overworked

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kt

From over- + worked.

overworked (comparative more overworked, superlative most overworked)

1. Subjected to too much work.

   Hyponyms: burnt out, exhausted

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

   • 2013 October 19, “Preparing for success”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 409, number 8858, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 February 2017:

     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.

   • 2020, Sophie Lewis, “Collective Turn-off”, in Mal‎^[2], archived from the original on 9 August 2026:

     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.

2. (figurative, of a word, phrase, etc.) Having been overused such that it has lost its meaning; trite; banal.

   Synonyms: clichéd, overdone, overused; see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

   overworked, unaffecting cliches

   "Get" is an overworked verb.

   • 2009 July 23, Michael White, “Don't let Anthony Blunt fool us again”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 October 2026:

     [Tim Garton Ash] is what you might call—overworked phrase—a public intellectual.

   • 2015 January 18, Mariella Frostrup, “I don’t know how to move on from my first boyfriend”, in The Guardian‎^[4], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 October 2026:

     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.

From overwork + -ed.

overworked

1. simple past and past participle of overwork

• worked over