LifLG says:
hackneyed (HAK-need) adjective
stale, boring, done to death
At this time of year I'm preparing my students for our annual English proficiency exam. When I have them practice writing I tend to hear a lot of complaints and many of the same irritated questions year after year. The most hackneyed of these occurs when they flip through the pages and whine, "Do we have to use all of these pages?" I patiently explain, again and again, that the lines are there for the students' benefit, that some people need more space than others but there is no rule regarding the number of pages they must use. Maybe one day I'll convince them that writing is about expression not requirements, but in the mean time I'll just keep smiling and repeating myself.
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