Adjacent Words

Metaphor definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MET'APHOR, n. [Gr. to transfer, over, to carry.] A short similitude; a similitude reduced to a single word; or a word expressing similitude without the signs of comparison. Thus "that man is a fox," is a metaphor; but "that man is like a fox," is a similitude or comparison. So when I say, "the soldiers fought like lions," I use a similitude. In metaphor, the similitude is contained in the name; a man is a fox, means, a man is as crafty as a fox. So we say, a man bridles his anger, that is, restrains it as a bridle restrains a horse. Beauty awakens love or tender passions; opposition fires courage.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: 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

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English methaphor, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, from metapherein to transfer, from meta- + pherein to bear — more at bear Date: 15th century 1. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly figurative language — compare simile 2. an object, activity, or idea treated as a metaphor ; symbol 2 • metaphoric or metaphorical adjective • metaphorically adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the application of a name or descriptive term or phrase to an object or action to which it is imaginatively but not literally applicable (e.g. a glaring error). 2 an instance of this. Derivatives: metaphoric adj. metaphorical adj. metaphorically adv. Etymology: F métaphore or L metaphora f. Gk metaphora f. metaphero transfer

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Metaphor Met"a*phor, n. [F. m['e]taphore, L. metaphora, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to carry over, transfer; meta` beyond, over + fe`rein to bring, bear.] (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. --Abbott & Seeley. ``All the world's a stage.'' --Shak. Note: The statement, ``that man is a fox,'' is a metaphor; but ``that man is like a fox,'' is a simile, similitude, or comparison.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(metaphors) 1. A metaphor is an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way. For example, if you want to say that someone is very shy and frightened of things, you might say that they are a mouse. ...the avoidance of 'violent expressions and metaphors' like 'kill two birds with one stone'. ...the writer's use of metaphor. N-VAR 2. If one thing is a metaphor for another, it is intended or regarded as a symbol of it. The divided family remains a powerful metaphor for a society that continued to tear itself apart. N-VAR: oft N for n 3. If you mix your metaphors, you use two conflicting metaphors. People do this accidentally, or sometimes deliberately as a joke. To mix yet more metaphors, you were trying to run before you could walk, and I've clipped your wings... PHRASE: V inflects

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Similitude (without the signs of comparison), simile (expressed in a word).

Moby Thesaurus

accordance, agent, agreement, alikeness, allegory, alliance, alliteration, allusion, alternate, alternative, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, analogue, analogy, anaphora, anastrophe, antiphrasis, antithesis, antonomasia, aping, apophasis, aporia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, approach, approximation, assimilation, backup, balancing, catachresis, change, changeling, chiasmus, circumlocution, climax, closeness, community, comparability, comparative anatomy, comparative degree, comparative grammar, comparative judgment, comparative linguistics, comparative literature, comparative method, compare, comparing, comparison, conformity, confrontation, confrontment, contrast, contrastiveness, conversion, copy, copying, correlation, correspondence, counterfeit, deputy, distinction, distinctiveness, double, dummy, ecphonesis, emphasis, equal, equivalent, ersatz, exchange, exclamation, fake, figure of speech, fill-in, gemination, ghost, ghostwriter, hypallage, hyperbaton, hyperbole, identity, image, imagery, imitation, inversion, irony, likeness, likening, litotes, locum tenens, makeshift, malapropism, matching, meiosis, metonymy, mimicking, nearness, next best thing, onomatopoeia, opposing, opposition, oxymoron, parallelism, paregmenon, parenthesis, parity, periphrasis, personification, personnel, phony, pinch hitter, pleonasm, preterition, prolepsis, proportion, proxy, reference, regression, relation, relief, repetition, replacement, representative, resemblance, reserves, ringer, sameness, sarcasm, second string, secondary, semblance, sign, similarity, simile, similitude, simulation, spares, spoonerism, stand-in, sub, substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, superseder, supplanter, surrogate, syllepsis, symbol, symbolism, symploce, synecdoche, third string, token, trope, trope of comparison, understudy, utility player, vicar, vice-president, vice-regent, weighing, zeugma