a mirror)
I really hate “having said that ” and “I’m just saying”
Think out of the box.
his voice trailed off
been there, done that
to no one in particular
he thought to himself
azure blue sky
Who knew?
Face time
Booty call
Sorry about that
Having said that …
Some expressions we call cliches are really quotes from a movie or song that have become part of the culture and have endured. Examples:
“Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” Humphrey Bogart as “Rick” in “Casablanca.”
‘Tomorrow is another day.” Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With The Wind.”
“Live Long And Prosper.” Mr. Spock in “Star Trek.”
“Go ahead, make my day.” Clint Eastwood in “Dirty Harry.”
I write fiction and fictional characters, like real people, tend to use cliches when they talk. Sometimes a cliche fills in for silence. Usually a cliche needs no explanation. Think of it as comfort food for rhe mind during casual conversation.
Here is my list.
Love means never having to say you’re sorry
The devil is in the details
There is plenty of fish in the sea
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
And my absolutely #1 hated cliche is …….
six of one, half a dozen of the other
The one I hate the most: reared its/her/his ugly head.
Sky’s the limit
In my day
Snug as a bug in a rug
So over it
Get over it
That’s how the cookie crumbles
“It is what it is.” I don’t even see newbie writers use it.
Wow. So many cliches listed here, it’s a wonder anyone can NOT write using a cliche!
Pale as a ghost
Heart beating like a jackhammer
“In today’s society…” (You’re stalling!)
“It goes without saying…” (Then why bother saying it!)
“Going forward…” (How else can we go?)
This isn’t really a cliche, but for some reason people (politicians especially) keep saying it: “Look…” Listen for it the next time you’re watching an interview show.
Time stood still
A boldface lie
At the top of their lungs
My heart raced
My mind raced
Don’t become a statistic
Free as a birdTime stood still
A boldface lie
At the top of their lungs
My heart raced
My mind raced
Don’t become a statistic
Free as a birdTime stood still
A boldface lie
At the top of their lungs
My heart raced
My mind raced
Don’t become a statistic
Free as a birdTime stood still
A boldface lie
At the top of their lungs
My heart raced
My mind raced
Don’t become a statistic
Free as a bird
Sorry everyone – no idea why my list posted, like, three times. Oops!
Oh. I thought it was poetry. I liked it!
Right as rain
older than dirt
The glass is half full/half empty
to make a long story short….
…use a pair of scissors…
(Sorry…Couldn’t resist…oh, is that another clche?)
Sorry. Typo there. Change “clche” to “cliche”
You already mentioned my “favorite” – at the end of the day.
Trite expressions don’t bother me as much as when people misuse the nominative case for the objective case and vice versa.
Don’t know what would become of the English language without cliches, but I’ll “add my two cents” anyway. Pet peeves:
dime a dozen – I actually read this in a historical Regency romance e-book once, set, of course, in England where dimes are non-existent and always have been. Editing, anyone?
dumb blonde – speaking for blondes around the world, it’s just plain insulting.
fat as a pig – speaking for pigs around the world, yadayadayada.
couldn’t carry a tune in a hand basket – I said that to my granddaughter recently and she asked me what a hand basket was, which leads me to…
back in the day – Whose day are we talking about anyway? It’s all relevant.
mi bad – Need I say more?
On that happy note, that’s all folks!
I loved Dolly Parton’s answer to being asked if she was a dumb blonde. She said, “I don’t think I’m dumb, and I know I’m not a blonde.”
I was briefly tempted by this one today:
Lock, stock, and barrel.
as old as dirt
All that glitters isn’t gold
Don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Bring to the table,
as in, we keep you around because of what you ‘bring to the table’.
hate it, hate it, hate it.
Thank you for your helpful list! These cliches I do not like-
Whatever floats your boat
&
Whatever flips your flirts…
ugh
(
Literally, any phrase starting with “literally.”
1) Belly up to the bar.
2) That shirt is old enough to vote.
Wiser, more experienced writers have been tough on me. “Walking on eggshells” is a cliche in one of my earlier poems. I thought the message in it would be as “clear as a bell”! Then I wrote a short story about “The old dog days of summer”, and when I got my first critique I felt I was “better off dead” than to use that one again.
