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Similes dictio≠ary
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Similes dictio≠ary Second Edition
E LY S E S O M M E R
Detroit
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Copyright ©2013 by Visible Ink Press®
Similes dictio≠ary
This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applicable laws. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or website. All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended. Visible Ink Press® 43311 Joy Rd., #414 Canton, MI 48187-2075 Visible Ink Press is a registered trademark of Visible Ink Press LLC. Most Visible Ink Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, or groups. Customized printings, special imprints, messages, and excerpts can be produced to meet your needs. For more information, contact Special Markets Director, Visible Ink Press, www.visibleinkpress.com, or 734-667-3211. Managing Editor: Kevin S. Hile Art Director: Mary Claire Krzewinski Typesetting: Marco Di Vita Proofreaders: Sharon R. Gunton Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sommer, Elyse. Similes dictionary / by Elyse Sommer. — Second Edition. pages cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-57859-433-7 (pbk.) 1. Quotations, English. 2. Simile—Dictionaries. I. Sommer, Elyse, editor of compilation. II. Title. PN6084.S5S55 2013 082—dc23 2013000154 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents How to Use This Book vii Introduction ix
Table of Thematic Categories 1
The Similes 45 Author Index 565
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You may also enjoy
Metaphors Dictionary “ Rates a recommendation to lovers of language.” —William Safire, New York Times
A
masterful metaphor, like a picture, may be worth a thousand words. By compar-
ing two unlike objects or ideas, it illuminates the similarities between them, accomplishing in a word or phrase what could otherwise be expressed only in many words, if at all. Metaphors Dictionary is an expansive collection of 6,500 colorful classic and contemporary comparative phrases (with full annotations and a complete bibliography of
ISBN: 9781578591374 672 pages 7.25" x 9.25" hardbound $29.95 ($34.95 Can.)
sources). The Metaphors Dictionary revisits most of the great and respected names in the annals of cultural literacy while dipping into current literature and media sources. And now available for the first time in hard cover, it’s bound for heavy duty at a price that’s hard to beat.
For more information, visit www.visibleinkpress.com
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Ho w t o Us e Th i s B o o k
Similes Dictionary is designed for the browser’s enjoyment and inspiration and as a thesaurus for writers and speakers. Because many similes are complete little quotes, the book also serves as a quotation finder. To best fulfill all these functions, the more than 16,000 entries have been grouped into nearly 1,300 thematic categories to ease and expedite access to them. The Table of Thematic Categories at the front of the book contains an alphabetical list that includes the subject categories, synonyms, and See and See Also cross references. All categories and synonyms with their cross references are also included in the text. Cross references pertaining to the category in general appear after the thematic heading. How to Locate Similes through the Subject Headings Since this is a phrase book, most readers will be best served by searching through the thematic categories to find the phrases that interest them. Taking the thesaurus approach, turn first to the Table of Thematic Categories and go to a heading most likely to lead you to the similes that interest you. If you looked up ABILITY, you will find that it is a main heading and also a cross reference to a thematically related heading, ACCOMPLISHMENT. If you looked under ACCURACY, you would find it listed as a synonym, with a cross reference to the main heading, CORRECTNESS. How to Locate Similes by Browsing Taking the browser’s approach, go right to the entries and let the thematic headings and cross references in the text guide you through your ramble. How to Locate Similes by a Specific Author If you’re curious who said what, turn to the Author’s Index and look up the categories for the author whose similes you want to see. If an author’s listing includes many entries, you can limit your search to just a few thematic categories.
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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK How to Locate Familiar Similes The search for a specific familiar phrase can often be narrowed down to similes from Shakespeare, early writers and poets like Chaucer, Shelley, Swinburne, Tennyson and Longfellow. All can be tracked through the Authors Index. Things to Bear in Mind When Reading the Entries Spelling and punctuation in entries from printed sources is as it appeared there. The exception to this are words with spelling common only in England, e.g.: colour, favour, grey, honour, moustaches, odour, which appear as color, favor, gray, honor, mustaches, odour. Some similes contain modernized words and phrases, but such changes are always called to the reader’s attention, with the original form in a comment paragraph after the entry. The same holds true for dialect words and phrases. When the descriptive reference frame for a simile is not crucial to its meaning but would enhance reading or shed light on its use, a word or phrase preceding the simile is included in the entry. Such additional text is enclosed in parenthethes. This keeps the focus on the simile and maintains the alphabetizing by simile system. Unless the parenthesized text is a complete sentence, the first word of the actual entry is not capitalized, e.g.: (Gaze as) innocent as a teddy bear —Babs H. Deal When additional text is in square brackets, the words are not the author’s but inserted for clarity by the editors. If this bracketed text precedes the simile, the entry is capitalized since it does not continue the author’s words, e.g.: [School boys] Frail, like thin-boned fledgling birds clamoring for food —Sylvia Berkman Words in parenthethes or brackets may also appear in the middle or at the end of an entry, e.g.: My efforts [to stir husband out of a sense of doom] have been like so many waves, dashing against the Rock of Ages —Robert E. Sherwood To enhance the browser’s enjoyment and increase the book’s utility, many similes include brief comments. These can include any or all of the following: information about the simile, its source, examples of variations, cross references specific to that simile.
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In t r o d u c t i o n
I’m as corny as Kansas in August, I’m as normal as blueberry pie. Oscar Hammerstein “A Wonderful Guy” South Pacific The simile that describes the resemblance between two dissimlar things, usually flagging up the comparison with “as” or “like,” has been a literary device to lend color to the English language since time immemorial. Musical theater legend Oscar Hammerstein was a master “similist,” often piling on his vivid comparisons for added effect. “A Wonderful Guy,” from the classic South Pacific, expanded on the famous “I’m corny as Kansas in August / I’m as normal as blueberry pie” with “I’m as trite and as gay as a daisy in May” and “I’m bromidic and bright / As a moon-happy night / Pourin’ light on the dew!” Its effectiveness for expressing thoughts more clearly and vividly makes the simile one of most widely used figures of speech in written and spoken English. Similes crop up in newspaper and magazine articles, fiction and nonfiction, dramas as well as daily conversations. The ones with the most zip tend to metamorphose into common expressions that are are used unchanged or refreshed. In the age of sound bites and tweets they are more than ever timely and, to borrow an ever-popular simile, useful as a Swiss army knife for drawing pithy word sketches that are more robust than a single word and more spontaneous than a formal quote. Since many similes are “as old as old as the hills” and also as fresh as today’s newspaper headline—whether printed or online—a collection of examples can never really be complete. The seemingly overflowing well of similes from biblical times to the present keeps filling up. Thus, a book like Similes Dictionary is never really finished. I’m therefore delighted to have a chance to amend and update the first edition. Besides expanding on the entries of writers with a special propensity for the simile, this new edition has afforded me a chance to include comparison phrases from works published in the last few years, some of which proved especially fertile. That meant adding similes from
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INTRODUCTION Cynthia Ozick’s latest books, as well as newly published authors like Helen Simonson (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand). My main activity since compiling the first edition post has been as editor and publisher of Curtainup, an online theater magazine. Naturally, this has led me to many apt examples in dramatic dialogue and songs with which to enrich this new edition. Few song writers can match Oscar Hammerstein’s gift for poetic figures of speech that sing gloriously. However, there are plenty of pithy examples from old-timers like Irving Berlin (When I’m with a pistol / I sparkle like a crystal, / Yes, I shine like the morning sun. / But I lose all my luster / When with a Bronco Buster. “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” from Annie Get Your Gun). Living song writers also incorporate similes into their oeuvre, like this one from singer / songwriter Sting: Like a circle in a spiral / Like a wheel within a wheel / Never ending or beginning, / On an ever spinning wheel / As the images unwind / Like the circles that you find / In the windmills of your mind. Sting’s title, “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” introduces a metaphor to the song’s panoply of similes. The similes included in this sort of collection tend to be more fragmentary than quotes in a book of quotations. The first edition cited the author but in most instances omitted the title of the source. Since a number of readers wrote asking for the plays in which to find the many Shakespeare citations, I’ve added them for this edition and decided to also include book, play, or song titles as well as the author’s name for all new entries. Still on the subject of source attribution, we decided to give the author-plus-title treatment to one other writer, Raymond Chandler. The prolific detective novelist is noted for his terse, witty tropes, so much so that they’ve come to be known as Chandlerisms and are often given new life; for example, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd (in her April 10, 2012 Op-Ed piece “State of Cool”) incorporated one of Chandler’s sharp similes to describe photo images of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as follows: “The pictures, as Raymond Chandler would say, make Hillary look ‘as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.’” Sources tapped for new entries once again include books; print, broadcast, and electronic media; stage and screen. With the large mass of contemporary material to choose from, you might wonder why similes that have been used again and again were not eliminated. Granted, overuse has caused what was once fresh and original to metamorphose into cliché. However, sometimes a familiar phrase is something a writer or puzzle solver will find useful. A simile’s pungency can also be retained by using it in a fresh context or giving it a lifeextending twist. Since The Similes Dictionary is also intended as an inspirational guide for fine tuning your own colorful phrase making skills, expressions that have entered the lexicon of common usage can become stepping stones towards nurturing one’s own comparative wit and wisdom. With this in mind, I’ve added some specific tips for readers to use this book to sharpen their writing with similes at the end of this introduction. [x]
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INTRODUCTION The basic organizational principle remains the same as in the original edition and the companion dictionary, Visible Ink’s Metaphors Dictionary: A thematic category arrangement with extensive See and See Also cross references. Because the simile is so frequently used to draw a graphic physical and character description, headings pertaining to these are significantly represented, often sub-divided into more specific headings. In addition to FACE(S), for example, readers will find categories for FACIAL COLOR; FACIAL DETAILS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, BLANK; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS; and FACIAL SHAPE. The simile maker’s penchant for irony and disparaging remarks is also reflected in the headings. Besides a whole category of INSULTS, numerous thematic synonyms lead the way to more. Many other headings encompass both positive and negative expressions, with the negative entries often outnumbering the positive ones. To sum up aims for this collection, No matter what your primary use for The Similes Dictionary, here’s hoping you’ll enjoy the casual pleasure of browsing, which will in turn heighten your appreciation for the simile as a simple and useful linguistic device. Most have focused on proverbs and quotations. This applies to books published before this century, as well as more contemporary references. Two notable exceptions are John Ray, whose simile-rich collection of proverbs was published in the seventeenth century, and Frank J. Wilstach, whose Dictionary of Similes was published in 1916. The Wilstach book represents a worthy effort to give the simile its just due. However, besides lacking the many fresh similes coined during the last seventy years, its keyword organization makes it difficult to find anything unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.
