hackney

Plural: hackneys

Noun

a carriage for hire
a compact breed of harness horse
An ordinary horse.
A carriage for hire or a cab.
A horse used to ride or drive.
A breed of English horse.
A hired drudge; a hireling; a prostitute.
Inferior writing; literary hackwork.

Adj

Offered for hire.
Much used; trite; mean.

Verb

Verb Forms: hackneyed, hackneying, hackneys

To make something commonplace, overused, or unoriginal.
To make uninteresting or trite by frequent use.
To use as a hackney.
To carry in a hackney coach.

Examples

Avoid using words like ’QUEEN’ too often; don’t HACKNEY your Scrabble vocabulary.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English hakeney, from the placename Hackney (formerly a town; now a borough of London), used for grazing horses before sale, from Old English *Hacan īeġ (“Haca's Island”, literally “Hook's Island”). The Old French haquenée (“ambling mare for ladies”), Latinized in England to hakeneius, is originally from the English.

Synonyms

hackney carriage, hackney coach

Scrabble Score: 19

hackney: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
hackney: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
hackney: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 19

hackney: valid Words With Friends Word