overworked

comparative more overworked · superlative most overworked

1. Subjected to too much work.

   Overworked and underpaid? Then quit your job and become a pro darts player.

   2 more examples

   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

   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. figurativelyphraseusuallyHaving been overused such that it has lost its meaning; trite; banal.

   "Get" is an overworked verb.

   3 more examples

   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

   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

   Synonyms: clichéd, overdone, overused, banal, bathetic, bromidic, cheesy, stock

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of overwork