10 Tips for Creating and Using Similes 1. For a heightened appreciation of similes, jot down similes that catch your eye in a notebook. To move from inspiration to originality, expand that notebook by rewriting some of your jottings and adding some that rise from your own creative wellsprings, but don’t expect to really use even the best ones. These jottings are simply a warm-up for getting into the colorful comparison habit. 2. Keep your similes appropriate to the subject. You’ll make stronger connections between your topic and what you are comparing if there’s a subtle link between the two. In reviewing the 2012 revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Village Voice critic Michael Feingold remarked that “seeing [James Earl] Jones and [Angela] Lansbury ‘take stage,’ in the blatant way they do here, is something like watching a monarch annex a neighboring province, except that the consequences are delightful rather than dire.” Feingold’s comparing the actors to a monarch was perfectly suited to a play about a presidential election.
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INTRODUCTION 3. Keep your similes appropriate in style. A successful simile must fit its stylistic landscape as a hollow fits the circle. Robert Burns’s beautiful “my luv is like a red, red rose” would be misplaced in a business article or a spy novel. 4. Surprise reader or listeners. Really stimulating similes are rarely the obvious and therefore ordinary ones. The eighteenth-century wit Sydney Smith counseled us to choose phrases “remote from all the common tracks and sheep-walks made in the mind.” While most people would never think of a stale cake in relation to a decaying house, it’s this element of surprise that enhances novelist Jonathan Valin’s description of a crumbling white house in Life’s Work as “crumbling at the corners like stale cake left out on a plate. It’s a most unusual image, but it makes perfect sense. 5. Appeal to all the senses by drawing comparisons that a reader will hear or taste or feel in their minds, as well as see. The anthem song of the musical Billy Elliott is a good example: “And then I feel a change, like a fire deep inside / Something bursting me wide open, impossible to hide / And suddenly I’m flying, flying like a bird / Like electricity, electricity / Sparks inside of me, and I’m free, I’m free. 6. Combine similes with other figures of speech. British playwright Mike Bartlett used the metaphor of a cock fight for his 2012 play about a fraught sexual relationship. A description of an attractive young men starts with a simile—“Some people might think you were scrawny but I think you’re like a picture drawn with a pencil”—and concludes with a metaphor: “I like it. You haven’t been coloured in, you’re all Wire.” 7. Emphasize your point by extending or expanding the comparison. My favorite example of unrestrained comparative excess comes from Donald E. Westlake’s The Fugitive Pigeon, which works not only because it’s genuinely funny but because it successfully links all the extensions to the play on the character’s name: “(Up till then I’d assumed that Gross was the man’s name, but it was his description.) He looked like something that had finally come up out of its cave because it has eaten the last phosphorescent little fish in the cold pool at the bottom of the cavern. He looked like something that better keep moving because if it stood still someone would drag it out back and bury it. He looked like a big white sponge with various diseases at work on the inside. He looked like something that couldn’t get you if you held a crucifix up in front of you. He looked like the big fat soft white something you might find under a tomato plant leaf on a rainy day with a chill in the air” 8. Moderation works, too. Just as some people like more seasoning than others, so you must follow your own creative taste buds. Bear in mind Roman philosopher Seneca’s belief that “excellence resides in quality, not quantity” and be aware that a single simile is often all you need for impact. If the image is strong, neither does it need to be elaborate. In fact, our most memorable—the ones that pass from literature into quotation books and everyday language—are usually short and direct. [xii]
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INTRODUCTION 9. Don’t fuss too much about adding similes to your writing. Similes should be an enhancement not the sole objective of any writers. But do fuss over the ones you create. Revise, and judge your similes mercilessly. A good story without a good simile can still be a good story. But add a bunch of great similes to a bad story and it will be like a jeweled handle on a dull, broken knife. 10. Make sure it works. This is the most important tip of all, for a simile’s whole purpose is to cause a reader to say “Yes, that’s what it’s like.” To have that effect, the image you’re creating must be correct. To say that something grew like a brick wall does not create much of a picture since a wall does not grow but is built. To say that rush hour traffic flowed like blood from a wound is also faulty.
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> TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES In the following table, categories used throughout the text and synonyms that are cross-referenced to categories are combined in one list in alphabetic order.
< ABANDONMENT
< ACCUMULATION
See Also: ALONENESS, BEARING, FRIENDSHIP, REJECTION
See: GROWTH
< ABILITY See Also: ACCOMPLISHMENT
< ABSORBABILITY
< ABSURDITY See Also: DIFFICULTY, FUTILITY
< ABUNDANCE See Also: CLOSENESS, GROWTH, SPREADING
< ACCEPTIBILITY
< ACCURACY See: CORRECTNESS
< ACCUSATION See: CRITICISM
< ACTING See Also: STAGE AND SCREEN
< ACTIONS See Also: BEHAVIOR, CAUTION, LEAPING, JUMPING, MOVEMENTS, VIOLENCE
See: BELONGING
< ACTIVENESS
< ACCESSIBILITY See: AVAILABILITY, COURTESY
See Also: ALERTNESS, BEHAVIOR, BUSINESS, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM, EXCITEMENT, MOVEMENTS, PERSONALITY PROFILES
< ACCIDENT
< ACTORS
See: FATE
See: STAGE AND SCREEN
< ACCOMPLISHMENT
< ADAPTABILITY
See Also: ABILITY, CLEVERNESS, SUCCESS/ FAILURE
See: BELONGING, FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY
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Adjustment
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< ADJUSTMENT
< AGILITY
See: FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY, HABIT
See Also: MOVEMENTS, SPEED, TURNING AND TWISTING, WALKING
< ADMIRATAION See: FLATTERY, WORDS OF PRAISE
< AGITATION
< ADULTERY
See Also: EXCITEMENT, HEARTBEAT, NERVOUSNESS, TREMBLING
See: MARRIAGE
< ADVANCING See Also: ENTRANCES AND EXITS, MOVEMENTS
< AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT See Also: COMPATIBILITY, FIGHTING
< AILMENTS See: ILLNESS
< ADVANTAGEOUSNESS See Also: COST
< AIM See: PURPOSEFULNESS
< ADVERSARY
< ADVERSITY
< AIMLESSNESS See Also: BELONGING, EMPTINESS
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< ADVERTISING
< AIR See Also: ATMOSPHERE, HEAT
See Also: BUSINESS
< ADVICE
< AIRPLANES See: VEHICLES
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, FUTILITY
< AFFABILITY
< ALCOHOL See: DRINKING
See: AVAILABILITY, COURTESY, FRIENDSHIP
< AFFECTION
< ALERTNESS
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, LOVE
