Favourite cliches

[Bert]

I cannot get accents on this form, so sorry about that. The question is, what are your favourite (i.e. most loathed) current cliches? I would like to exclude one-word cliches, such as 'hopefully' and 'basically' (can you have a one-word cliche? - If not, what is the word for such words?). Mine are 'at the end of the day', 'sneak preview' (there seems to be no other type), 'broad daylight' - a crime committed during the day is always committed in broad daylight, 'emotional rollercoaster', and 'physically sick' - anyone who is shocked or disgusted seems unable to feel sick, without feeling physically sick - I'm sure most of the people who use the expression did not feel physically sick at all. Over to you

[beenee]

'National Television'.. as in Trisha etc.: "I can't believe you brought me on National Television to tell me..." makes me so mad. Will get back to you with more.

[treaclefight]

One I hear a great deal in London is "so i turns round and says to him...." and no one turned round at all. I too will be back with more, there are so many.

[IndieSinger]

treaclefight, that reminds me of a clich� my friend uses 24/7 - he says, "So I stood there, eating my crisps" or "So I stood there, playing tennis"... of course "standing" rarely has anything to do with it. Once when he was talking about something that happened on the bus, he said (and worrying, didn't see anything wrong with the sentence) "So I stood there, sat down, minding my own business..."

[quattro]

The ones that get me going are the ones that the popular press uses that no-one in real life seems to use like bawdy and dubbed (as in he was dubbed Dirty Des when everyone knows it was the guy who wrote the article who did the dubbing) and phrases such as "An onlooker said" when we know its a pack of lies and no-one saw anything

[spiff]

Other ones,again from the press..... "fracas" ,"jibe" etc. I mean do you EVER hear people say.."what happened to your eye Dave?" "Well,I was in the pub, and this geezer was well jibing!needless to say,a fracas ensued." Also the uneccessary use of the words "Terror" or "Horror". As in "City man's lost bus ticket horror!"

[number8]

"Think outside of the box", "be proactive not reactive", "let's put that on the back burner", "let's pick up the ball and run with it", "flag it up" and all the other "buzz" words/expressions there are.

[bobbobley]

bert holding down Alt and typing 386 gives you �

[Hippy]

My candidates have to be "unseen footage" for images not previously shown in public, and "Diedrie reels at fiona's rejection" in TV listings especially; when a character is shocked or amazed, they always seem to "reel".

[sddsddean]

I hate people who say 'absolutely', instead of 'yes'.

[Janetex]

Recently I've been hearing "bucket brigade" referring to each person called notifying another, usually about a lunch or such. I use hopefully, take the baton and run with it and I refuse to stop referring to something queer as being queer.

[Roxy]

"hazard a guess" is a favourite of mine as is "treading on thin ice" "and i was like" has seemed to replace "then i said" which i find very annoying and speaking of the press, in every story, at least one person seems to make "a shocking revalation"

[Bert]

treaclefight, your mention of the expression "I turned round and said..." reminded me that, when I first came "down south" from "up north", I had never heard this expression. A young lady used it frequently and i took it literally for quite a long time before I heard other people using it and realised it was just a figure of speech.

[Bert]

I've found another one that annoys me - Big Time. That's it - when people add "Big time" at the end of a sentence, instead of saying "a lot".

[Ms. Irish]

I have some very old phrases I really like...." Come the Spring of the year"...Mind yourself...the one phrase right now that I'd like to know more about is..."kick hin to the curb' and thoughts on this one....Ms. Irish