But “I am woman, hear me roar” and “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” so I kept writing. Now I’m not so hard on myself when I find a cliche creep into my work “like a thief in the night” and remember that with everything we attempt to do, “Shit happens”.
Kick the can down the road.
IMO, there are no standard cliches in writing. It is actually the context within which you use a phrase that determines whether it is a cliche or not.
Otherwise, what we are suggesting is that we should let some parts of the English language perish. If that was the case, then we would not use any word in English because there is hardly any word that has not been used any number of times. But rather the combination of how we use the words is what creates wonderful writing.
He looks to me like a doornail standing there.
To me it borrows from the dead as a door nail smilie. We understand the above sentence only because we understand the latter. But what happens is that most writers when they read the listing above would work very hard to avoid anything to do with a doornail
Here are a few “driving me to distraction” wherever that is.
worldview (everyone’s got one these days)
globalization
global perspective
self-sustainable
ah-ha moment
____ czar
Inside the “beltway”
significant other (when will we find a better term?)
I admit, this cliche was brought to my attention today from my WIP manuscript. Whoops.
“like a ton of bricks”
24/7
As we speak
“It was a dark and stormy night”
“Couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn”
“Dumber than an ox”
“Stubborn as a mule”
the list could go on and on and on.
Black as ink or black as night.
One that I find rather disturbing is “Funnier than Hell.” Kind of takes away the whole meaning of the concept of Hell.
The following is on my ecchhh list:
Got up on the wrong side of the bed
You don’t know which side your bread is buttered on
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
The chickens have come home to roost
From my grandmother: It’s a poor dog that can’t wag its own tail
o Flesh it out
o When all was said and do
o About sums it up
o And these stupid lower case “o” bullet comments that my technical writing editor thinks are ‘just the bee’s knees!’
Go over like a lead balloon.
Nine lives
Perfect storm
Off like a herd of turtles
Slept like a baby
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink
Work like Helen B. Happy
Baby on board
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
Oh no you didn’t!
Easy peasy lemon squeazy
Cry wolf
Down in the dumps
Higher than a kite
Don’t cry over spilled milk
The air was blue
Best thing since sliced bread
Denial is not just a river in Egypt
Slow and steady wins the race
You lie like a rug
Couch potato
Man Cave
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Catch more flies with honey than vinegar
A picture paints a thousand words
Money is the root of all evil
Boys will be boys
He’s all boy
Teach a man to fish…
Early bird catches the worm
Meat and potatoes
Sunny side of the street
Coming apart at the seams
Crazy as a bed bug
Sharp as a tack
See ya…Not if I see you first
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
If you build it they will come
Clear as mud
Second place is first loser
One step forward, two steps back
No pain, no gain
Four on the floor
Hit the bricks/road
Built like a brick shit house
Laughter is the best medicine
Eyes are the window to the soul
Lead, follow, or get out of the way
Hotter than hell
Colder than a well digger’s ass / witch’s tit
Squashed like a bug
Quick like a bunny
Slow as molasses
Draw a line in the sand
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker
Can’t fight his way out of a paper bag
Out like a light
Lead foot
Light on his feet
Moral high ground
Monday morning quarterback
Stupid is as stupid does
Hump day
Bromance
Boob tube
An apple a day…
Easy as pir
Sour puss
It is what it is.
Does that count as a cliche?
McGuffin was like a kid in a candy shop as he selected a .44 magnum from the shelf of weapons. He loved danger. Even though he had been warned to avoid it like the plague, he felt he had to think outside the box and find whatever low hanging fruit was still at the crime scene where they found Benny, dead as a doornail. “If only the walls could talk,” he thought later, looking at the body.
“Every dog has its day, eh McGuffin?” chimed in the chief walking up from behind. “He and that dame were as thick as thieves, but at the end of the day I guess she figured there are plenty of other fish in the sea and shot him.”
The chief had dame troubles of his own at home. He sounded like the pot calling the kettle black, thought McGuffin, giving him a sneer.
“Well, you’d better take the tiger by the tail,” added the chief wistfully, “and get this case wrapped up tighter than a drum for the DA.”
McGuffin had been up all night and felt like death warmed over, so he decided to head home and hit the sack or he’d be sick as a dog the next day. Maybe this time he’d bitten off more than he could chew. As a kid, his mother always cautioned him to be careful what he wished for. Apparently this time he was going to get it.
