Questions tagged [simile]
For questions about similes. A simile is a rhetorical device that directly mentions a similarity of two different things, for example: 'as red as wine' or 'slow like a tortoise'.
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Looking for a word meaning “two things maximally mirror each other in symbolism”
I am looking for a word to describe the situation where two things are highly analogous, or parallel in symbolism, meaning, interpretation or purpose.
In the field of biology, we say that two ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Metaphor or Simile?
Is this a metaphor or simile?
You'll get kicked out of the Saloon faster than a card shark can shuffle.
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1answer
277 views
Is this a simile and is this a metaphor?
The sentence is: To live on this farm is to live in the sky and the grass as well as the house.
Is "as well as the house" a simile or is it just saying something similar to "including the house"?
...
33
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4answers
11k views
What does the idiom “funny as hell” mean?
I really don't understand this idiom, hell is supposed to be a horrible place. I understand the saying which is present in dictionaries “hot as hell”, but I could not find “funny as hell” in any ...
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4answers
277 views
What did Trump mean when he said that the US is like a “piggy bank”?
Trump's statement at the G7 summit on June 9, 2018:
“It’s going to stop,” he said, “or we’ll stop trading with them. And
that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.” He added,
“We’re ...
2
votes
1answer
417 views
Is 'what' a pronoun or a conjunction?
In the sentences below, is what and as pronouns or conjunctions? And how do you parse the sentences?
Facebook is to Sunday morning what karaoke is to Saturday night.
Afghanistan is to the ...
0
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2answers
710 views
What does a “toothless walnut” mean? [closed]
I'm looking for the meaning of this sentence taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a ...
1
vote
1answer
314 views
I need a simile for clutching something
Can someone help me? I'm writing a paper about the Grand Canyon and in it the main characters brother is is clutching the rail on the sky walk like a ____. I need a simile for this.
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vote
1answer
90 views
A particular literary device [closed]
Does this literary device have a name? It seems to me that it shows a simile developing into a metaphor.
...When he saw who I was the guard began behaving like a spaniel. He lay on his back ...
4
votes
1answer
725 views
What was so “hot” about hot cakes?
The phrase "sell like hot cakes" is a simile for how quick something is selling. That said, the meaning of "hot cake" is apparently a synonym of pancakes, or before pancakes, corn griddle cake and ...
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votes
2answers
997 views
What is the difference between a 'gift' and a 'reward' when speaking? [closed]
Sally got a new car, and her bumper sticker read "My mums reward". On inquiry , understood that it was a gift. But now Im confused if 'Gift and Reward' can be used here ?
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5answers
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What does “as intuitive as mud” mean?
What does it mean when someone says, for example,
That problem was "as intuitive as mud".
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2answers
611 views
Is “as much as the next guy” a simile?
Would "as much as the next guy" be a simile, or just an idiom? I am working on a lesson plan for similes, and was not 100% sure.
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2answers
140 views
Name for this rhetorical device
The text: "The court determined that Student B exhibited adverse educational impact because notwithstanding her passing grades, during her final year at School #1, her symptoms were sufficiently ...
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1answer
5k views
Similes that do not make use of like or as
Is it possible to have a simile that does not contain the words 'like' or 'as'?
Would the following sentence exemplify such a simile?:
"He was handsome in a way that required a bit of work from the ...
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votes
6answers
5k views
Metaphor, simile, or idiom for stating that something improved one’s self-confidence
What’s a nice and quirky metaphor, simile, or idiom for saying that something improved my self-confidence and made me dream higher, for example in the following context?
These competitions not only ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
What does “stepping over the necks of peasants” mean here?
While a Chinese friend of mine was reading the story, The Standard of Living by Dorothy Parker, she came across this sentence:
Annabel and Midge passed without the condescension of hurrying their
...
8
votes
1answer
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What did we say for “it's like riding a bicycle” before we had bicycles?
Riding my bicycle the other day, I thought "having learned how to ride a bicycle in the past, for me the experience of riding a bicycle is just like riding a bicycle." And then I thought, what did we ...
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3answers
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Is it possible to use “as” in a metaphor?
Ive seen a lot of places saying anything with "like" or "as" is ALWAYS a simile but are there any exceptions? E.g.
1) I am as sly as a fox - simile
2) I am a bird that flies high in the sky - ...
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vote
3answers
365 views
Colorful English equivalent for the French expression “mine de capitaine”
Is there a colorful expression in English which equates to the French [avoir] une mine de capitaine? (Literally, to sport skipper's [glowing, healthy] looks)
It is something that we say to someone ...
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votes
6answers
568 views
A phrase to describe the external spreading phase of some infection?
I believe that some types of fungal/viral/other infections have a life cycle in which they kill a host entity (possibly plant or animal), and then around that time they also "bloom" or "erupt" from ...
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votes
8answers
55k views
Idiom/phrase for someone that looks completely different from everyone else
I swear, there's a phrase (a simile) I hear a lot that describes when someone just appears different from everyone else in a given crowd or location.
For example, (and I'm trying to be as sensitive ...
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6answers
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Describe a person who brags about difficulties
I am looking for a commonly used phrase, idiom, or simile that describes people who like to talk (brag?) about their difficulties, especially self inflicted or easily avoidable ones, as if having ...
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1answer
2k views
What is a better way of saying “building a building”?
My sentence is "Creating Software is akin to building a building". This sounds weird and I am looking for a better way to phrase this analogy.
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1answer
201 views
Help explain what “miseries were as vast as the sky” mean [closed]
I'm totally confused about the use of this phrase in this situation:
After Margaret Sanger saw the worst of many women who had to do abortion with abortionists, they suffered from physical pains ...
