stock phrase

stock phrase

A well-known, overused phrase; a cliché. As this is a creative writing class, I don't want to see any stock phrases in your stories. Please rewrite this paragraph in your own words, instead of using stock phrases like "think outside the box."
See also: phrase, stock
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • (it's) (all) Greek to me
  • be all Greek to someone
  • Greek to me
  • Greek to me, it's
  • it's all Greek to me
  • the customer is always right
  • customer is always right
  • customer is always right, the
  • (good) black don't crack
  • Greek to
References in periodicals archive
Earlier (Ford 2006), I showed how lirrga, another Daly song genre, employs allusiveness, puns, repetition, reduplication, ellipsis, stock phrases, and complex clauses.
With Hartson also "chomping at the bit" - Mowbray's stock phrase for over-enthusiastic strikers - the Albion manager has much to consider for what could be their toughest match of the season to date.
There are odds for the first cliche or stock phrase from a candidate.
I could be confident that he wouldn't hang on to my submission for four months before returning it saying, "Unfortunately it does not fit our present requirements" or another stock phrase.
Any attempt at discipline is usually greeted with the same stock phrase - 'you can't do that, I know my rights'.
He said: "If Will had one stock phrase it was his description of anything and everything as being 'rude'.
That is after all the stock phrase they turn to when it comes to troublesome teenagers.
He said: "If Will had one stock phrase, it was his description of anything and everything as being 'rude'.
"As a kid, Jill's stock phrase was that she wanted to work behind the scenes in television.
Maj Wilson said: "If Will had one stock phrase it was his description of anything and everything as being 'rude'.
"I don't know how I lived without one before," is the stock phrase.
The remark 'we can't buy players or loan them' - which often surfaces in the Wales chief's press conferences - has become something of a stock phrase.
"I don't know your dad, but tell him I was asking for him," is a stock phrase I have heard so many times in recent days.
IRONS IN THE FIRE - Ronnie McFall's stock phrase for dealing with transfer speculation.
The words echoed her stock phrase on the Mrs Merton show where she tells her regular audience of pensioners: "Let's have a heated debate!"