Good evening, grammar lovers! It has been some time since we had a “Word Wednesday” feature that also tied in with English grammar, and I think this “Blue Book” lesson on similes and metaphors serves that purpose well.
And, while we are at it, we can have a little fun with this lesson too. After all, grammar does not have to boring! Press on ahead with the lesson – and enjoy a good laugh at some bad examples of similes and metaphors!
Similes and Metaphors
Simile
A form of expression using like or as, in which one thing is compared to another which it only resembles in one or a small number of ways.Examples:
Her hair was like silk.
She sings like an angel.
He runs like a gazelle.
This meat is as dry as a bone.Metaphor
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.Examples:
He’s a tiger when he’s angry.
His brother is an Einstein.
Your room is a pigpen.
She is a walking dictionary.According to the internet, English teachers from across the country can submit amusing similes and metaphors found in high school essays for an annual competition. We don’t know that such a competition really exists, but these samples, even if awful, are still creative.
1. 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 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
2. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
3. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
7. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
8. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
9. Shots rang out, as shots are known to do.
10. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.