(anyone feel free to continue the story…”A Snitch in Time”
A slippery slope
Right,wrong or indifferent
Totally
Broaden your horizons
Oh my god/gosh
It is what it is. (I used to have a supervisor who used it all the time as code for “you screwed up and I’m not going to fix it.)
Taking one day at a time
Time will tell
Diamond in the rough
“Great minds think alike.” The whole writing industry is based on the assumption that this statement is incorrect.
i didn’t see…
dumb as a doorknob
cant buy a clue [in all similar phases such as 'here's a quarter...']
no shit Sherlock!
but i do feel the real problem is when your writing seems forced since you’re trying to avoid these ‘cliches’. remember, you do not want to lose the ‘feel’ within your writing.
I tend to overuse ‘makes a mountain out of a mole hill’. I’m tired of hearing ‘really?!’ Don’t forget ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. Let us not forget that classic cliche for starting a story ‘It was a dark and stormy night’.
Any time a character says something “drily” or “gives a wry smile.” Yeesh.
Cliches that are used in business contexts are way worse than the cliches in fiction these days. (I get really sick of people saying “Let’s not try to boil the ocean” at the office.)
My pet peeve cliches are the positional ones: that idea took a backseat to another, I’ll put this on the back burner, you get the idea. If you’re prioritizing, fine. I get that. But in fiction, your pacing, urgency, sentence length and content should allow the reader to intuit the priorities…..
24/7
Too good to be true.
Thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Big as house.
The lucky seven cliches to avoid…
1. At the end of my rope
2. At wits’ end
3. He’s got an ax to grind
4. Bad blood
5. He’s between a rock and a hard place
6. Be careful what you wish for
And my favorite…
7. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach
Off the cliff.
Everyone who uses it should go there.
team player
roll with the flow
awesome
And what REALLY bothers me is when people use then in place of than. ie: He is better then that.
Eyes as big as saucers.
Cliche’s:
Life is like a box of chocolates (can’t be used anymore too famous for when it was used)
Fast as lightening
Fast as a speeding bullet
Larger than Life
Quiet as a mouse
cold as a well diggers butt
soft as a baby’s skin
It’s all good
It is what it is
At the end of the day
Whatever….
This begs the question (people usually use this incorrectly)
If that was me
Excuse me?
Bring it on
Sharp as a tack
Cute as a button
The pot calling the kettle black
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
I agree with many of the previous posts; some I also thought of but many I didn’t.
Here’s the thing.
Bottom line.
Same page.
Back in a flash.
Deaf as a post.
Entry level.
Cruisin’ for a bruisin’
Can’t see the forest for the trees.
Hell ain’t half full.
Drunk as a skunk.
Innocent as a baby.
Busy as a bee.
Luck of the Irish.
Crossed my mind.
Right as rain.
Happy trails.
Snake in the grass.
Pet peeve.
Racking my brain.
Wise as an owl.
Frankly or Honestly. (Not really cliches but overused words).
Bored to tears.
A close second.
So near but yet so far.
The one that rubs me the wrong way? (no, not rubs me…) :You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
Of course you can! You first have your cake and then you eat it! The original phrase was, You can’t eat your cake, then have it too. That makes sense. Once you eat it, it’s gone.
I’m really starting to hate anything that has to do with blinking. “In the wink of an eye,” or “I blinked, and . I get why it’s handy in writing, I’m just really tired of reading it.
I also really hate it when I screw up a post! Ack! Please insert end quotes after the word ‘blinked’. Thank you.
“The view from 35,000 feet…” Really? You’d have to have eagle eyesight for that!
My skin absolutely crawls when someone says or writes “Take it to the next level.” Where is “the next level?”
Thanks for letting me “get this off my chest.” (Another irritating cliche!)
Like a bat out of hell
Red headed stepsister
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
One I can’t “wrap my head around” is “like a million dollars.”
As in she looked like a million dollars.
My aunt added to that cliche. She used to say, “She looked like a million dollars…all green and wrinkly.” Are some cliches or idiotic sayings family specific? My mother and aunt would say “He was so old, he looked like a folded Chinese map.” They had versions of the “standards” like, “stink on shit” instead of “white on rice,” “what doesn’t kill you, maims you badly,” “when the going gets tough, add more tenderizer.” Okay, maybe that last one didn’t count. Oh and I hate to hear people pepper their conversations with “You know what I’m saying?” because usually I don’t.
