overworked
adjEtymology From over- + worked.
1
Subjected to too much work.
- Overworked and underpaid? Then quit your job and become a pro darts player.
- Miss Suu Kyi’s overworked advisers[…]argue that people have to be realistic about what can be achieved in a short time and on a slender budget.2013 October 19, “Preparing for success”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8858:
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- The truth is that we are too overworked, under capitalism, to be deeply, collectively horny, too overworked even to realise that this is the case.2020, Sophie Lewis, “Collective Turn-off”, in Mal:
2
Figuratively, Phrase, Usually, Of a word Having been overused such that it has lost its meaning; trite; banal.
- overworked, unaffecting cliches
- [Tim Garton Ash] is what you might call—overworked phrase—a public intellectual.2009 July 23, Michael White, “Don't let Anthony Blunt fool us again”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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- Dare I say “Let it go” without images of an animated princess flashing before your eyes? If it was an overworked phrase before Frozen, it’s now hard to use the expression without a shudder.2015 January 18, Mariella Frostrup, “I don’t know how to move on from my first boyfriend”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- overworkedness