Dictionary.com Word FAQs  Should I avoid clichés?  Clichés are
sometimes the most efficient way to express a complicated idea,
but most of the time they are used because the writer has not
thought out a better way to convey what he or she means.
Certainly in anything but the most informal writing, clichés
should be avoided. Originally, the word cliché was a French word
for a 'stereotype block or cast' used in printing and, later, in
photography. By the late 19th century, it came to mean 'a
stereotyped or commonplace expression or phrase'. Examples of
clichés are: forbidden fruit, have a nice day, sell like hot
cakes. Though cliché is defined as a 'word or phase that has
lost much of its force through overexposure', generally we find
that clichés are very handy while at the same time are somewhat
frowned upon. As Fowler said in Modern English Usage
(Burchfield, R.W., ed., The new Fowler's modern English usage
[3rd ed.], New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), "What is
new is not necessarily better than what