As good as done
Elephant in the room
As good as it gets
I just retired after 40 years in the corporate world, so there were several of which I had grown tired.
Here are just a few…………and what they really mean.
Walk the Walk really means “Quit running your mouth”
Think Outside the Box really means “So far, your ideas suck”
Think Bottom Line really means “Who are you going to fire”
Let’s Flesh it Out really means “I don’t get it”
I Like Our Synergy really means “You’re a good yes man”
Amazing! — everything is AMAZING anymore
Game-changer — replacement for Paradigm shift
Easy-peazy — don’t know where this came from, but it is everywhere
Mirror image — mostly when people get it wrong. A mirror image is reversed.
Most grating cliche: “It goes without saying.” And yet, the writer goes on to say it.
word use that bothers me is when people misuse “literally.” I was watching television one day and a car commercial came on about “virtually” driving the car and the woman said, “you’re literally driving the car.” Uh… NO! You are only literally driving the car if you are actually driving the car!
Others:
two peas in a pod.
almost dropped my teeth (???)
let the cat out of the bag
get out
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
Can I be honest with you? <~ no, I want you to lie to me!
Mine aren’t so much cliched phrases so much as cliched descriptions: a burning gaze, a character looking through their thick lashes – stuff like that.
I did write “like being caught between a rock and a hard place” once but she was literally trapped between a rock and a person
Cat got your tongue?
When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Quick as a wink.
Forty winks.
Sober as a judge.
Water under the bridge.
Water over the dam.
A drop in the bucket.
God helps those who help themselves.
Draw straws.
1. Time heals all wounds
2. You’re just like your father
3. You’re only as old as you feel
Ignoring “Ignoring the elephant in the room” entirely
My pet peeve is ‘one big happy family’. Everyone who says that really means ‘everyone caters to me’.
In a dog eat dog world
Every dog has his day
Sometimes he’s holding the fork
Sometimes he’s on the buffet
I love it! ;+}
“All I’m saying is…”
“You only live once”
“Best thing since sliced bread”
“The acorn (apple, what ever) doesn’t fall far from the tree
“As luck would have it”
and
“Dog eat dog”
“Back in the day…” ESPECIALLY when used by some 20-something referring to events “back” a year or two ago.
A stitch in time saves nine
That bugs me to no end
I cannot sew to save my life
On that you can depend
A penny saved is a penny earned
Now where does that leave me?
I’d like to see Ben Franklin save
in this economy.
Some that I find useless
1. ‘Do it for the children’ . . .usually means ‘I don’t want you to think about this before you vote’
2. ‘It’s the right thing to do’ . . usually means ‘you disagree with me – you bad person you’ and also (see #1)
3. Serious as a heart attack . . .I actually have funny stories about each of mine
4. The whole nine yards . . nine yards of what? Why not eight or ten? Do people who use this know what the nine yards are?
Off the chain
Sweating like a whore in church
I hate state of the art and I’m getting tired of the use of mulitple instead of sevderal or many
It is what it is.
That is everywhere. But I don’t like hearing it when I’m reading.
Another one I see a lot is “I know, right?” Maybe it’s not a cliche, but it has been done to death.
Done to death is another one, along with low man on the totem pole. I am guilty of the last one, but I don’t write it. I say it, because it happens to be a good description of my position at work. doesn’t make it any less annoying though.
Over the hill. So “over” that phrase, and not because I myself am over said hill. ;o)
Full as a bull. How full is a bull??
A cliche that bothers me is “reach for the stars” :@
My current gripes are:
I flush
Oh my
Absence makes the heart grow fonder (a lie – you’re forgotten)
At the get go
It’s always in the last place you look (Nope. Not for me. I keep on looking long after I find it)
Forgot one:
Don’t get it twisted.
God willing and the creek don’t rise.
It is what it is (what does that mean?
At the end of the day
If you don’t know, then I’m not going to tell you.
