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  2. List of idioms of improbability - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_idioms_of...

    Czech – až naprší a uschne meaning "When it rains and dries". [clarify] Another expression is až opadá listí z dubu ("When the leaves fall from the oak") Danish – når der er to torsdage i én uge ("when there are two Thursdays in one week")

  3. Simile - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simile

    A simile (/ ˈ s ɪ m əl i /) is a type of figure of speech that directly compares two things. [1] [2] Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit comparison (i.e. saying something "is" something else).

  4. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;...

    Modern English speakers understand the sentence to unambiguously mean "Time passes fast, as fast as an arrow travels". But the sentence is syntactically ambiguous and alternatively could be interpreted as meaning, for example: [2] (as an imperative) Measure the speed of flies like you would measure the speed of an arrow—i.e. (You should) time ...

  5. A Dictionary of Similes - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_Similes

    A Dictionary of Similes is a dictionary of similes written by the American writer and newspaperman Frank J. Wilstach. In 1916, Little, Brown and Company in Boston published Wilstach's A Dictionary of Similes, a compilation he had been working on for more than 20 years. It included more than 15,000 examples from more than 800 authors, indexing ...

  6. List of English-language metaphors - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English-language...

    A list of metaphors in the English language organised alphabetically by type. A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g.,

  7. Comprehension of idioms - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehension_of_Idioms

    If it is replaced by other words, the idiomatic meaning cannot be activated. The Conceptual Metaphor Hypothesis. The conceptual metaphor hypothesis proposes that metaphors are fundamental to human thought and they influence the comprehension of many aspects of language, including idioms. [9] An example of a conceptual metaphor is “love is a ...

  8. Figure of speech - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech

    Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men"). During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech.

  9. Epithets in Homer - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithets_in_Homer

    A characteristic of Homer's style is the use of epithets, as in "rosy-fingered" Dawn or "swift-footed" Achilles.Epithets are used because of the constraints of the dactylic hexameter (i.e., it is convenient to have a stockpile of metrically fitting phrases to add to a name) and because of the oral transmission of the poems; they are mnemonic aids to the singer and the audience alike.