as in cliche
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
the play's dialogue featured all of the groaners that seem to be de rigueur for any dysfunctional-family drama
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Recent Examples of groaner
The only possible groaner, a joke about school shootings, clearly worked with the improv audience but, Wood reasoned, needed to come later in Saturday’s set, once the audience had grown to trust him a bit.
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Wesley Lowery, Washington Post, 1 May 2023
Evidently the authors — and the director, Jack O’Brien — meant to glue the show together with groaners, a gutsy if not entirely successful move.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2023
The pointillistic eclecticism of @NYT_first_said does tend to highlight the linguistic extremes—the novelties and the gags and the groaners.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2023
White’s favorite joke is an all-time groaner.
—Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 13 Dec. 2021
Sometimes that’s with a good old groaner.
—al, 7 Mar. 2021
There's already been some on-track action, but the first big groaner for the GTP class happens to BMW, when the No. 25 car comes to a halt on the track, sort of half in, half out of the exit.
—Elana Scherr, Car and Driver, 30 Jan. 2023
The premise for this TV One comedy is a groaner: A woman who followed in the footsteps of her mother and had a child at 16 will go to silly lengths to keep her 16-year-old daughter from doing the same.
—Dawn Burkes, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2021
Scott performs on the track like a bizarro Young Thug, incapable of wringing any enthusiasm out of his voice, and delivers some egregious groaner punchlines, while Drake continues to burrow into narcissism.
—Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2021
Wesley Lowery, Washington Post, 1 May 2023
Evidently the authors — and the director, Jack O’Brien — meant to glue the show together with groaners, a gutsy if not entirely successful move.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2023
The pointillistic eclecticism of @NYT_first_said does tend to highlight the linguistic extremes—the novelties and the gags and the groaners.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2023
White’s favorite joke is an all-time groaner.
—Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 13 Dec. 2021
Sometimes that’s with a good old groaner.
—al, 7 Mar. 2021
There's already been some on-track action, but the first big groaner for the GTP class happens to BMW, when the No. 25 car comes to a halt on the track, sort of half in, half out of the exit.
—Elana Scherr, Car and Driver, 30 Jan. 2023
The premise for this TV One comedy is a groaner: A woman who followed in the footsteps of her mother and had a child at 16 will go to silly lengths to keep her 16-year-old daughter from doing the same.
—Dawn Burkes, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2021
Scott performs on the track like a bizarro Young Thug, incapable of wringing any enthusiasm out of his voice, and delivers some egregious groaner punchlines, while Drake continues to burrow into narcissism.
—Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for groaner
Noun
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Because, ultimately, there is no success (without struggle), there is no sunshine without rain, all the cliches.Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 16 Nov. 2024
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The production’s simplicity ditched the cliches that have accumulated around the play over decades.Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
Noun
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In the third installment, Bazmee retains the tropes of the first two Hindi films: a sprawling palatial mansion in which one room has been locked for years because it’s believed that a specter resides there; a royal family hiding secrets; the mysterious dancing Manjulika.Anupama Chopra, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Nov. 2024
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Canada Experimental filmmaker Rankin charmed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight audiences with this offbeat absurdist satire that affectionately borrows the tropes of Iranian arthouse cinema to imagine a parallel-universe Winnipeg where Farsi is the dominant tongue.Guy Lodge, Variety, 2 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Jelani Cobb an hour ago Kamala Harris’s Fourth Quarter Photograph by Kevin Lamarque / Reuters An old sports truism holds that defense wins championships.The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2024
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Illustration: Sam Whitney; Getty Images Cybersecurity truisms have long been described in simple terms of trust: Beware email attachments from unfamiliar sources, and don't hand over credentials to a fraudulent website.Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 31 May 2021
Thesaurus Entries Near groaner
Cite this Entry
“Groaner.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groaner. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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