Knock on wood
It is what it is
like a bull in a china shop
there is no I in team
numbers don’t lie
Oops – I forgot one. The ringleader of them all:
I can’t wrap my head around that. What the hell does that really mean, anyway?
Thanks again!
The newfangled cliches and phrases really get on my nerves for some reason. Maybe because they are REALLY overused:
Team player (Ugh!)
Get it done (Agggghhhh!!!)
Going forward (AI YI YI!!!)
Carbon-neutral, revenue-neutral or anything neutral (STOP IT!!!)
Exactly right (redundant!!!)
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I feel better now.
Thanks for expressing my disgust at these phrases, especially “going forward” — see my list of other recent cliches below. I think the new ones are far more irritating than the old ones, possibly because they are used more frequently.
One cliche that I’m tired of?
“When a dog bites man, it’s not news. But when a man bites dog, that’s news.”
Older than Moses.
Whether or not he is at the Red Sea.
“Grass is greener on the other side”
“15 minutes of fame”
“Every dog has its day”
“Another one bites the dust”
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
“A penny for your thoughts”
“Third time’s a charm”
“A stone’s throw away”
“A hop, skip and a jump”
“It’s not over until the fat lady sings”
Here’s one courtesy of my husband (I don’t think it was mentioned but. . .)
“living on the edge”
“Stick a fork in me; I’m done.”
My mother overuses that one.
“You can’t swing a dead cat w/out hitting ______”
I ABSOLUTELY hate this one:
“Good to Go”
It’s overused in the military and I cringe whenever I hear it.
The one that annoys me most is, “With that being said, …” And while it’s not a written or spoken cliche, when people make the quotation marks gesture with their fingers to emphasize a word. Oh I promise I will break the fingers of the next person who sticks their bunny rabbit fingers around a stupid word!
The clichè I loathe the most is, “It’s raining cats and dogs!”
Dumb as stump.
Poor as a church mouse.
Ugly as homemade sin. (Not sure whether or not storebought sin is as ugly).
Sweet as pie.
Rode hard and put up wet.
Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Beaten to a pulp.
Epic fail.
There’s a horse cliche I missed! (along with “shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted”)
1. My bad.
2. Been there, done that.
3. It’s a learning curve….
4. Elephant at the table (or in the room).
5. Disconnect (similar to not being on the same page, cough cough)
6. lol, omg, and similar
7. Get with the program (I dislike this one because I hear it a lot…)
8.Level playing field
9. All things being equal.
10. Smooth play, Shakespeare (again, I hear this one too often…)
11. Smooth move, Exlax (is there a theme here?)
12. “Awesome!” and now it’s getting to be “Epic!”
Oh god, I have to add one more, lucky thirteen (oops, is that another one?): Instant Classic
“it is what it is” …ugh!! I hate that !!! “everything happens for a reason”
Low man on the totem pole
Higher than a kite
Over on the grassy knoll
they say that might makes right
Tell it to the judge I say
In for a penny, in for a pound
It’s either love or money
that makes the world go round
“in the mix”
monkey on my back, bless her heart, all in all, if you had half a brain youd be dangerous, soups on!, hell nor highwater, id hit that, there but for the grace of god go i, “coincidence, i think not,” these are but a few, seriously, these are but a few!
last but not least
lol
I just heard one today that didn’t make any sense at all in context. It was a “video article” (and why I was watching it, I have no idea) about a woman who hasn’t looked in a mirror for a year (or the year was the goal) and the reporter said “It would take an act of congress” to stop most women from looking in the mirror. That’s just dumb, and most people will do what they’re going to do and don’t care what congress does (if they do anything at all).
May or may not. Doesn’t may automatically imply may not?
It’s like gas, it will pass.
Tomorrow is another day.
We all have our crosses to bear.
It’s not like it was when I was young.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire! I really really, hate that one.
“Piece of cake.”
“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
And the worse (not sure if it’s a cliche or just a very annoying slang phrase):
“I know, right?”
Please retire this phrase.
When writers state that a small town has “more churches than stoplights” or something like that. The New York Times reporters seem particularly fixated on the number of stoplights in towns they cover.
Irksome: Anything that hangs or is hung by or on “his own petard.” A petard is a small container of gunpowder, an old-fashioned bomb. One can be hoisted, but not hung, by such a device. Overused AND misunderstood.