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1answer
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Do these 2 paragraphs contain a metaphor anywhere?
"My memory is like a film. That is why I am really good at remembering
things, like conversations I have written down in this book, and what people were wearing, and what they smelled like, because ...
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vote
3answers
451 views
Is it still a metaphor if you say “if X was Y” first? [duplicate]
I was inspired to ask by the famous John Green quote:
if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane
Is this a metaphor? Without the "if people were rain" it would be, certainly, but ...
3
votes
4answers
800 views
Word / simile for a city in decay or in lawlessness
My friend told me that Kobe is the only city in Japan in which he saw hobos and where there are no rules for walking on the sidewalk. I flippantly asked him whether it was the Sodom or Gomorrah of ...
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1answer
5k views
Is “fly like a bird” an example of collocation? [closed]
Is the simile phrase:
flying like a bird
an example of collocation, with the close ‘expected’ relationship between flying and bird?
3
votes
1answer
253 views
Not using 'like' for similes — where does this come from? [closed]
I just got back some feedback on a piece of work of mine from a proofreader. One of his comments is that I use like in similes a lot, and I shouldn't do that --- I should be using as if instead; he ...
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1answer
2k views
Difference between a Metaphor and a Simile [duplicate]
I know a metaphor compares two similar things, like a ballerina glides like a swan and that a simile compares two unlike things, but I'm still not sure if the sentence, "The car guzzles fuel." would ...
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2answers
2k views
Why does a Cheshire cat grin, and how long has it been doing so?
Most people are familiar with the expression "grin like a Cheshire cat" from Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865), which goes so far as to provide a glimpse of the grin without the cat. But the ...
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2answers
972 views
Simile dilemma: Do leaves “fly like butterflies”? [closed]
Leaves from the ground fly like butterflies .
What are the leaves being compared to?
flies
butterflies
ground
other leaves
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2answers
5k views
why rocks in “dumb as rocks”?
The online slang dictionary defines dumb as a rock as someone who is very unintelligent, but why rocks?
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16answers
5k views
Word for an animal that has been ridden too much?
Example:
That man is as tired as a [...] donkey.
I thought of the word overridden but I think it means something else.
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3answers
13k views
SIMILE HELP: Gripping the wheel tightly like [closed]
I need an expression to be a simile to gripping the wheel of a car tightly.
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7answers
1k views
A simile / metaphor for the concept that an entity is formed from a wide range of factors
I am trying to explain that health is not simply determined by biological factors. Instead it is shaped by a whole host of variables: lifestyle, education, culture, attitudes, socio-economic factors ...
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0answers
1k views
'Dim as dishwater', or 'dim as ditchwater'? [closed]
Is the normal expression 'as dim as dishwater' or 'as dim as ditchwater?
When you google this it comes up as 'dull as dishwater/ditchwater'.
There is a difference between being 'dim' and being 'dull'...
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votes
4answers
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“Sober as a judge” vs. “Drunk as a lord”. Why judge? Why lord?
Sober as a judge is a simile that is used for someone completely sober.
Drunk as a lord is a simile that is used for someone completely drunk.
Why is judge equated with sobriety and lord with ...
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4answers
5k views
Etymology of Sleep like a Top
An explanation for the English expression "sleeping like (or as sound as) a top" is here.
Apparently case closed. It derives from the Italian expression Ei dorme come un topo with topo being wrongly ...
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6answers
8k views
What is the simile for dust? [closed]
What is the simile used when comparing to dust? And what does that comparison imply?
Something similar to "as slick as a fox"
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4answers
3k views
A Simile for a Strenuous activity
Could anyone offer some similes for a strenuous activity.
The context is that:
you can have all sorts of great ideas at random times and random places but
"when you actually sit down and make an ...
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vote
1answer
112 views
as though Pharaoh should set the Israelites to make a pin instead of a pyramid
From An Apology For Idlers, by Stevenson:
And yet you see merchants who go and labour themselves into a great
fortune and thence into the bankruptcy court; scribblers who keep
scribbling at ...
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1answer
3k views
Is it “as wonderful as them” or “as wonderful as they”? [duplicate]
I have a few questions on terminology, first, actually, as having the right terminology may have enabled me to answer this question on my own.
What is the terminology for such constructs, "as [...
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2answers
805 views
Should I use “like a…” or “like the one of a…” in the following sentence?
What sounds more natural? This:
Her body was warm, like the one of a sunbathing cat.
or this?
Her body was warm, like a sunbathing cat.
(I'm open to other suggestions).
EDIT
Here's some ...
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4answers
17k views
Origin of “as useful as a chocolate teapot / fireguard”
I ran across the expression "as useful as a chocolate teapot" (or sometimes a fireguard) which is apparently used to denote the utter uselessness of something. It received some coverage on Language ...
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3answers
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Make like a banana
In my area, it's not unusual to hear expressions like
I'm going to make like a banana and split.
...make like a tree and leave.
...make like a baby and head out.
...make like a prom ...
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votes
2answers
462 views
Name for equivocal similes such as found in hip-hop lyrics?
I've observed a figure of speech used heavily by rappers which uses the basic construction of a simile—a "this like that" comparison—when the similarity in the comparison is purely linguistic. That is,...
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8answers
2k views
What is a better way to name “The Wrong Question”?
On StackOverflow.com I often find that people ask questions about problems that arise due to poor design choices (typically due to a lack of knowledge about the particular programming language).
For ...
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2answers
903 views
Does “with the descriptive noun of other noun” count as a simile?
In school, we're taught that similes are analogies using "like" or "as". This is clearly just a mnemonic for a comparison between two distinct objects. Metaphors on the other hand combine the two ...
