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trite
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
trite
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I know it might sound like a trite remark, but mothers usually know best.
▪ The movie's dialogue is trite and uninspired.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And he ended with a homily, trite or profound according to taste.
▪ As trite as the saying has become, it remains none the less true.
▪ Besides, I reasoned they would be trite.
▪ Contrived plotting, such as marriages of convenience, trite misunderstandings and mistaken identities, should be avoided.
▪ I know it sounds trite, but you're so lucky to have your son.
▪ Their conversations had hardly gone beyond the tritest pleasantries.
▪ This trite communication put an end to Emma's overtures and she began to fade from their lives.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Trite

Trite \Trite\ (tr[imac]t), a. [L. tritus, p. p. of terere to rub, to wear out; probably akin to E. throw. See Throw, and cf. Contrite, Detriment, Tribulation, Try.] Worn out; common; used until so common as to have lost novelty and interest; hackneyed; stale; as, a trite remark; a trite subject. -- Trite"ly, adv. -- Trite"ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
trite

"used till so common as to have lost its novelty and interest," 1540s, from Latin tritus "worn, oft-trodden," of language "much-used, familiar, commonplace," past participle adjective from terere "to rub, wear down" (see throw (v.)). Related: Tritely; triteness.

Wiktionary
trite

Etymology 1 a. Worn out; hackneyed; used so many times that it is no longer interesting or effective (often in reference to a word or phrase). Etymology 2

n. 1 A denomination of coinage in ancient Greece equivalent to one third of a stater. 2 (taxlink Trite genus noshow=1), a genus of spiders, found in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, of the family Salticidae.

WordNet
trite

adj. repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse; "bromidic sermons"; "his remarks were trite and commonplace"; "hackneyed phrases"; "a stock answer"; "repeating threadbare jokes"; "parroting some timeworn axiom"; "the trite metaphor `hard as nails'" [syn: banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock(a), threadbare, timeworn, tired, well-worn]

Wikipedia
Trite (disambiguation)

Trite means overused and of little importance and lacking originality. Trite is also a genus of jumping spiders.

Trite may also refer to:

  • Trite (coin), a historical currency used in Ancient Lydia
  • "Trite", a song by Sage Francis from Sick of Waiting Tables
Trite

Trite is a spider genus of the Salticidae family (jumping spiders). Most of the 18 described species occur in Australia and New Zealand, with several spread over islands of Oceania, one species even reaching Rapa.

Usage examples of "trite".

Perhaps he could make something up that would be more interesting to hear about and less trite in the telling.

Not without getting trite, or cute, or moralistic - or falling into any number of the many pitfalls I foresaw with regard to this material.

You who offer nothing but asinine romps, improbable coincidences, mistaken identity, and trite screen-scenes featuring wayward husbands caught hiding from avenging wives, all this crammed into three frantic acts of babble and confusion!

All that trite crap about beautiful memories and not allowing something so perfect to degenerate into tedium.

I went back and trite to come over again, this time with a play-shovel I found in our old toybox in the attic.

They spend most of their time squirreled away in a basement or an attic with a word processor writing and rewriting, paranoid that the public might find their finished product silly, trite, or stupid.

Boston AA meetings are unusually long, an hour and a half instead of the national hour, but here they also have this formal break at about 45 minutes where everybody can grab a sandwich or Oreo and a sixth cup of coffee and stand around and chat, and bond, where people can pull their sponsors aside and confide some trite insight or emotional snafu that the sponsor can swiftly, privately validate but also place in the larger imperative context of the primary need not to absorb a Substance today, just today, no matter what happens.

What we said was trite and conventional, but the undertalk was deep and occasionally treacherous.

It is a just though trite observation, that victorious Rome was herself subdued by the arts of Greece.

He believed that only stupid people could define the failings and opportunities of this complex world by means of trite catchall mottos.

Hollywood, gullible Christers, and New Age loopy-doodles had combined to give them a trite, fairy-godfather image.

The real interests of the great industrialist or financier lie in cosmopolitan organization and the material development of the world commonweal, but his womenfolk pin flags all over him, and his sons are prepared to sacrifice themselves and all his business creations for the sake of trite splendours and Ruritanian romance.

But let us abandon the discussion of a principle now too trite, for humankind, at least in Europe, is satisfied that unlimited liberty is nowhere consistent with a properly-regulated state of society.

All too often writers tend to fall back on standard backgrounds that were fresh and exciting a couple of generations ago, but have become stale and trite today.

Blaring brass against a background of drumbeats, an attempt to make dreadfully trite melody sound important.