I’m new to this site and a little late to post. I saw most of the ones on my list already posted but I’ll leave you with a few more:
“Like white on rice”
“Take it to the limit”
“Pedal to the metal”
“To the bitter end”
“Skinny as a rail”
“Between a rock and a hard place”
“Raining cats and dogs”
“Rise and shine”
And all the ones used to describe the level of a person’s intellect such as: “Not the sharpest tool in the shed” or “Not the brightest crayon in the box”
I agree—I prefer “two beers short of a six-pack” myself. Or maybe “a sandwich short of a picnic”?
I should have thought of “rise and shine”—it’s one of my most hated phrases. I am NOT a morning person. ;+}
Those are much funnier including the bunny one!
“rise and shine” definitely made the list as I am not a morning person either.
It’s still better than “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey”
That one makes me shudder.
Anyone who says that to me better be bringing me breakfast in bed.
I like to say my bunny isn’t the sharpest carrot in the garden (but he sure is cute being dumb).
There are two that I absolutely abhor:
1. A vicious circle/cycle
I’ve heard them both unfortunately
2. I live vicariously through you
Or any pronoun inserted in the appropriate place
It’s like people heard the word “vicarious” and thought if they used it in a sentence they’d sound smart.
When I was looking to buy a house some years ago, a for-sale-by-owner, the owner’s attorney actually used the “more ways to skin a cat” phrase about one aspect pertaining to the sale and I was “totally creeped out.”
Needless to say, I “high-tailed it out of there.” :–)
I have to say the cliche that eats at me most is “normal life” or “normal girl” or, god forbid, “picture perfect”. I see these a lot as an active member of the e-writer community and they are positively the most vexing phrases I see.
Fit as a Fiddle always irks me, as fast as lightning,dead as a doornail, strong as an ox.Some of the cliches bother me more than others but I like ones like pee like a racehorse. They are attached to some interesting memories.
Great subject!
My all time least favorite is: There is more than one way to skin a cat.
And for other animal lovers, there is also:
–Dog tired
–Don’t let the cat out of the bag.
I’m guilty of this but ‘uber’ in front of any word.
Like, you know.
Fast as lighting.
Solid as a rock. Hard as a rock.
That is so hardcore.
Right as rain.
I seem to like using some cliches in conversation now and then, but I try not to use them in my writing. I wonder sometimes if that adds some risk to inadvertently using them, since it might be a bit of a habit. The problem being that I may not always catch them, because I’m too used to them. Which is why it would be nice to have someone to read my work. Which is why I like to post on this site, otherwise I might never get feedback.
The things that personally irritate me tend to be single words, such as, “ginormous”, “ridonculous”, various sordid prefixes that end with “ilicious”, made up stuff basically. It only takes one use and I’m ready to plug my ears, or close the book.
You have half a mind to give me a piece
of your mind, but you’d better beware—
what you’re giving away freely to others
is something you really can’t spare.
You’ve given your all, put your back into it;
you’ve given it the old college try.
I’d love to help you brainstorm,
but I’ve other fish to fry.
So just hold your horses, get off your high horse,
Then get on the horse once more.
Tired of horses yet? No? Well okay,
I can still think of three or four.
I eat like a horse, and with little remorse,
I beat them when they’re dead.
I have to pee like a Russian racehorse
(but that’s prob’ly better left unsaid).
I’ll hitch to the one that is winning,
and look in its mouth of course.
You’ll be glad to know, it’s the end of the flow;
I need to see a man about a horse.
Awesome post and very creative.
Thank you—now if only I could stop thinking in cliches. (I thought that Gotye song was hard to get out of my brain) ;+}
Two peas in a pod
A bird in the hand
At my wit’s end
To beat the band
OK I just quit writing for good. You’re way too awesome! (Oh no, not AWESOME?)
Snowball’s chance in hell
He’s pushing his luck
She’s backed into a corner – unless she is literally in an actual corner, facing outward.
and definitely with everyone on “Think outside the box” – ugh!
Snowball’s chance in hell
Push my luck
and definitely with everyone on “Think outside the box” – ugh!
That’s how I roll.
It is what it is.
A snowball’s chance in hell.
“Ugly as sin” My grandmom and mother overuse it to, lol.
