METAPHOR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does metaphor mean? 

• METAPHOR (noun)
  The noun METAPHOR has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: METAPHOR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• METAPHOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("metaphor" is a kind of...):

figure; figure of speech; image; trope (language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "metaphor"):

dead metaphor; frozen metaphor (a metaphor that has occurred so often that it has become a new meaning of the expression (e.g., 'he is a snake' may once have been a metaphor but after years of use it has died and become a new sense of the word 'snake'))

mixed metaphor (a combination of two or more metaphors that together produce a ridiculous effect)

synesthetic metaphor (a metaphor that exploits a similarity between experiences in different sense modalities)

Derivation:

metaphoric; metaphorical (expressing one thing in terms normally denoting another)

 Context examples 

Quincey's head is level at all times, but most so when there is to hunt, metaphor be more dishonour to science than wolves be of danger to man.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Every line, every word was—in the hackneyed metaphor which their dear writer, were she here, would forbid—a dagger to my heart.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

With a turn for literary expression myself, and a penchant for forcible figures and phrases, I appreciated, as no other listener, I dare say, the peculiar vividness and strength and absolute blasphemy of his metaphors.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)