Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles” or "All the world's a stage” ( Shakespeare).
- n. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” ( Neal Gabler).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A figure of speech by which, from some supposed resemblance or analogy, a name, an attribute, or an action belonging to or characteristic of one object is assigned to another to which it is not literally applicable; the figurative transfer of a descriptive or affirmative word or phrase from one thing to another; implied comparison by transference of terms: as, the ship spread its wings to the breeze; “Judah is a lion's whelp,” Gen. xlix. 9. If Jacob had said, “is like or resembles a lion's whelp,'' the expression would have been a simile instead of a metaphor. A simple metaphor is contained in a single word or phrase, like those in italics above; a continued metaphor is one in which the figurative description or characterization is maintained throughout a variety of phrases or applications. See
simile and trope. - n. Synonyms Comparison, Allegory.etc. See simile.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable, rhetoric The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it isn’t, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, but in the case of English without the words like or as, which would imply a simile.
- n. countable, rhetoric The word or phrase used in this way. An implied comparison.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Rhet.) The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity
Etymologies
- From Latin metaphora, from Ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphora), from μεταφέρω (metapherō, "I transfer, apply"), from μετά (meta, "with, across, after") + φέρω (pherō, "I bear, carry") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English methaphor, from Old French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, transference, metaphor, from metapherein, to transfer : meta-, meta- + pherein, to carry; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“-- If what is begun as a metaphor is not completed as begun, but is completed by a part of another metaphor or by plain language, we have what, is called a _mixed metaphor_.”
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition
“How about "Lions Led By Asses" as a less-encumbered rephrasing of the title metaphor and is probably what the original Brit bon-moticist had in mind IMHO?”
“Never straying too far from the title metaphor, Sting depicts the rise and fall of human fortunes and emotions, the cycles of despair and hope as reliable as day after night, spring after winter, warm after cold.”
“Well the metaphor is a dangerous one if we extend it to the British School of soccer management.”
“My books are not quite the same as my children, but the metaphor is the best I can muster – I really am bothered when people say negative things about my children – I want to protect them.”
Talking Back : Kwame Dawes : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“And then he whacks the villain before you can say the word metaphor.”
“Our visions of what our society is, what it could be, and what it should be, are all structures of metaphor, because the metaphor is the unit of all imagination.”
“A lot of science-fiction will use the word metaphor - that their spaceship is a metaphor for human society," he continues.”
“Weidenbaum: It’s interesting talking to you, because you use the term metaphor but you don’t speak in metaphors.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘metaphor’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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PHIL - vocabulary of thinking
philosophy, Socratic, dialogue, philosopher, Athenian, philosophical, politic, Greek, method, death, ancient, believe and 243 more...
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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the curious incident of the dog in th...
words from a novel by mark haddon
dog, garden fork, Wellington, prime, maths, clench, The Hound of the ..., police, dead, bread-slicing mac..., groaning, drawn and 126 more...
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INTERP - terminology management terms
Terms from the fields of terminology, lexicography, lexicology and corpus linguistics
reworder, rewording, parser, parsing, tagger, tagging, aligner, aligning, content analysis, content analyzer, corpus management, glossary and 546 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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WF - Word Formation Words
Classes of words and types of word formation
sniglet, protologism, portmanteau word, blend, telescope-word, frankenword, double-entendre, compound, derivative, palindrome, spoonerism, malapropism and 152 more...
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Rhetoric: The Harlot of the Arts
Words to do with rhetoric--study of, history of, practice of, theory of
rhetoric, paralepsis, invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery, copia, consubstantiation, trope, colon, tricolon and 56 more...
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LIT - stylistic schemes & rhetorical ...
polyptoton, polysyndeton, aureation, pleonasm, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, anaphora, anastrophe, antistrophe, antithesis, aporia, aposiopesis and 34 more...
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Literally
Words with definitions that contain the word "literally."
Biblicist, cy pres, literally, lit., loan translation, metaphrase, polite, Embarrass, repentance, rabbi, sparkle, article and 30 more...
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Poetry Terms
April is National Poetry Month. Add your favorite poetry terms to this new list!
alliteration, anapest, alexandrine, caesura, assonance, ballad, blank verse, iamb, conceit, couplet, consonance, dactyl and 30 more...
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very good words must use in writing
ambivalent, allegory, spartan, callousness, clandestine, voluptuous, monologue, furtive, repudiate, fanatic, anodyne, reconnoitering and 4 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for metaphor.
hernesheir History is an angel being blown backwards into the future. Nov 1, 2011
dontcry And "Pop goes the weasel." Mar 29, 2009
skipvia A metaphor for our times: "This social networking comedy of errors spread like dancing hamsters across Twitter."
-Twitter Gets You Fired in 140 Characters or Less Mar 29, 2009
sionnach Some Bulwer-Lytton entries:
Fingers of lightning goosed the sphincter of night, and below, the streets of Cleveland began their peristaltic movement toward the witching hour.
(Enid Shomer, Peg Libertus; Gainesville, FL)
Not unlike the country in between Nigeria and the Sudan, his name was Chad.
What is this sad world but an infinitesimal dust bunny in the unimaginably vast broom closet we call the universe?
(Jeff Kruse; Van Nuys, CA)
Jul 27, 2008
gangerh Some gems there, oroboros. Hugely enjoyable. Ta for sharing. Jul 7, 2008
oroboros Metaphors found in high school essays: Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are some of the best:
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Jeopardy" comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like "Second Tall Man."
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant with cement shoes, and she was the East River.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for awhile.
He was as lame as a duck--not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
(And a few really gross ones. Caveat lector!)
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with Hungry-Man soup. Jul 7, 2008
uselessness A metaphor is like an older brother: It can at times sound poetic and intelligent, but far too often just makes a mess of ordinary situations.
It's also jealous that I described it with a simile. Perhaps I should add a note about personification? Jan 15, 2007
seanahan I thought you were speaking metaphorically. Jan 15, 2007
uselessness I was trying to make an analogy. ;-) Jan 15, 2007
seanahan I wouldn't say "sophisticated", or "older", but more "poetic". Jan 14, 2007
uselessness The sophisticated older brother of the simile. Jan 13, 2007