Metaphors Dictionary

660 Pages·2001·23.18 MB·English

by  Elyse Sommer

ME
TAPHORS
DICTIONARY

METAPHORS
DICTIONARY
f
£LYSE ^OMMER
WITH
'DORRIE WEISS
METAPHORS
DICTIONARY
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Library of Congress Catalogmg-m-Publication Data
Elyse Sommer, executive editor; Dome Weiss, associate editor - 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN I-57859-I37-6
I. English language-Terms and phrases. 2. Metaphor-Dictionaries. I Sommer, Elyse II Weiss,
Dome.
PEI689.M47 1994
08I-dc2094-36728
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
10 987654321
Contents
Introduction vii
How to Use This Book xiv
Table of Thematic Categories xvii
The Metaphors 1
Common Metaphors 471
Metaphors from Shakespeare 479
Bibliography 509
Author/Speaker Index 526
Subject Index 576

Introduction
• Many people view metaphor as an esoteric literary device The greatest thing by far is to
beyond their use or understanding. However, while few qualify be a master of metaphor. It is
as "master of metaphor," most people use metaphors regularly the one thing that cannot be
without realizing they do. For a quick overview of garden- learned from others; it is also
variety (a metaphor!) metaphors heard in everyday speech, turn a sign of genius, since a good
to the alphabetically arranged list of Common Metaphors metaphor implies an eye for
(beginning on page 471) that follows the A-Z main entries. resemblance.
Whether poetic or colloquial, simple or complex, a meta —Aristotle, De Poetica,
phor compares two unlike objects or ideas and illuminates the 322 B.C.
similarities between them. It accomplishes in a word or phrase
what could otherwise be expressed only in many words, if at
all. If we say "don't let her rough manner scare you, she's a
pussycat," we condense into a single word the characteristics
associated with an affectionate, gentle, non-intimidating per
sonality. Since the word or phrase used to set up the compari
son evokes a mental picture, you might say that metaphor
embodies the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words."
While poetry would be impoverished without metaphor,
so indeed would all language. Great writers and orators use
metaphors to peel away layers of camouflaged meaning. The
metaphor's usefulness for presenting technical information to
laymen is typified by syndicated health columnist Jane E.
Brody's description of an aneurysm as "an abdominal time
bomb lurking in the aorta which is the body's super-highway."
Anyone—even someone without a special perception for
hidden likeness—can learn to look beyond the obvious to
create a pungent metaphor or bring freshness to an old one. To
raise one's metaphonc consciousness requires no more than a
willingness to smell the linguistic flowers.
Dorrie Weiss and I have compiled this dictionary with
three basic aims:
vii
• viii
5 1. To create a useful and enjoyable source for examples of
o metaphor in all its permutations
6 2. To heighten the reader's appreciation and understanding
û of metaphor
g 3. To provide inspiration for writers and speakers.
< The more than 6,500 metaphors in these pages illustrate
2 more than 2,500 images applied to 600 subjects. The Subject
Index (beginning on page 576) provides an overview of the
images most often used. The Table of Thematic Categories
(beginning on page xvii) with its many See/See also cross-
references works as a subject finder.
For utmost comprehensiveness, entries span the entire
timeline of history and illustrate origination and use by poets,
novelists, prose writers, speech writers journalists, scientists,
philosophers, business people, aaors, students, and "just plain
folks." Simple and obvious images rub shoulders—metaphori
cally—with the subtle and complex, as do the beautiful with
the more coarsely spun, the derivative with the original, the
humorous with the sad, and the light-footed with the ponderous.
To enhance the dictionary's usefulness, authors have been
cited for all entries except proverbial metaphors and those by
the ubiquitous "Anon." This attribution means that the author
is the originator, the author is the popularizer, or the author's
work is an example of the metaphor. Attribution is often
clarified in a comment following an entry.
To achieve our goal of comprehensive coverage we also
addressed the following:
Mixed Metaphor. When a metaphor draws its comparison
from two illogical and opposite sources, it becomes what the
late Theodore M. Bernstein (author and New York Times editor)
aptly dubbed a "mixaphor." These failed metaphors often
result in unintended humor, as when former Washington Week
in Review host Paul Duke put his metaphoric foot in his mouth
with "Clinton stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by
the horn." The most frequently quoted example is from that
unimpeachable source, Shakespeare, when his melancholy
dane, Hamlet, ponders whether "it is nobler to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea
of troubles." According to poet Babette Deutsch (in Poetry
Handbook), Shakespeare's metaphor is a valid one. She believes
that Shakespeare's passage alludes to the Celtic warriors' cus
tom of fighting waves with their swords drawn. This interpreta
tion makes for a logical connection to the second image, which