old saw

Definition

A cliché, saying, or overused expression, especially a proverb or maxim.

Etymology

From Middle English olde sawe, old sawe, equivalent to old + saw (“a saying or proverb”).

Example Sentences

• "He's full of old saws, but he's not much for original advice."
• "Never believe the old saw, "If you can remember the Sixties, you weren't really there". Barry Miles remembers the 60s in vivid detail, down to the dress with "zebra stripes" that George Martin's wife wore at a dinner party given by Paul McCartney and Jane Asher in 1967, and he certainly was there."
• "2017, Andrew Marantz, "Becoming Steve Bannon's Bannon", The New Yorker, Feb 13&20 ed. There’s an old saw about Washington, D.C., that staffers in their twenties know more about the minutiae of government than their bosses do."