See Also: ATTENTION/ATTENTIVENESS, EYES, SCRUTINY, WATCHFULNESS
< AFFLICTIONS
< ALIENATION
See: HEALTH, PAIN
See Also: ALONENESS, REMOTENESS
< AFFLUENCE
< ALIKENESS
See: RICHES
See: SIMILARITY
< AGE
< ALIMONY
See Also: LIFE, MANKIND, YOUTH
See: MARRIAGE
< AGGRESSION
< ALLURE
See: PERSONAL TRAITS, VIOLENCE
See: ATTRACTIVNESS
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Attraction
< ALONENESS
< APPEARENCE
See Also: ABANDONMENT
See: PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
< ALOOFNESS
< APPETITE
See: PERSONAL TRAITS, RESERVE
See: HUNGER
< AMAZEMENT
< APPLAUSE
See: SURPRISE
< AMBITION See Also: PURPOSEFULNESS
< ANCESTORS See: PAST, THE
< ANGER
See: NOISE
< APPRECIATION
< ARGUMENTS See Also: FIGHTING
< ARITHMITIC See: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
See Also: EMOTIONS, IRRITABLENESS
< ARM(S)
< ANIMALS
See Also: ARM MOVEMENTS, FINGER(S), HAND(S)
See Also: BIRDS
< ARM MOVEMENTS < ANIMATION
See Also: HAND MOVEMENTS
See: ACTIVENESS, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM
< ARMY
< ANNOYANCE See Also: IRRITABLENESS
< ANTICIPATION See Also: HOPE
< ART AND LITERATURE See Also: BOOKS, MUSIC, POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING
< ASTONISHMENT
< ANXIETY
See Also: SURPRISE
See Also: EMOTIONS, NERVOUSNESS, TENSION
< ATMOSPHERE
< APARTNESS
< ATTENTION
See: ALONENESS
< APATHY See: REMOTENESS
See Also: AIR
See Also: ALERTNESS, SCRUTINY, WATCHFULNESS
< ATTIRE See: CLOTHING
< APPAREL See: CLOTHING
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< ATTRACTION [3]
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Attractiveness
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< ATTRACTIVENESS
< BARGAINS
See Also: BEAUTY, DESIRABILITY, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS
< AUTHENTICITY
< BARRENNESS See: EMPTINESS
See: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< AUTHORITY
< BASEBALL See Also: SPORTS
See: POWER
< AUTHORSHIP
< BASKETBALL See: SPORTS
See: POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING
< AUTOMOBILES
< BEACHES See: OCEAN/OCEANFRONT
See: VEHICLES
< AVAILABILITY
< BEARD(S) See Also: HAIR, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
< AVARICE
< BEARING
See: GREED
See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS, LYING, PERSONALITY PROFILES, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, POSTURE, SITTING, STANDING, WALKING
< AWARENESS See: REALIZATION
< AWKWARDNESS See Also: MOVEMENT(S)
< BEAUTY
< BACHELOR
See Also: BEAUTY DEFINED, FACE, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
See: MEN AND WOMEN
< BEAUTY DEFINED
< BAD LUCK See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS See Also: BIRTH, ENTRANCES AND EXITS
< BADNESS See: CRUELTY, EVIL
< BEHAVIOR
< BALANCE
See Also: ACTION, LIFE, MANKIND, PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY
See: REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
< BALDNESS
< BELIEFS
See Also: HAIR
See Also: GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, RELIGION
< BARENESS
< BELIEVABILITY
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< BELONGING
Books
< BLESSEDNESS See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< BENDING/BENT
< BLINDNESS < BENEFITS
See Also: EYE(S); EYE EXPRESSIONS, BLANK
See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS
< BLOOD < BEREAVEMENT
See Also: VIOLENCE
See: GRIEF, SADNESS
< BLOOMING < BEWILDERMENT
See: GROWTH
See Also: EMOTIONS, STRANGENESS
< BLUE < BIBLE
See Also: COLORS
See: BOOKS
< BLUSHES < BICYCLING See: SPORTS
See Also: FACIAL COLOR, RED, SHAME, SHYNESS
< BIGNESS
< BOATS
See Also: FATNESS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, TALLNESS
See: SEASCAPES
< BODY < BIGOTRY See: INTOLERANCE
< BIOGRAPHY See: BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING
< BIRDS See Also: ANIMALS, INSECTS, SINGING
See Also: AGILITY, AWKWARDNESS, BODY ORGANS, FATNESS, MUSCLES, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, SHOULDERS, STOMACH, STRENGTH, THINNESS
< BODY ORGANS See Also: SEX, TONGUE
< BOISTEROUSNESS
< BIRTH
See: NOISE
See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DEATH, ENTRANCES AND EXITS, LIFE
< BOLDNESS See: COURAGE
< BITTERNESS See Also: ANGER, FRIENDSHIP, LOVE
< BONDS See: CONNECTIONS
< BLACK See Also: COLORS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS; GLOOM
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< BOOKS See Also: READERS/READING
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Boredom/Boring
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< BOREDOM/BORING
< BUSINESS
See Also: DULLNESS, LIFE
See Also: ADVERTISING, SUCCESS/FAILURE
< BOUNCING
< BUSYNESS
See: ROCKING AND ROLLING
< BOUNDLESSNESS See: CONTINUITY
< BOXING AND WRESTLING See Also: SPORTS
< BRAIN See: INTELLIGENCE, MIND
< BRAVERY See: COURAGE
< BREASTS
See Also: ACTIVENESS, WORK
< CALMNESS See Also: PEACEFULNESS
< CANDOR See Also: HONESTY
< CAPABILITY See: ABILITY
< CAREFULNESS See: ATTENTION, CAUTION, CORRECTNESS
See Also: BODY, BODY ORGANS
< CARELESSNESS
< BREATHING
< CARES See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
< BREVITY See Also: TIME
< CAUSE AND EFFECT
< BRIGHTNESS
< CAUTION
See Also: GLIMMER, GLITTER, AND GLOSS, LIGHTING, SHINING
< BRITTLENESS See: FRAGILITY
< BROWN See Also: COLORS
< BRUTALITY See: CRUELTY, VIOLENCE
< BUILDINGS
See Also: BEHAVIOR
< CELEBRITY See: FAME
< CENSORSHIP See: CONTROL, CRITICISM
< CERTAINTY
< CESSATION See: PAUSE
See: HOUSES
< BURST See Also: DISINTEGRATION, SUDDENNESS
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< CHANGE See Also: ENTRANCES AND EXITS, PERMANENCE
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Coldness
< CHAOS
< CIVILIZATION
See: ORDER/DISORDER
See: SOCIETY
< CHARACTER
< CLARITY
See Also: PERSONAL TRAITS, REPUTATION
< CLEANLINESS < CHARACTERISTICS, NATIONAL
See Also: ORDER/DISORDER
< CHARITY
< CLEVERNESS
See: KINDNESS
See Also: ALERTNESS
< CHARM
< CLICHÉ
See: ATTRACTIVENESS
See: ORIGINALITY, MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< CHASTITY See: VIRTUE
< CLINGING
< CHEAPNESS
See Also: PERSISTANCE; PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS
See: COST, THRIFT
< CLOSENESS < CHEEKS
See Also: COMPATIBILITY, FRIENDSHIP
See Also: BLUSHES, FACIAL COLOR, SKIN
< CLOTHING < CHEERFULNESS See Also: BRIGHTNESS, GAIETY, HAPPINESS, SMILES
See Also: CLOTHING ACCESSORIES; CLOTHING, ITS FIT
< CLOTHING ACCESSORIES < CHILDISHNESS
See Also: JEWELRY
See: YOUTHFULNESS
< CHILDREN
< CLOTHING, ITS FIT See Also: CLOTHING
See Also: PARENTHOOD
< CHIN
< CLOUD MOVEMENTS See Also: RAIN
See Also: CHEEKS, FACE(S), MOUTH
< CLOUD(S) < CHOICES
See Also: CLOUD MOVEMENTS, SKY
< CHURCHES
< CLUMSINESS
See: HOUSES
See: AWKWARDNESS
< CITIES/STREETSCAPES
< COLDNESS
See: PLACES
See Also: REMOTENESS, RESERVE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Collapse
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< COLLAPSE
< COMPOSITION
See Also: DISINTEGRATION
See: MUSIC
< COLORS
< COMPREHENSIBLENESS
See Also: BLACK, BLUE, BRIGHTNESS, BROWN, GREEN, PALLOR, PINK, RED, WHITE
See: UNDERSTANDABILITY
< COMEDY < COMFORT
< COMMONPLACE See Also: FAMILIARITY
< COMPASSION See: KINDNESS, PITY
< COMPATIBILITY See Also: BELONGING
< COMPETENCE See: ABILITY, ACCOMPLISHMENT
< COMPETITION See Also: BUSINESS, SPORTS
