Definition of groanernext
as in cliché
an idea or expression that has been used by many people the play's dialogue featured all of the groaners that seem to be de rigueur for any dysfunctional-family drama

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of groaner Those pacing blips aren’t the only groaners. Greg Evans, Deadline, 15 Apr. 2026 Che laughs about four groaners in a row, looking around sheepishly. Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 15 Dec. 2024 The only possible groaner, a joke about school shootings, clearly worked with the improv audience but, Wood reasoned, needed to come later in Saturday’s set, once the audience had grown to trust him a bit. Wesley Lowery, Washington Post, 1 May 2023 Evidently the authors — and the director, Jack O’Brien — meant to glue the show together with groaners, a gutsy if not entirely successful move. Jesse Green, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2023 Scott performs on the track like a bizarro Young Thug, incapable of wringing any enthusiasm out of his voice, and delivers some egregious groaner punchlines, while Drake continues to burrow into narcissism. Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for groaner
Noun
  • The book pays homage to all your classic romance tropes — fake relationship, enemies to lovers, boy next door — but spins them on their head in this new take on what happily ever after looks like.
    Matt Grobar, Deadline, 31 July 2026
  • The series premiering on Starz is, more than anything else, blandly familiar, mining all the tropes of several popular genres without finding anything distinctive in the combination.
    Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026
Noun
  • There’s a long-standing truism in the world of physical attacks that defenders need to succeed every time, but attackers need to succeed just once.
    Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026
  • There are, however, exceptions to this truism, which brings me to my brief personal list of best movie adaptations of great literature.
    Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 15 July 2026
Noun
  • Leaders must understand grief's unique, individual nature, avoiding assumptions or platitudes.
    Mena Mirhom, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
  • The shorter run time also means some themes get reduced into syrup; the platitudes come as fast and furious as Tao and Elle’s breakups and makeups, with too little space to breathe in between.
    Gemma Wilson, Boston Herald, 19 July 2026
Noun
  • Wolff was only the eighth woman to drive a Formula 1 car (four more have done it since); the role, a now-commonplace one that includes driving the simulator during Grand Prix weekends to inform trackside strategy, was created for her.
    Danielle McNally, InStyle, 28 May 2026
  • The videos are often integrated into larger montages of drone strikes, underscoring how commonplace these drones have become for Russian forces.
    Vikram Mittal, Forbes.com, 23 May 2026
Noun
  • The next three chapters offer an anthology of sayings from rabbis who were active in the early centuries of the Common Era, including Hillel and Johanan ben Zakkai, among many other tannaim.
    Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026
  • But the saying also slyly sets the stage for the men’s existential inquiries; in Cool Machine, Pepper and Carney ask themselves the same thing.
    Niela Orr, Vulture, 20 July 2026
Noun
  • And yet for God’s sake, just look at the man—at his dispiriting attempts at humor, his weirdly off-putting outfits, his incessant posting of banalities and faux profundities and extreme-right disinformation on social media.
    Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026
  • But together, the whole is blander than the sum of its parts—a subtle banality humans can often implicitly sense.
    Sam Macdonald, Scientific American, 29 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Groaner.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groaner. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

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