I’ve used the phrase “Ugly as homemade sin” before and I’ve liked it.
it’s heavier than a dead priest.
Never heard that one. I like it! Where are you from?
I agree with Andy. I like this image and have never heard that expression before.
Oops! Sorry for the “picture” repeat. . .talk about overused. ;+}
Blood is thicker than water.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
It is what it is. (right up there with “my bad” on my hate list)
Light at the end of the tunnel
Sick as a dog
Scared me to death
Needless to say ;+} these phrases are all overused.
I just used “Light at the end of the tunnel.” I was describing mining and working in the tunnel.
I’m with you on “it is what it is” and “my bad.” I’d also like to add “it’s all good.”
I think the last two just sound stupid, and the first one is a cop-out excuse for not wanting to explain the situation. I had a supervisor use that one, when I was trying to get an explanation of why it was okay for us to sign a bunch of tax returns for a bunch of different people. We really did have permission from the customers to do it, but she neglected to explain that part and just wanted me to shut up and do as I was told! Sorry, Ms. Supervisor, but that’s how people get into trouble. I want to know why I’m doing something I would normally never do!
- “I saw it with my own eyes.” (Who else’s would you see it with?)
- “Shut the front door!” (I don’t know where this came from, but I suddenly keep hearing it.)
This is not a cliche, but overuse of the word “virtually” drives me nuts.
I think where this came from is some lame TV sitcom where a female character says: ‘ SHUT THE F…’ it and the joke is that it seemed like she was going to say: SHUT THE F#$K UP but she just says: ‘SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!’ I know, hilarious.
What about “literally” used incorrectly. My stepson is HORRIBLE about that.
“I literally will die if I don’t see the new Batman movie.”
Does that mean I get your XBox?
I hate how “literally” is used incorrectly. And so often at that! “She literally was in ecstasy.” That was a line I recently read in a book. Really? At least I know I can write better than half (or more) of the self-published writers out there.
Just a few that come to mind:
-pain is weakness leaving the body – say that when you rip a tendon or break a bone.
-sweating like a pig – let’s face it, they don’t sweat.
-a picture is worth a thousand words
How about “Common Sense”? Or any phrase including the words “common sense”…
-He/She has no common sense
-It’s just common sense
-People have no common sense these days
“Common Sense” is perhaps the most widespread, yet flawed and non existent theory. And as a cliche` it literally makes me sick to hear.
Maybe it is sickening to you because “Actions speak Louder than Words” which is prevalent today showing a Universal Lack of Common Sense. mathilwriter
Ha!
The phrase “Common sense” is among the most dishonest phrases I’ve ever heard. Boss says, “Use your common sense,” meaning, figure it out yourself; if it works, I’ll take the credit, if it fails, I’ll accuse you of not following directions. Or, he says “It’s common sense that…” meaning, argue with me and I’ll attack you as an idiot.
If I owned a corporation, there’d be a fine for anybody caught using that phrase- and it would be based on your pay. At best, it means things that are taken as given. In reality, it’s just a bunch of usually nonsense beliefs.
But I don’t think it’s a cliche so much as a two-word nomenclature.
Been there, done that.
Pretty as a picture.
A fly on the wall.
No pain, no gain.
Hard road to hoe, which SHOULD be hard row to hoe.
That last one mostly irritates me because it’s almost always misspelled, demonstrating that user has no idea what the cliche actually means or its origins, so besides being a cliche, it’s just plain wrong.
How about:
“Pretty as a picture”
“Sitting pretty”
“Clear the air” (maybe so someone can address that elephant in the room)
And my personal least favorite: Taking anything “To the next level”
Taking it to the next level does make me gag. Others that make me wonder if I suddenly have acid reflux are: alpha dog (referred to a controlling man usually), wears the pants in that family (does anyone dare say that or breadwinner anymore?), worked like a dog (really? Dogs seem mostly to lie around the house and sleep. Is that what you did?) not playing with a full deck, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, elevator doesn’t go all the way up to the top, got a screw loose… … (And who are you? Einstein?) Ivy towers (College, we learn isn’t all that and you can add “isn’t all that” to the list.)
Leave the comfort zone (everybody talks about it but most people are on the couch with the beer and chips in front of the TV). And if one more damn thing is said to go viral I’ll shoot it. Are we done with bean counter now?