< COMPLACENCY See: CONTENTMENT
< COMPLAINTS See: ANGER, CRITICISM
< COMPLETENESS
< COMPLEXION See Also: SKIN, WRINKLES
< COMPLEXITY See Also: DIFFICULTY
< CONCEIT See: VANITY
< CONCNENTRATION See: ATTENTION, SCRUTINY
< CONCISENESS See: BREVITY
< CONDEMNATION See: CRITICISM
< CONFIDENCE See: SELF-CONFIDENCE, TRUST
< CONFIDENTIALITY See: SECRECY
< CONFUSION See: BEWILDERMENT
< CONNECTIONS See Also: CLINGING
< CONSCIENCE See Also: REGRET
< CONSIDERATION See: THOUGHT
< CONSPICUOUSNESS
< CONTAGION See: SPREADING
< COMPLIMENTS See: FLATTERY, WORDS OF PRAISE
[8]
< CONTEMPT
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Crookedness
< CONTENTMENT
< COURTESY
See Also: HAPPINESS, JOY
See: BEHAVIOR, MANNERS
< CONTINUITY
< COURTSHIP
See Also: PERMANENCE
See: MEN AND WOMEN
< CONTROL
< COVERTNESS See: SECRECY
< CONVERSATION
< CONVICTION See: BELIEFS
< COOKERY See: FOOD, DRINK
< COOLNESS See: CALMNESS
< COWARDICE See: FEAR
< COZINESS See: COMFORT
< CRAFTINESS See: CLEVERNESS
< CRAVING
< COOPERATION
See: DESIRE
See: AGREEMENT
< CRAZINESS
< CORPORATIONS
See: MADNESS
See: BUSINESS
< CREDIT
< CORPULENCE
< CRIME
See: FATNESS
< CORRECTNESS See Also: TRUENESS/FALSENESS, MANNERS, REPUTATION
< CORRESPONDENCE
See Also: DISHONESTY, EVIL
< CRISPNESS See: SHARPNESS
< CRITICISM
See Also: WRITERS/WRITING
See Also: CRITICISM, DRAMATIC AND LITERARY
< COST
< CRITICISM, DRAMATIC AND
See Also: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS, THRIFT
< COUNSEL
LITERARY See Also: POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/ WRITING,
See: ADVICE
< CROOKEDNESS < COURAGE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: BENDING/BENT
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Crowds
< CROWDS
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< DEATH DEFINED
See Also: CLOSENESS
< DEATH, FINALITY OF
< CRUELTY See Also: COLDNESS, EVIL
< DEBT See: CREDIT
< CRYING See Also: GROANS AND WHISPERS, SCREAMS
< DECEPTION
< CUNNING
< DECISIONS
See: CLEVERNESS
See: CHOICES
< CURIOSITY
< DECORATIVENESS
See: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
See: ATTRACTIVENESS
< CURSES See Also: WORDS
< DECREASE
< CUSTOM
< DEDICATION
See: HABIT
See: ATTENTION
< DAMPNESS
< DEEDS
See: DISCOMFORT
See: ACTIONS
< DANCING
< DEJECTION
See Also: AGILITY, INSULTS, WORDS OF PRAISE
See Also: EMOTIONS, GLOOM
< DELAY < DANGER
See: LINGERING
See Also: RISK
< DELIBERATENESS < DARING
See: PURPOSEFULNESS
See: COURAGE
< DELIGHT < DARKNESS
See: JOY
< DAY
< DEMOCRACY
See Also: NIGHT, SLOWNESS, TIME
See: FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT
< DEATH
< DENIAL
See Also: ADVANCING; BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS; DEATH DEFINED; DEATH, FINALITY OF; ENTRANCES AND EXITS; SUDDENNESS; TIMELINESS
See: BEHAVIOR
[10]
< DENSITY See: ABUNDANCE, THICKNESS
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Disaster
< DEPARTURE
< DEW
See: EXITS
See: NATURE
< DEPENDABILITY
< DICTION
See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
See: SPEECH PATTERNS
< DEPLETION
< DICTIONARIES
See: DECREASE
< DEPRESSION See: DEJECTION, GLOOM
< DESERTION See: ABANDONMENT
< DESIRABILITY See Also: PLEASURE
< DESIRE See Also: SEX
< DESOLATION See: ABANDONMENT
< DESPERATION
< DESTITUTION See: POVERTY
< DESTRUCTION/ DESTRUCTIVENESS See Also: DISINTEGRATION
< DETACHMENT
See: BOOKS
< DIETS See: EATING AND DRINKING
< DIFFERENCES
< DIFFICULTY See Also: FUTILITY, IMPOSSIBILITY
< DIGNITY See: PRIDE
< DILEMMAS See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
< DIPLOMACY See: TACT
< DIRECTNESS See: CANDOR, STRAIGHTNESS
< DISAGREEMENT See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT, ARGUMENT
See: REMOTENESS
< DISAPPEARANCE
< DETERIORATION
< DISAPPOINTMENT
See: DISINTEGRATION
See Also: DESPAIR, FACIAL EXPRESSION
< DETERMINATION
< DISAPPROVAL
See: PURPOSEFULNESS
See: CONTEMPT
< DEVOTION
< DISASTER
See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Discomfort
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< DISCOMFORT
< DISSENSION
See Also: PAIN
See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT, ARGUMENTS, FIGHTING
< DISCONTENT See Also: DEJECTION, GLOOM
< DISSIMILARITY See: DIFFERENCES
< DISCORD See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT
< DISCOURAGEMENT
< DISTANCE See: REMOTENESS
See: DEJECTION
< DISTINCTIVENESS
< DISCRETION
< DIVERSENESS
See: CAUTION, TACT
< DISCRIMINATION See: STYLE
See: ORIGINALITY
See Also: DIFFERENCES, PERSONAL TRAITS
< DIVORCE See: MARRIAGE
< DISHONESTY
< DOCILITY
See Also: BELIEVABILITY, CRIME, LIES AND LIARS
See: MEEKNESS
< DOCTORS < DISILLUSIONMENT
See Also: PROFESSIONS
See: DISAPPOINTMENT
< DOGS < DISINTEGRATION See Also: DESTRUCTION
< DISLOYALTY See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
See: ANIMALS
< DOMINATION See: POWER
< DOUBT
< DISORDER
See: TRUST/MISTRUST
See: ORDER/DISORDER
< DREAM(S)
< DISPERSAL
< DISPOSABILITY
See Also: AMBITION, HOPE, SLEEP
< DRINKING
See: TRANSIENCE
See Also: EATING AND DRINKING, FOOD AND DRINK
< DISSATISFACTION
< DRIVERS/DRIVING
See: DISCONTENT
See: VEHICLES
[12]
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< DRYNESS
Endurance
< EFFORTLESSNESS See: EASE
< DULLNESS See Also: BOREDOM/BORING
< EGO See Also: VANITY
< DUMBNESS See: STUPIDITY
< ELASTICITY See: FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY
< DUTY See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
< ELATION See: JOY
< EAGERNESS See: ENTHUSIASM
< EARS See: FACIAL DETAILS
< EARTH See: NATURE
< ELEGANCE See: CLOTHING, STYLE
< ELOQUENCE See: PERSUASIVENESS, SPEECHMAKING
< ELUSIVENESS See Also: DIFFICULTY
< EASE
< EASE, OPPOSITE MEANING
< EMBARRASSMENT See: SHAME, SHYNESS
See: DIFFICULTY
< EATING AND DRINKING See Also: FOOD AND DRINK, MANNERS
< EMBRACE See Also: KISSES, MEN AND WOMEN, PEOPLE, INTERACTION, SEXUAL INTERACTION
< ECONOMICS
< EDUCATION
< EMINENCE See: FAME
See Also: KNOWLEDGE
< EERINESS See: STRANGENESS
< EFFECT
< EMOTIONS See Also: ANXIETY, CHEERFULNESS, DEJECTION, ENVY, GLOOM, GRIEF, HAPPINESS, HATE, LONELINESS, LOVE, SADNESS, TENSION, WEARINESS
See: CAUSE AND EFFECT
< EMPTINESS < EFFECTIVENESS
See Also: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS
See: ABILITY, CAUSE AND EFFECT, SUCCESS/FAILURE, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
< ENDURANCE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: CONTINUITY, PERMANENCE
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Enemy
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< ENEMY
< EXAMINATION
See: ADVERSARY
See: SCRUTINY
< ENERGY
< EXCITEMENT
See Also: ACTIVENESS, BUSYNESS, ENTHUSIASM
See Also: AGITATION, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM
< ENJOYMENT
< EXERCISE
See: PLEASURE
See: MOVEMENT(S), SPORTS
< ENTHUSIASM
< EXHAUSTION
See Also: ENERGY, EXCITEMENT
See: WEARINESS
< ENTRANCES AND EXITS
< EXITS
See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DEATH, EXITS
See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DISAPPEARANCE, ENTRANCES AND EXITS
< ENTRAPMENT See Also: ADVANCING
< EXPANSION See: GROWTH
< ENVY
< EPITAPHS
< EXPECTATION See: ANTICIPATION, HOPE
See: DEATH, PRIDE
< ERECTNESS
< EXPENSIVENESS See: COST
See: POSTURE
< EXPERIENCE < ERRORS
See Also: KNOWLEDGE
< ETERNITY
< EXPLOSION
See: CONTINUITY
See: BURST, SUDDENNESS
< EVASIVENESS
< EYE(S)
