hackney
/'hækni/
Definition
Noun:
- A compact breed of harness horse: A type of horse, typically of a sturdy build, originally bred for driving and pulling carriages.
- A carriage for hire: A horse-drawn vehicle, often a four-wheeled cab, available for public transportation.
Verb (transitive, dated):
- To make trite or commonplace through overuse: To use something so frequently that it becomes unoriginal or banal.
Usage Examples
Noun (horse):
- The elegant hackney was a popular choice for pulling carriages in the 19th century.
- She breeds hackneys for harness competitions.
Noun (carriage):
- They hailed a hackney to take them to the theater.
- The city streets were filled with the sound of hackneys.
Verb:
- The writer's once-fresh style has been hackneyed by years of imitation.
- He avoided using hackneyed phrases in his speech.
Advanced Usage
"Hackneyed" (adjective): Made trite or commonplace by overuse; lacking freshness or originality.
- The film's plot was criticized for its hackneyed premise.
- She tried to avoid hackneyed expressions in her writing.
"Hackney carriage": A formal term, especially in British English, for a licensed taxi (historically horse-drawn, now often motorized).
- All London black cabs are officially licensed as hackney carriages.
Variants and Related Words
- Hackneyed (adj): Rendered unoriginal through overuse.
- Hack (n, informal): Can mean a writer or journalist producing routine, unoriginal work; also a taxicab (short for "hackney carriage").
Synonyms
- Noun (horse): Carriage horse, harness horse.
- Noun (carriage): Cab, taxi, fiacre.
- Verb/Adjective (meaning): Trite, banal, clichéd, overused, stale.
Related Phrases
- "Hackney coach": An older term for a four-wheeled carriage kept for hire.
- In Victorian London, a hackney coach was a common sight.
Idioms
- No specific idioms are directly formed from the word "hackney" itself. However, the concept is central to the idiom "old hack", referring to a person (e.g., a writer or politician) who is worn out and produces stale, unoriginal work.
- After decades in parliament, some considered him an old hack.
Noun
-
a compact breed of harness horse
-
a carriage for hire
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