“Fit as a fiddle” – I’ve always had this urge to giggle when I hear that one. Also, there is “Dumb like a fox.”
Maybe these aren’t 100% Cliches by definition, but phrases, nonetheless, that are extremely annoying ~
1. “That is soooo _______, …NOT!” (Very 90′s, but I HATED it with a passion when it 1st became a trend!)
2. “That’s UBER-Hot!” (I’ve seen “Uber” used recently even though it’s pretty 90′s also)
3. “That’s Totally AWESOME!” (WOW! Talk about an overused/overabused Word!)
(below, definitely cliches-the 1st ones that came to mind-but not all that irritating);
4. “Address the elephant in the room”
5. “Let the cat out of the bag”
6. “Have your cake and eat it too”
7. “Easy as pie”
8. “When it rains, it pours”
9. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”
10.” Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat”
How about “raining cats and dogs”, “loose as a goose”, “drunk as a monkey”, “sober as a judge”, “dumb as a post (or rock)”, “party animal”, “octomom” (octo-anyhing!), and “older than dirt”
Love your list, very funny!
And anything ___alicious. Erg
Cliches or over-used phrases/words:
psychobabble
clearly (offered at the start of a sentence on why an explanation is the only logical conclusion)
At the end of the day…
A bitter pill to swallow
The weight of the world
I hate “think outside the box.” Being in the marketing career field, that phrase is way overused.
I also dislike”everyday life.” Everyone’s “everyday life” is different.
“Cool as a cucumber.” – That one’s just dumb.
Oh ugh…I completely agree with “think outside the box”. I used to work at a place that used and abused “collaboration” until I thought I would scream in meetings. Essentially it meant “unless you go along with what we ask, you’re not a collaborator”.
I hate both of those and they get so overused in the business world. I’m fine for people challenging people to think creatively and come up with a potential new solution but my goodness, ‘think outside the box’. I blame Taco Bell for that because I think that’s when I first starting hearing it was in their ad campaign and then everybody starting using it.
And collaboration. I’m sorry but some things need to be worked on solo not in a group with everyone struggling to ‘think outside the box.’
Actually, Taco Bell got it right. They took a cliche and tweaked it to “Think outside the Bun.” Wish I could be so clever.
My favorites include, “let’s get busy…” “OK, show’s over, nothing to see here…”
Also:
It’s not over til the fat lady sings
Yo
Hi, howya doin’?
Dog tired
Sick as a dog (How sick is that anyway?)
Where’s a cop when you need one?
Shut up!
Agreed. I’m in the marketing field as well, and I don’t even know how many times I’ve heard that :/ Ugh! Lol
“Think outside the box.” never bothered me until a roommate complained about it years ago. I hadn’t realized how often, as an electronics technician, I said it in trying to get people to think creatively to solve technical problems. I said it one day, and my roommate cringed like he’d been slapped with a rotten herring. For a few days, I actually taunted him with the phrase, finding any way I could to bring it up in conversation. Finally, I overdid it (being the social genius that I am) and he got severely ticked off. We found a new phrase then that he could work with. Now my group of friends says “Step outside the circle.” Conveys the same notion, but doesn’t make him feel like Force choking us all.
@Roarin1
I also come from the technical world and have used “think outside the box” for decades. Your roommate must not be a “techie”.
Anyway, I want to thank you for all the creativity in this one short posting. I especially like “slapped with a rotten herring”. I really hope it doesn’t turn into a cliche from overuse.
Cool as a cucumber has some real merit, even though it is way overused. On a hot summer day, a cucumber is generally as much as 20 degrees cooler on the inside than the air surrounding it.
You have clearly never bitten into a juicy salted cucumber in Delhi when the thermometer is over 40c
Feel like death warmed over….I mean, really, who knows what that feels like anyway?
Thank you.
Cliches:
Every dog has its day
Green with envy
Fifteen minutes of fame
Hit the sack/hay
Crazy as a fox
Maybe I didn’t read down the list enough, but does no one else hate “too much on my plate?”
Other food related cliches: all that and a bag of chips (what?), bringing home the bacon, he knows where his bread is buttered…
Actually, it is ‘He knows which side his bread is buttered.’
“Like flies on shit”…really gross!!