See: ELUSIVENESS
See: STRAIGHTNESS
See Also: EYES, BRIGHT; EYEBROWS; EYE COLOR; EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS; EYELASHES; EYE MOVEMENTS
< EVIL
< EYEBROWS
< EVENNESS
See Also: ACTION, CRUELTY
< EXACTNESS See: CORRECTNESS
[14]
< EYE COLOR See Also: BLACK, BLUE, BROWN, EYES, GRAY, GREEN
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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< EYE EXPRESSIONS, MICELLANEOUS < EYELASHES < EYELIDS < EYE MOVEMENTS < EYES BRIGHT
< FACE(S) See Also: BLUSHES; CHEEKS; EYES; EYEBROWS; EYELASHES; EYELIDS; FACIAL EXPRESSION, MICELLANEOUS; FACIAL DETAILS; HAIR; LIPS; MOUTH; MUSTACHES; PHYSICAL APPEARANCE; SKIN; WRINKLES
< FACIAL COLOR See Also: BLUSHES, COLOR, PALLOR, RED, WHITE
Fatness
< FAILURE See: COLLAPSE, DISINTEGRATION, SUCCESS/FAILURE
< FAITH See: BELIEF, RELIGION
< FAITHFULNESS/FAITHLESSNESS See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
< FALL See: SEASONS
< FALLING See: COLLAPSE
< FALSENESS See: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< FAME See Also: GREATNESS
< FAMILIARITY See Also: COMMONPLACE
< FACIAL DETAILS
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, BLANK See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS
< FACIAL SHAPE
< FACTS See Also: TRUTH
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< FAMILY See: PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS
< FASCINATION See: ATTRACTIVENESS
< FASHION See: CLOTHING, STYLE
< FATE See Also: HELPLESSNESS, LIFE
< FATIGUE See: WEARINESS
< FATNESS See Also: BODY, INSULTS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
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Fear
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< FEAR
< FIRMNESS
See Also: ANXIETY, EMOTIONS, NERVOUSNESS
See Also: FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY
< FISHING < FEELINGS See: EMOTIONS, PHYSICAL FEELINGS
< FEET See: LEG(S)
See: SPORTS
< FITNESS See: HEALTH
< FLATNESS
< FEROCITY
See: SHAPE
See Also: SCREAMS
< FLATTERY
< FERTILITY See: GROWTH
< FERVOR See: ENTHUSIASM
< FICKLENESS See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, WORDS OF PRAISE
< FLAVOR See: FOOD AND DRINK
< FLAWS See: ERRORS
< FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY See Also: HABIT
< FICTION See: STORIES
< FLOWERS See Also: NATURE
< FIGHT See Also: FIGHTING
< FIGHTING See Also: ARGUMENTS
< FIGURE See: BODY
< FINANCE See: ECONOMICS
< FINGER(S) See Also: HAND(S)
< FOG See Also: MIST
< FOOD AND DRINK See Also: EATING AND DRINKING
< FOOLISHNESS See Also: ABSURDITY, FUTILITY, STUPIDITY
< FOOTBALL See Also: SPORTS
< FORCEFULNESS See: POWER
< FIRE AND SMOKE
< FOREBODING
See Also: TOBACCO
See: ANXIETY, FEAR
[16]
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Gestures
< FOREHEAD
< FRUSTRATION
See Also: FACE(S)
See Also: DEJECTION, EMOTIONS
< FORGETFULNESS
< FUN
See: MEMORY, MIND
See: PLEASURE
< FORGIVENESS
< FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS
< FORLORNNESS See: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS
< FORMALITY See Also: ORDER/DISORDER
< FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< FRAGILITY See Also: WEAKNESS
< FRANKNESS See Also: CANDOR
< FRAUD See Also: CRIME, DISHONESTY
< FRECKLES See Also: FACIAL DETAILS
< FREEDOM
See Also: HOUSES, ROOMS
< FURTIVENESS See: SECRECY
< FURY See: ANGER
< FUTILITY See Also: ABSURDITY, DIFFICULTY, IMPOSSIBILITY, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
< FUTURE
< GAIETY See Also: CHEERFULNESS
< GAIT See: WALKING
< GARDEN SCENES
< FRESHNESS
See: FLOWERS, LANDSCAPES, NATURE
< FRIENDLINESS
< GENEROSITY
See: SOCIABILITY
See: KINDNESS
< FRIENDSHIP
< GENIUS
See Also: LOVE, SOCIABILITY
See: GREATNESS
< FRIENDSHIP DEFINED
< GENTLENESS See Also: KINDNESS
< FROWNS See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS; LOOKS; STARES
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< GESTURES See: HAND MOVEMENTS
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Giddiness
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< GIDDINESS
< GRACIOUSNESS
See: LIGHTNESS
See: BEHAVIOR, MANNERS
< GIFTS
< GRAVENESS
See: KINDNESS
See: SERIOUSNESS
< GLANCE
< GRAY
See: LOOKS
See Also: COLORS, GLOOM, HAIR COLOR, SKY, WEATHER
< GLIMMER, GLITTER, AND GLOSS See Also: BRIGHTNESS, LIGHTING, SHINING
< GREATNESS See Also: FAME, INTELLIGENCE, MIND
< GLOOM See Also: BEHAVIOR; DEJECTION; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS; SADNESS
< GREED
< GLORY
< GREEN
See: FAME, SUCCESS/FAILURE
See: COLORS, ENVY
< GLUTTONY
< GRIEF
See: GREED, EATING AND DRINKING
See Also: SADNESS
< GOD
< GRIN(S)
See: FORGIVENESS, RELIGION
See Also: LAUGHTER, SMILES
< GOLD
< GROANS AND WHISPERS
See: COLORS, MONEY
See Also: SIGHS
< GOLF
< GROWTH
See Also: SPORTS
See Also: SPREADING
< GOOD HEALTH
< GRUMBLING
See: HEALTH
See: COMPLAINTS
< GOODNESS
< GUILT
See: HEART, KINDNESS
See Also: CONSCIENCE
< GOSSIP
< HABIT
< GOVERNMENT
See Also: BEHAVIOR, FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY
See Also: EATING AND DRINKING, ENVY
See Also: LAW, POLITICS
< GRACEFULNESS See: AGILITY, BEAUTY
[18]
< HAIR See Also: HAIR COLOR; HAIR, CURLY; HAIR STYLES; HAIR TEXTURE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Hills
< HAIR COLOR
< HARSHNESS
See Also: BLACK, BROWN, GRAY, RED, WHITE
See Also: FIRMNESS, VOICE(S)
< HAIR, CURLY
< HASTE See: SPEED
See Also: HAIR STYLES
< HASTINESS < HAIR STYLES
See: CARELESSNESS
< HAIR TEXTURE
< HATRED
< HAND MOVEMENTS
< HEAD MOVEMENTS
See Also: HANDSHAKE
< HAND(S) See Also: ARM(S), FINGER(S), HAND MOVEMENTS, HANDSHAKE
< HEAD(S) See Also: HEAD MOVEMENTS
< HEALTH See Also: PAIN
< HANDSHAKE
< HEART(S) < HANDWRITING
See Also: AGITATION, HEARTBEAT
< HAPPINESS
< HEARTBEAT
See Also: CONTENTMENT, JOY, PLEASURE
See Also: AGITATION
< HARD-HEARTEDNESS
< HEARTINESS
See: CRUELTY
See: EMOTIONS
< HARDNESS
< HEAT
See: FIRMNESS, TOUGHNESS
See Also: WEATHER
< HARDSHIP
< HEAVINESS
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< HELPFULNESS < HARD WORK
See: KINDNESS
See: AMBITION, WORK
< HELPLESSNESS
< HARMLESSNESS See Also: INNOCENCE, KINDNESS
< HESITANCY See: UNCERTAINTY
< HARMONY See: AGREEMENT, COMPATIBILITY, PEACEFULNESS
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< HILLS See: MOUNTAINS
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History
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< HISTORY
< HUMILITY
See Also: MEMORY; PAST, THE
See: MEEKNESS, MODESTY
< HOCKEY
< HUMOR
See: SPORTS
See Also: CLEVERNESS, LAUGHTER
< HOLLOWNESS
< HUNGER
See: EMPTINESS
< HOME See: FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS, HOUSES,ROOMS
< HOMELESSNESS < HONESTY See Also: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
< HONOR See: REPUTATION
< HOPE See Also: DREAM(S)
< HORROR See: FEAR
< HOSPITALITY
< HOSTILITY See: ANGER
< HOUSES
See Also: EATING AND DRINKING
< HURRYING See: SPEED
< ICICLES See: SNOW
< IDEALS See: BELIEFS
< IDEAS
< IDLENESS See Also: SITTING
< IGNORANCE See Also: STUPIDITY
< ILLNESS See Also: HEALTH
< ILL TEMPER See: ANGER
See Also: FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS, ROOMS
< ILLUSTRIOUSNESS
< HOVERING
< IMAGINATION
See: FAME
See: LINGERING
See: IDEAS
< HOWLS
< IMITATION
See: SCREAMS
See: SIMILARITY
< HUMANITY
< IMMEDIACY
See: MANKIND
See: SPEED
[20]
