Favourite (i.e. most hated) cliches!

[MrsThierryHenry]

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

"Thank you, that's really given us some food for thought" usually found cranked out on local TV news interviews.

(i.e. we'll be ignoring all that clap trap of which you spoke)

MrsSprat -or, in fact 'we weren't even listening to you drone on. Thank god you've finished now'

"Better luck next time"
No I wanted good luck this time and I won't be bothering again, thank you all the same.

• or - 'You're far too intelligent for me to understand so I'm going to respond with some blandish nonsense and hope I can cover all bases!'

um - my last comment should have read:

MrsSprat - or - 'You're far too intelligent for me to understand so I'm going to respond with some blandish nonsense and hope I can cover all bases!'

brokenbiscuits, you've reminded me of my all-time most hated cliche:

Cheer up love, it'll never happen! (makes me want to say: 'oh, yes it will, my dear, to YOU! [before strangling said muppet]).

Oh dear, I think I need some rest.

!

Indeed.

Use of the word 'piece' all over the shop in business. Once you've been alerted to this, it is found everywhere.

e.g. Yes, we'll be rolling this initiative out across the piece in due course.

e.g. Ah yes, but aren't you forgetting the Sarbanes Oxley piece that Chris is working on?

Spratty, you have made me laugh so loud I think I've woken up the neighbours!

Shhhh! 6 months of maternity leave in and that irksome little number haunts me still.

I'm not surprised, I think it's hideous. I think it's another weird US use of English, like 'concretise' (sorry to all the lovely, lovely Yanks on MN - but come on, it is weird!).

DH was on a work-related chat website when someone wrote that something was 'gooder'.

I don't know what to say about that one. Am in too much shock.

all this makes me think of Gus on Drop the Dead Donkey - remember him? I used to have a boss like him; I clearly remember one meeting where he kept going on and on about "not shooting the goose that lays the golden eggs" - dunno where he found one of them in the NHS

lol at the term 'piece' being so misused. As a sculptor I find that very funny. Ah this is my latest piece, I call it 'business continuity initiative 000'. It's probably been done...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh

IorekByrnison - "It's all good" is one I hoped I had forgotten about. DH had started saying it just because he knew how much it wound me up.
Another one - calling people a "muppet" (sorry MrsTH)

"you're not a quitter!"

My driving instructor said that to me today, just before I failed my driving test today.

I am a quitter

that happened today, in case I was insufficiently clear on that point.

I don't like 'muppet'. IME it's mainly used by patronising men - often rather overweight and 'muppetty' looking themselves.

i would like to add... 'didn't you ever make a mistake when you were a teenager?'

thought shower?!

DH uses the phrase "Dick slamming" with regard to meetings he has been in I hate it
he means the boasting and one upmanship that goes on in ponsey sales speak!

epileptics, i think.

Such and such is a 'No brainer' , just seems to highlight the brainlessness of the speaker

Most other Americanisms i.e 'It's all good/ I'm liking/I'm loving....

'At the end of the day/basically' These are useless , remove them and the meaning remains the same!

Realise this is about cliches but otherwise highly intelligent people (like my niece who has a first in English and Classics) saying 'like' between every other word in a Californian style and whose every sentence has to rise in intonation at the end like an Aussie..all these are fine in themselves but she's from a dodgy part of North London

That 'concretise' one is interesting if it was used in 'business-speak' as I think in French 'se concretiser' means to materialize so maybe not as meaningless as most David Brent speak...

And er..confession time: I did used to say 'laters' , but I was only 15, am I forgiven ?