What is a cliché, asked a young friend.
Look at it this way. If a footballer said, “We give 100% every time. We take one game at a time. We just go out and play our natural game. We are just happy to be here. We have our backs against the wall. It ain’t over till it’s over…,” you are likely to close your ears and scream, “Stop it! We’ve heard all that before!”
That’s it. A cliché is an idea, phrase or an expression that is overused. It is commonplace, familiar and makes you want to “clench your fists and grind your teeth; buy the guy a one-way ticket to hell; tell him to go fly a kite…” ok, ok, stop shrieking!
A cliché is not just something that lots of people say; it’s something that lots of people say often. It does convey some sort of idea or message.How do we know a phrase is a cliché? Take this test. If I said, “It’s a one-man ____,” would you be able to complete it? Easily. You’d shout “show!”. This expression has a definite meaning, but you’ve heard it a million times. If I said, “This essay should be sent to the …?” You would not complete it with “the forensic lab”. You would never have guessed it. I didn’t till I wrote it just now. Cliché are predictable.
Is it wrong to use clichés? No. Only boring. Some clichés are such good expressions that they are going to be around for a long time. Like this one: Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.
However, “A cliché is an analogy (example) characterized by its overuse. It may be true (‘fat as a pig’), no longer true (‘work like a dog’) or difficult to understand (‘right as rain’), but it has been overused to the point that its sole function is to mark its user as a lazy thinker.”

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