METAPHOR


Meaning of METAPHOR in English

transcription, транскрипция: [ metəfɔ:r ]

( 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

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Английский словарь Коллинз COBUILD для изучающих язык на продвинутом уровне.