4. (Music, other) music a part of the action of a clavichord consisting of a small piece of metal that strikes the string to produce a note. 5. on a tangent at a tangent on a completely different or divergent course, esp of thought: to go off at a tangent.
Synonyms: clichÃ©, bromide, platitude, truism. These nouns denote an expression or idea that has lost its originality or force through overuse: a short story weakened by clichÃ©s; the bromide that we are what we eat; a eulogy full of platitudes; a once-original thought that is now a truism.
pastiche The next time you see a movie that you think is a cheap imitation of an older, better movie, you can sound like a film critic by dismissing the picture as a thoughtless pastiche. A pastiche is an artwork that copies the style of another work or that combines various, distinct styles together into one work. A pastiche can also be a musical medley, or the piecing together of various songs. Pastiche comes from the Italian word pasticcio, which can refer to a pie containing a mix of ingredients, such as meat and pasta.