[ad. L. trītus, pa. pple. of terĕre to rub.]
1. Worn out by constant use or repetition; devoid of freshness or novelty; hackneyed, commonplace, stale.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 40 b. Accordyng to the trite adage: He must liberally spende that will plentefully gayne.
1607. Puritan, III. v. 162. I would not haue my Arte vulgar, trite, and common.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 384. A Saying not triter than truer.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 133. It is a trite observation, that gunpowder was discovered by a monk.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xviii. An art of building up a character for wisdom upon a very trite style of commonplace eloquence.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1855), I. I. vii. § 32. 407. The story told by Erasmus of Colet is also a little too trite for repetition.
1885. Athenæum, 28 March, 401. The theme of Death can no more wear trite than the theme of Love.
2. Well worn; worn out by rubbing; frayed; of a road or path, well-trod, beaten, frequented.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. iii. If my behaviours had beene of a cheape or customary garbe; my accent, or phrases, vulgar; my garments trite.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Trite, worne, over-worne, old, threedbare, much used, common.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., I. § 25. Unexpected Emergences, whereby we pass not our days in the trite road of affairs affording no Novity.
1855. Fraser’s Mag., LI. 272. Specimens of the bronze coinage of the later empire;… mostly trite and faceless.
1861. G. F. Berkeley, Sportsm. W. Prairies, vii. 98. The woods were … unbroken save by the straight trite line of hasty locomotion.
