Similes DictionaryElyse Sommer Language "Appealing As Sunlight After a Storm." A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. —Henry David Thoreau Prose consists of ... phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. —George Orwell Whether it invokes hard work or merely a hen-house, a good simile is like a good picture—it's worth a thousand words. Packed with more than 16,000 imaginative, colorful phrases—from “abandoned as a used Kleenex” to “quiet as an eel swimming in oil”—the Similes Dictionary will help any politician, writer, or lover of language find just the right saying, be it original or banal, verbose or succinct. Your thoughts will never be "as tedious as a twice-told tale" or "dry as the Congressional Record." Choose from elegant turns of phrases “as useful as a Swiss army knife” and “varied as expressions of the human face”. Citing more than 2,000 sources—from the Bible, Socrates, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and H. L. Mencken to popular movies, music, and television shows—the Similes Dictionary covers hundreds of subjects broken into thematic categories that include topics such as virtue, anger, age, ambition, importance, and youth, helping you find the fitting phrase quickly and easily. Perfect for setting the atmosphere, making a point, or helping spin a tale with economy, intelligence, and ingenuity, the vivid comparisons found in this collection will inspire anyone. Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. —William Shakespeare A face like a bucket —Raymond Chandler A man with little learning is like the frog who thinks its puddle a great sea. —Burmese proverb Peace, like charity, begins at home —Franklin Delano Roosevelt You know a dream is like a river ever changing as it flows. —Garth Brooks Fit as a fiddle —John Ray’s Proverbs He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. —Arthur Miller Ring true, like good china. —Sylvia Plath Music yearning like a God in pain —John Keats Busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. —Pat Conroy Enduring as mother love —Anonymous |
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Common terms and phrases
American colloquialism Anne Anon Arthur BEAUTY Beryl Markham bird body breast bright Charles cloud cold COLOR Coraghessan Boyle dark death Donald Edith Wharton Elizabeth Spencer Elyse Sommer empty Erich Maria Remarque Estleman Eudora Welty Eyes face FACE(S FACIAL feel Felt fire flowers Frank Swinnerton George Garrett glass gray hair hand Harvey Swados head heart Helen Hudson Henry Honoré de Balzac James Crumley Jean John Ray's Proverbs John Updike Jonathan Valin Lawrence Durrell light looked Louise Erdrich Margaret Millar Marge Piercy MEMORY mind moon mouth MOVEMENT(S NESS night novel Paige Mitchell pain Paul rain Raymond Chandler Richard Ford Rita Mae Brown Robert Traver Ross Macdonald Saul Bellow Sharon Sheehe Stark SILENCE simile skin smile snow soft Somerset Maugham Stephen thick thin Thomas tree Voice W. P. Kinsella William Faulkner William McIlvanney William Shakespeare wind words wrinkled York