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Infatuation
< IMMOBILITY
< INCONGRUITY
See Also: DEATH, LYING, POSTURE, SITTING STANDING
See: ABSURDITY
< INCORRECTNESS < IMPARTIALITY
See: ERRORS
< IMPASSIVENESS
< INCREASE
See: COLDNESS, REMOTENESS, RESERVE
See: GROWTH
< IMPATIENCE
< INDECISION
See: RESTLESSNESS
See: CHOICES
< IMPERMANENCE
< INDEPENDENCE
See: FRAGILITY, LIFE
See: FREEDOM
< IMPOLITENESS
< INDIFFERENCE
See: MANNERS
See: REMOTENESS, RESERVE
< IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< INDIGNATION
See Also: MEMORY, NECESSITY
See: ANGER
< IMPOSSIBILITY
< INDISTINCTION
See Also: ABSURDITY, DIFFICULTY, FUTILITY, OPPORTUNITY
See: VAGUENESS
< IMPROBABILITY
< INDIVIDUALITY See: ORIGINALITY
See: IMPOSSIBILITY
< IMPROPRIETY
< INDOLENCE See: IDLENESS
See: PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY
< INACCURACY
< INDUSTRIOUSNESS See: AMBITION, WORK
See: ERRORS
< INACTIVITY
< INEFFECTIVENESS See: FUTILITY, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
See: IDLENESS, IMMOBILITY
< INAPPROPRIATENESS
< INEVITABILITY See: CERTAINTY
See Also: BELONGING
< INCISIVENESS
< INEXORABILITY See: CERTAINTY
See: SHARPNESS
< INFATUATION < INCOMPLETENESS
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: LOVE
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Inflation
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< INFLATION
< INTENSITY
See: ECONOMICS
See Also: SHARPNESS, STARES
< INFLUENCE
< INTIMACY
See: POWER
See: CLOSENESS, RELATIONSHIPS
< INFORMATION
< INTOLERANCE
< INGRATITUDE
< IRONY
See: PARENTHOOD, SHARPNESS
See: HUMOR
< INHERITANCE
< IRREGULARITY
See: PAST, THE
See: REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
< INJUSTICE
< IRRITABLENESS/IRRITATING
See: JUSTICE
See Also: ANGER, NERVOUSNESS, TENSION
< INNOCENCE
< ISOLATION
See Also: HARMLESSNESS
See: ALONENESS
< INQUISITIVENESS
< JEALOSY
See: CURIOSITY, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
See: ENVY
< INSECTS
< JEWELRY See Also: CLOTHING
See Also: ANIMALS
< INSEPARABILITY See: CLOSENESS, FRIENDSHIP, RELATIONSHIPS
< JOBS See: WORK
< JOKES See: HUMOR
< INSIGHT See: WISDOM
< JOURNALISM See: PROFESSIONS, WRITERS/WRITING
< INSIGNIFICANCE See: MEMORY, IMPORTANCE
< JOY
< INSTINCTIVENESS
See Also: CONTENTMENT, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE
See: NATURALNESS
< JUDGMENTS < INSULT
See: OPINIONS
< INTELLIGENCE
< JUMPING
See Also: MIND
See Also: LEAPING; ROCKING AND ROLLING
[22]
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< JUSTICE
< KINDNESS See Also: GENTLENESS, SWEETNESS
< KISSES See Also: INSULTS
< KNOWLEDGE
Literature
< LETTER-WRITING See: CORRESPONDENCE
< LIBERTY See: FREEDOM
< LIES AND LIARS See Also: DISHONESTY
See Also: EDUCATION, INTELLIGENCE, MIND
< LIFE
< LANDSCAPES
< LIFE DEFINED
See Also: MOUNTAINS; NATURE; PONDS, RIVERS AND STREAMS; ROAD SCENES; TREES
< LANGUAGE See Also: SPEAKING, WORD(S)
< LAUGHTER See Also: GAIETY, GRINS, HUMOR, SMILES
< LAWS See Also: LAWYERS
< LAWYERS See Also: LAW, PROFESSIONS
< LAZINESS See: IDLENESS
< LEAPING
See Also: AGE, LIFE DEFINED, MANKIND
< LIGHTING See Also: BRIGHTNESS, SHINING
< LIGHTNESS See Also: SOFTNESS
< LIGHTNING See: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
< LIKELIHOOD See: IMPOSSIBILITY
< LIKENESS See: SIMILARITY
< LIMBS See: ARM(S), LEG(S)
See Also: JUMPING, ROCKING AND ROLLING
< LIMPNESS
< LEARNING
< LINGERING
See: GAIETY, SOFTNESS
See: EDUCATION
< LIPS < LEAVES
See Also: MOUTH
See Also: FLOWERS, NATURE, TREES
< LEG(S) See Also: PAIN, PHYSICAL FEELING
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< LITERATURE See: ART AND LITERATURE, BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING
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Liveliness
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< LIVELINESS
< LUSHNESS
See: ACTIVENESS, ENTHUSIASM, ENERGY
See: ABUNDANCE
< LOCALITIES
< LUST
See: PLACES
See: DESIRE, SEX
< LOGIC
< LYING
See: SENSE
See Also: BEARING, BENDING/BENT, IMMOBILITY, POSTURE, SITTING, SLEEP, STANDING
< LONELINESS See: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS
< MADNESS
< LONGING See: DESIRE
< MANIPULATION See: POWER
< LONG-WINDEDNESS See: TALKATIVENESS
< MANKIND See Also: HELPLESSNESS, LIFE
< LOOKS See Also: FROWNS AND SCOWLS, SCRUTINY, STARES
< LOOSENESS
< LOUDNESS
< MANNERS See Also: BEHAVIOR, PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY
< MARRIAGE
See: NOISE
See Also: MEN AND WOMEN, RELATIONSHIPS
< LOVE
< MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, LOVE DEFINED, MEN AND WOMEN
< MATRIMONY See: MARRIAGE
< LOVE DEFINED < MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY See: FRIENDSHIP, LOVE
< MEANINGFULNESS/
< LUCIDITY See: CLARITY
See Also: MEMORY, IMPORTANCE/ UNIMPORTANCE, NECESSITY
< LUCK
< MEANNESS
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
See: CRUELTY
< LUNACY
< MEEKNESS
See: MADNESS
See Also: MODESTY
MEANINGLESSNESS
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< MEETINGS
< MELANCHOLY See: DESPAIR
< MEMORY See Also: PAST, THE
< MEN AND WOMEN
Mortality
< MIST See Also: FOG
< MISTAKES See: ERRORS
< MISTRESS See: MEN AND WOMEN
See Also: LOVE, MARRIAGE, SEXUAL INTERACTION
< MIXTURES
< MERCY
< MOANS
See: KINDNESS
< MERIT See: VIRTUE
< MERRIMENT See: GAIETY, JOY
< METHOD See: PURPOSEFULNESS
< MIDDLE AGE See: AGE
< MIND See Also: ATTENTION, INSULTS, MIND DEFINED, THOUGHT
< MIND DEFINED
< MIRTH See: GAIETY
< MISERLINESS
See: CONNECTIONS
See: GROANS AND WHISPERS
< MODESTY See Also: MEEKNESS, PERSONAL TRAITS
< MONARCHY See: GOVERNMENT
< MONEY See Also: COST, GREED, RICHES
< MONOTONY See: DULLNESS, REPETITION
< MONTHS See: SEASONS
< MOOD CHANGES See: CHANGE
< MOODINESS See: GLOOM
See: THRIFT
< MOON
< MISERY
< MORALITY
See: DEJECTION, GLOOM
See Also: BELIEFS, VIRTUE
< MISFORTUNE
< MORTALITY
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
See: DEATH
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Motherhood
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< MOTHERHOOD
< MYSTERIOUSNESS
See: CHILDREN, PARENTHOOD
See: STRANGENESS
< MOTHERS-IN-LAW
< NAKEDNESS
See: PARENTHOOD
See: BARENESS
< MOTIONLESSNESS
< NAMES
See: IMMOBILITY
See Also: MEMORY
< MOTIVATION
< NARROWNESS
See Also: AMBITION, PURPOSEFULNESS
See: THINNESS
< MOUNTAINS
< NATIONS
See Also: LANDSCAPES, NATURE
< MOURNING See: GRIEF
< MOUTH See Also: CHEEK; CHIN; MOUTH, OPEN/SHUT
< MOUTH, OPEN/SHUT
< MOVEMENT(S) See Also: ADVANCING, JUMPING, LEAPING, ROCKING AND ROLLING, RUNNING, TURNING AND TWISTING, WALKING
< MOVIES See: STAGE AND SCREEN
< MURDER See: CRIME
< MUSCLES
See: CHARACTERISTICS, NATIONAL; GOVERNMENTS
< NATURALNESS
< NATURE See Also: FLOWERS, LEAVES, MOON, OCEAN/OCEANFRONT; PONDS, RIVERS AND STREAMS; RAIN; SEASCAPES, SKYSCAPES; SNOW; STARS; SUN; THUNDER AND LIGHTNING; TREES; WEATHER
< NEARNESS See: CLOSENESS
< NEATNESS See: CLEANLINESS, ORDER/DISORDER
< NECESSITY See Also: IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< NECK
See Also: STRENGTH
See Also: CHIN, CHEEKS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
< MUSIC
< NEED
See Also: SINGING
See: DESIRE
< MUSTACHES
< NEGLECT
See Also: BEARD(S), HAIR
See: ABANDONMENT, REJECTION
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Opaqueness
< NEGLIGENCE
< OATH
See: CARELESSNESS
See: PROMISE
< NERVE
< OBEDIANCE
See: COURAGE
See: MEEKNESS
< NERVOUSNESS
