The first step to eliminating clichés is understanding what they mean. Given that we use clichés because they’re seemingly widely understood, discerning their meaning should be relatively easy, right? Well, yes … if you understand the meaning. That’s not difficult with some of the examples given in the previous post (e.g., few and far between, think outside the box, path of least resistance). But with idioms that have become clichés, it can be more daunting.
Idioms are figurative expressions that can’t be understood from the meanings of their individual words but have separate meanings of their own (think raining cats and dogs, paint the town red, have an ax to grind). They frequently puzzle non-native English speakers who interpret them literally, and they’re often misstated by many — non-native and native English speakers alike — who don’t understand their meaning (e.g., we’ll burn [cross] that bridge when we come to it, that’s a tough road [row] to hoe). The confusion such expressions generate is another good reason for avoiding their use entirely, particularly in light of ever-increasing global business communications.
To replace nonidiomatic expressions, you can often use just one word rather than many (e.g., replace in light of the fact that with because, or replace at this moment in time with now). Use a thesaurus if needed to generate more succinct alternatives. To find the meaning of idiomatic expressions, the Free Dictionary’s idiom finder, although not comprehensive, is a good starting point. From there, a dictionary or thesaurus is useful for figuring out an appropriate substitute.
You may be able to delete the offending phrase altogether. Many clichés included for emphasis actually can weaken the impact of a message. Consider “The company will not tolerate discrimination in any way, shape or form” versus “The company will not tolerate discrimination.” The shorter sentence delivers a stronger punch. (Words and phrases don’t have to be clichés to clutter writing. We’ll talk about this more in a future post on concise writing.)
Once you’ve figured out the meaning of the cliché and determined that simply eliminating the cliché is not the answer, rewrite your sentence using words or phrases with a similar meaning. Consider how you might rewrite the following:
Here’s what we came up with:
These rewrites are, of course, just some of many possibilities, but ideally they effectively illustrate the impact of replacing clichés with words that leave no doubt as to the writer’s meaning. The Oxford Dictionaries blog post on clichés also provides some excellent examples.
A final strategy for dealing with clichés is to turn them around so that they’re still recognizable but say something new. For instance, you might say “The ancient copier on the second floor is worth its weight in feathers,” recasting the worth its weight in gold cliché to imply that the copier is not particularly valuable. Because the result is often sardonic, this technique can paint you as a bit of a crank, so use it judiciously.
If you have ideas about how to make over clichés but no appropriate outlet for them, include them in a comment below. We’ll compile a list for a future blog post, which undoubtedly will ensure you have a nice day.