Third, if you'll excuse the hackneyed phrase, what I'm after is the human interest angle.

Neither the hackneyed phrase nor the university accent disguised his concern.

Aside from the hackneyed phrases, the lady was right about the rumors.

It's a hackneyed phrase, but he has a mind like a steel trap.

Truth is stranger than fiction - a hackneyed phrase down the years, but it was true.

To use the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself.

The effect, to use a hackneyed but convenient phrase, can better be imagined than described.

"We use hackneyed phrases to say monumental things," John explains.

That is a hackneyed phrase, but I really mean it.

Never once does he use the hackneyed phrase "vintage of the century," not even for 1961, which is often called just that.