< OBESITY
See Also: ANXIETY, TENSION, TREMBLING
See: FATNESS
< NEUTRALITY
< OBJECTS, MISCELLANEOUS
See: IMPARTIALITY
< OBLIVION
< NEWNESS
See: BLINDNESS, MEMORY
See: FRESHNESS, TIMELINESS/ UNTIMELINESS
< OBSCURITY
< NEWS See Also: GOSSIP, KNOWLEDGE
< NIGHT See Also: DARKNESS
< NIGHTMARES See: DREAM(S)
< NOISES See Also: IRRITABLENESS
< NOSE(S) See Also: FACIAL DETAILS
< NONSTALGIA See: MEMORY, SENTIMENT
< NOURISHMENT See: FOOD AND DRINK
See: VAGUENESS
< OBSERVATION See: SCRUTINY
< OBSOLESCENCE See: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS
< OBSTINANCY See: PERSISTENCE
< OBVIOUSNESS See Also: CLARITY, VISIBILITY
< OCEAN/OCEANFRONT See Also: SEASCAPES
< OCCUPATIONS See: DOCTORS, LAWYERS, PROFESSIONS
< ODOR See: SMELL
< NOVELS
< OLD
See: BOOKS
See: AGE
< NUMBNESS
< OPAQUENESS
See: RESERVE
See: VAGUENESS
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Open and Shut
< OPEN AND SHUT
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< PAINTINGS See: ART AND LITERATURE
< OPENNESS See: CANDOR
< OPERA See: MUSIC
< OPINION
< PALLOR See Also: FACIAL COLOR, GRAY, RED, WHITE
< PARENTAL LOVE See Also: PARENTHOOD
See Also: IDEAS
< PARENTHOOD
< OPPORTUNENESS
< PARTING
See: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS
< OPPORTUNITY See Also: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE, IMPOSSIBILITY
< OPTIMISM See: CHEERFULNESS
< ORANGE See: COLORS
< ORATORY See: SPEECHMAKING
< ORDER/DISORDER See: CLEANLINESS
< ORDINARINESS See: COMMONPLACE
See: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
< PASSION See Also: DESIRE, LOVE, SEX
< PAST, THE See Also: HISTORY, MEMORY
< PATIENCE
< PATRIOTISM See: BELIEFS
< PAUNCHINESS See: BODY, FATNESS, STOMACH
< PAUSE See Also: CAUTION
< PEACEFULNESS
< ORIGINALITY
See Also: CALMNESS
< OUTBURST
< PECULIARITY
See: BURST
See: STRANGENESS
< OUT OF PLACE
< PENETRATION
See: BELONGING
See: PERVASIVENESS
< PAIN
< PENNANTS
See Also: HEALTH
See: OBJECTS, MISCELLANEOUS
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Possibility
< PENSIVENESS
< PINK
See: THOUGHT
See Also: CHEEKS, COLORS, FACIAL COLOR
< PEOPLE, INTERACTION
< PITY
See Also: CROWDS, FRIENDSHIP, MEN AND WOMEN, RELATIONSHIPS
See Also: KINDNESS
< PLACES < PERCEPTIVENESS
See Also: CITY/STREETSCAPES, INSULTS
See: ALERTNESS, SENSITIVENESS
< PLAINNESS < PERMANENCE/IMPERMANENCE
See: SIMPLICITY
See Also: CONTINUITY
< PLANNING < PERPLEXITY
See: PURPOSEFULNESS
See: BEWILDERMENT
< PLAYS < PERSISTENCE
See: STAGE AND SCREEN
See Also: CLINGING, PURPOSEFULNESS
< PLEASURE < PERSONAL TRAITS
See Also: GAIETY, HAPPINESS, JOY
See Also: DULLNESS
< PLENTY < PERSONALITY PROFILES See Also: PERSONAL TRAITS
< PERVASIVENESS See Also: CLINGING
< PHYSICAL APPEARANCE See Also: ARM(S), ATTRACTIVENESS, BEAUTY, BODY, EYE(S), FACE(S), FATNESS, HAIR, HAND(S), THINNESS, UNATTRACTIVENESS
See: ABUNDANCE
< POETS/POETRY See Also: WRITERS/WRITING
< POISE See: BEARING
< POLITENESS See: MANNERS
< POLITICS/POLITICIANS
< PHYSICAL FEELINGS See Also: HEALTH, PAIN
< PONDS, RIVERS, AND STREAMS See Also: NATURE, SEASCAPES
< PHYSICIANS See: DOCTORS
< POPULARITY
< PICTURES
< POSSIBILITY
See: ART AND LITERATURE
See: OPPORTUNITY
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Posture
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< POSTURE
< PRICE
See Also: BEARING, BENT, STRAIGHTNESS
See: COST
< POVERTY
< PRIDE
See Also: ECONOMICS
< PROBABILITY < POWER
See: CERTAINTY
< POWERLESSNESS
< PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
See: HELPLESSNESS
< PRAISE
< PROCRASTINATION See: LINGERING
See: FLATTERY, WORDS OF PRAISE
< PRAISEWORTHINESS
< PROFANITY See: CURSES
See: VIRTUE
< PRAYER
< PROFESSIONS See Also: DOCTORS, LAWYERS
See: RELIGION
< PRECARIOUSNESS
< PROFICIENCY See: ABILITY
See: DANGER
< PRECISION
< PROFUSION See: ABUNDANCE
See: CORRECTNESS
< PREDICTABILITY
< PROGRESS See: GROWTH
See: CERTAINTY
< PREJUDICE
< PROLIFERATION See: SPREADING
See: INTOLERANCE
< PROMISE < PREPAREDNESS
See Also: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
< PRESENT, THE
< PROMPTNESS
< PRESERVATION
< PRONUNCIATION
See: PROTECTIVENESS
See: SPEECH PATTERNS
< PRETTINESS
< PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY
See: BEAUTY
See Also: MANNERS
< PREVENTION
< PROSE
See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
See: POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING
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Reflection
< PROSPERITY
< RAIN
See: RICHES, SUCCESS/FAILURE
See Also: WEATHER
< PROTECTIVENESS
< RANTING
See Also: WATCHFULNESS
See: ROARS
< PROTRUSION
< RAPIDITY
See Also: BELONGING, OBVIOUSNESS, VISIBILITY
See: SPEED
< PROVERBS
< RARITY See Also: ORIGINALITY
See: MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< PROXIMITY
< RASHNESS See: SPEED
See: CLOSENESS
< PRUDENCE
< READERS/READING See Also: BOOKS
See: CAUTION
< PSYCHOLOGY
< READINESS See: PREPAREDNESS
See: PROFESSIONS
< PUBLIC OPINION
< REALIZATION See Also: TRUTH
See: OPINION
< PUBLIC, THE
< REALNESS/UNREALNESS
See: POLITICS
< REAPPEARANCE
< PURITY
< REASON
See Also: VIRTUE
See: SENSE
< PURPLE
< RECOLLECTION
See: COLORS
See: MEMORY
< PURPOSEFULNESS
< RED
< PURSUIT
See Also: BLUSHES, CHEEKS, COLORS, HAIR, LIPS, MOUTH
< PUZZLEMENT
< REDUCTION
See: BEWILDERMENT
See: DECREASE, DISAPPEARANCE
< QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
< REFLECTION
See Also: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
See: THOUGHT
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Reform
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< REFORM
< RESENTMENT
See: CHANGE
See: ANGER
< REGRET
< RESERVE
See Also: CONSCIENCE
See Also: EMOTIONS, PERSONALITY TRAITS, REMOTENESS
< REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
< REJECTION See Also: ABANDONMENT
< RELATIONSHIPS See Also: MARRIAGE; MEN AND WOMEN; PARENTHOOD; PEOPLE, INTERACTION
< RELENTLESSNESS See: PERSISTENCE
< RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY See Also: FIRMNESS, STEADINESS
< RESIGNATION See: MEEKNESS
< RESPONSE See: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, WORD(S)
< RESPONSIBILITY See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
< RESTLESSNESS
< RESTRAINT See: CONFINEMENT, EMOTIONS
< RELIEF See: EMOTIONS
< RELIGION See Also: BELIEFS
< REMEDY See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
< REMORSE See: REGRET
< REMOTENESS See Also: RESERVE
< RENOWN See: FAME
< REPETITION
< RESULTS See: CAUSE AND EFFECT
< RETREAT See: DISAPPEARANCE, EXITS
< RETURN See: PAST, THE; REAPPEARANCE
< REVELRY See: GAIETY
< REVENGE See Also: BITTERNESS
< REVOLUTIONS See: POLITICS
See Also: CONTINUITY, DULLNESS
< RHETORIC < REPUTATION [32]
See: SPEECHMAKING, WORD(S)
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Scars
< RICHES
< ROUNDNESS
See Also: ABUNDANCE, FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE, MONEY, SUCCESS/FAILURE
See: SHAPE
< ROWDINESS See: NOISE
< RICHNESS
< RIDICULE
< RUDENESS See: MANNERS
See: INSULTS
< RIGHTEOUSNESS
< RUMOR See: GOSSIP
See: JUSTICE, VIRTUE
< RIGHTNESS
< RUNNING See Also: MOVEMENT(S), SPEED
See: CORRECTNESS, TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< RISING
< RUTHLESSNESS See: CRUELTY
See Also: BEARING, STANDING
< RISK
< SADNESS See Also: DEJECTION, EMOTIONS, GLOOM
See Also: DANGER
< SAFETY
< RIVERS
See Also: DANGER, RISK
