There's Cliche Finder. I use it all the time when brainstorming titles for events and things. I just wish it were more comprehensive.

I once tried to put together a website about cliches. In a punny mood I registered ClicheStadium.com and planned to have cliches compete against each other there. But I didn't have anything ready before they tore down Shea Stadium so I gave up the idea and the domain.

Because you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink? Or because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? Or maybe there was one, but it's in a better place now.

But perhaps if you build it, they will come.

I have Partridge's book of Catch Phrases, but it's way outdated.

I've always liked the combo of: He who hesitates is lost and Look before you leap.

I grew up with Bergen and Cornelia Evans's Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage; it's still just ten feet away, but it hasn't been updated since possibly 1957. Lots of sensible advice, though, even if it isn't a comprehensive list of hackneyed phrases or constructions.

Say for example, I want to use the phrase "a shot in the arm" but don't want the medical connotation. Isn't there another cliche that means the same thing? Does anybody know what it is?

The same goes with a lot of other cliches. You should be able to look up "shot in the arm", or whatever, and get all the other cliches that mean the same thing.

Now what's interesting is, I looked up the phrase in a regular online thesaurus, and there it was, and there were a lot of synonyms for it, such as "boost" and even phrases such as "helping hand" and "leg up". But I was looking for something more invigorating sounding, like "stimulus", but in cliche form.

This led me to a site called "phrase thesaurus", but it didn't seem to work like a thesaurus to me.