See: PONDS, RIVERS, AND STREAMS
< ROAD SCENES
< SALES See: SUCCESS/FAILURE
See Also: NOISE, VEHICLES
< ROARS
< SARCASM See: HUMOR
See Also: SCREAMS
< ROBBERY
< SATISFACTION See: CONTENTMENT
See: DISHONESTY
< ROCKING AND ROLLING See Also: MOVEMENT(S), UNSTEADINESS, VIBRATION
< SAYINGS See: MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< SCANDAL See: REPUTATION, SHAME
< ROMANCE See: LOVE, MEN AND WOMEN
< SCARCITY See: RARITY
< ROOMS See Also: FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS, HOUSES
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< SCARS See: FACIAL DETAILS
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Scattering
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< SCATTERING
< SENSITIVENESS
See: DISPERSAL
See Also: KINDNESS
< SCIENCE
< SENTIMENT
See: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
< SCREAMS
< SEPARATION See: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
See Also: NOISE, ROARS
< SCRUPULOUSNESS
< SERENITY See: PEACEFULNESS
See: CORRECTNESS
< SCRUTINY See Also: INTENSITY
< SERIOUSNESS
< SERMONS See: SPEECHMAKING
< SEASCAPES See Also: NATURE; OCEAN/OCEANFRONT; PONDS, RIVERS, AND STREAMS
< SERVILITY
< SEASONS
< SEX
< SECRECY
See Also: ATTRACTIVENESS, BODY ORGANS, BREASTS, MEN AND WOMEN, SEXUAL INTERACTION, RELATIONSHIPS
< SEDATENESS See: SERIOUSNESS
See: MEEKNESS
< SEXUAL INTERACTION See Also: INSULTS
< SELF-CONFIDENCE See Also: PRIDE, VANITY
< SEXUALITY See: SEX
< SELF-CONCIOUSNESS See: DISCOMFORT, NATURALNESS
< SHADOW
< SELFISHNESS
< SHALLOWNESS See: IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< SENSATIONS See: EMOTIONS
< SHAME See Also: BLUSHES
< SENSE See Also: INTELLIGENCE
< SHAPE
< SENSELESSNESS
< SHARPNESS
See: ABSURDITY
See Also: PAIN, PARENTHOOD
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Slightness
< SHINING
< SIMILARITY
See Also: BRIGHTNESS; GLIMMER, GLITTER, AND GLOSS
See Also: DISSIMILARITY
< SIMILES < SHOCK See Also: CAUSE AND EFFECT, SURPRISE
< SHOULDERS See Also: BODY
< SHOUTS See: SCREAMS
< SHREWDNESS See: CLEVERNESS
< SHRIEKS See: SCREAMS
See: MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< SIMPLICITY See Also: EASE
< SIN See: EVIL
< SINCERETY See: CANDOR
< SINGING See Also: MUSIC
< SITTING
< SHUT
See Also: BEARING, IMMOBILITY
See: OPEN/SHUT
< SKEPTICISM
< SHYNESS
See: TRUST/MISTRUST
See Also: MEEKNESS, PERSONAL TRAITS
< SKILLS
< SICKNESS
See: ABILITY, ACCOMPLISHMENT
See: ILLNESS
< SKIN
< SIDEBURNS See: BEARD(S)
See Also: BALDNESS, COMPLEXION, FACIAL COLOR, FACIAL DETAILS, PALLOR, WRINKLES
< SIGHS
< SKY
See Also: GROANS AND WHISPERS
< SIGNIFICANCE
See Also: CLOUDS, MOON, SKY COLOR
< SKY COLOR
See: IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< SILENCE See Also: SECRECY
< SLANDER
< SLEEP See Also: DREAM(S), SNORE(S)
< SILLINESS See: ABSURDITY, FOOLISHNESS, IMPOSSIBILITY, STUPIDITY
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< SLIGHTNESS See: WEAKNESS
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Slimness
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< SLIMNESS
< SOLITUDE
See: THINNESS
See: ALONENESS
< SLOPPINESS
< SORROW
See: CARELESSNESS, ORDER/DISORDER
< SLOWNESS See Also: MOVEMENT(S)
< SMALLNESS
< SMELL See Also: AIR, SWEAT
See: GRIEF
< SOUL
< SOUNDNESS See Also: HEALTH
< SOUNDS See: NOISE
< SMILE See Also: BRIGHTNESS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS; GRINS; LAUGHTER
< SPEAKING
< SMOKE
< SPEECHLESSNESS
See: FIRE AND SMOKE
< SMOKING See: TOBACCO
< SMOOTHNESS
< SNORE(S) See Also: SLEEP
< SNOW
See Also: CONVERSATION, SPEECH PATTERNS,TALKATIVENESS
See: SILENCE
< SPEECHMAKING < SPEECH PATTERNS
< SPEED See Also: RUNNING
< SPIRIT
See Also: NATURE, WEATHER
See: COURAGE
< SOAP OPERA
< SPOILAGE
See Also: STAGE AND SCREEN
See: DISINTEGRATION
< SOCIABILITY/UNSOCIABILITY
< SPONTANEITY
See Also: BEHAVIOR
See: NATURALNESS
< SOCIETY
< SPORTS
< SOFTNESS
See Also: BASEBALL, BOXING AND WRESTLING, FOOTBALL, GOLF
< SOLIDITY
< SPREADING
See: FIRMNESS, STEADINESS, STRENGTH
See Also: GROWTH, PERVASIVENESS
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Style
< SPRIGHTLINESS
< STINGINESS
See: ACTIVENESS
See: THRIFT
< SPRING
< STOMACH
See: SEASONS
< STAGE AND SCREEN See Also: ACTING
< STALENESS See: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS
< STANDING See Also: BEARING, IMMOBILITY, PERSONALITY PROFILES, POSTURE
< STARES
See Also: BODY, FATNESS, SHAPE, THINNESS
< STOP See: PAUSE
< STORIES See Also: BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING
< STRAIGHTNESS See Also: POSTURE
< STRANGENESS
See Also: FROWNS, LOOKS
< STREETSCAPES < STARS
See: CITY/STREETSCAPES
< STARTING AND STOPPING
< STRENGTH
See: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, PAUSE
See Also: BODY, COURAGE, MUSCLES, TOUGHNESS
< STATELINESS See: BEARING
< STATISTICS See: FACTS
< STEADINESS
< STRUGGLE See Also: BEHAVIOR, FUTILITY, LIFE
< STUBBORNNESS See: PERSISTENCE
See Also: FIRMNESS
< STUDENTS
< STEALTH
See: EDUCATION
See: SECRECY
< STUPIDITY
See: BARRENNESS, EMPTINESS
See Also: ABSURDITY, DULLNESS, FOOLISHNESS, INSULTS, MIND
< STICKINESS
< STURDINESS
< STERILITY
See: CLINGING
See: FIRMNESS, STRENGTH
< STILLNESS
< STYLE
See: IMMOBILITY, PEACEFULNESS, SILENCE
See Also: CLOTHING
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Subservience
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< SUBSERVIENCE
< SYMMETRY
See: MEEKNESS
See: REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
< SUBTLTY
< SYMPATHY
See: TACT
< SUCCESS/FAILURE See Also: BUSINESS; GROWTH; PAST, THE
< SUDDENNESS See Also: ENTRANCES AND EXITS, SHOCK, SURPRISE
< SUMMER See: SEASONS
< SUN
See: KINDNESS, PITY
< TACT See Also: INSULTS
< TALENT See: ABILITY, ACCOMPLISHMENT
< TALKATIVENESS See Also: CONVERSATION
< TALLNESS
See Also: MOON, SKY, SUNSET
< TASTE < SUNSET
< SURPRISE
< TEACHERS/TEACHING See: EDUCATION
See Also: SHOCK, SUDDENNESS
< SURVIVAL
< TEARS See Also: CRYING
See: IMPOSSIBILITY, SUCCESS/FAILURE
< SUSPENSE See: EXCITEMENT
< SUSPICION See: TRUST/MISTRUST
< SWEARING See: CURSES, WORD(S)
< SWEAT
< TEDIUM See: BOREDOM, DULLNESS, REPETITION
< TEETH See Also: WHITE
< TEMPER See: ANGER
< TEMPERAMENT
See Also: SMELLS
See: PERSONAL TRAITS
< SWEETNESS
< TEMPTATION
See Also: PLEASURE, TASTE
See: ATTRACTION
< SWIMMING
< TENACITY
See: SPORTS
See: PERSISTENCE
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Travel
< TENDERNESS
< TIDINESS
See: AFFECTION, GENTLENESS, KINDNESS, LOVE
See: ORDER/DISORDER
< TENNIS
< TIGHTNESS See: FIRMNESS, TENSION, THRIFT
See: SPORTS
< TENSION
< TIME See Also: DAY, DEATH, LIFE
See Also: ANXIETY, NERVOUSNESS
< TENTATIVENESS See: UNCERTAINTY
< TERROR See: FEAR
< THEATER See: STAGE AND SCREEN
< THEORIES See: IDEAS
< THICKNESS See Also: ABUNDANCE
< THIGHS See: LEG(S)
< THINNESS
< TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS See Also: STALENESS
< TIREDNESS See: WEARINESS
< TOBACCO See Also: SMELLS
< TONGUE See Also: MOUTH, SHARPNESS
< TOUGHNESS
< TRADING See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS, SUCCESS/FAILURE
< TRAFFIC
See Also: BODY
See: ROAD SCENES, VEHICLES
< THOUGHTS
< TRAIL
See Also: IDEAS, INTELLIGENCE
See: PURSUIT
< THREATS
< TRANQUILITY
See: VIOLENCE
See: PEACEFULNESS
< THRIFT
< TRANSIENCE
< THROAT See: NECK
See Also: BREVITY, DEATH, LIFE
< TRANSPORTATION See: VEHICLES
< THUNDER AND LIGHTNING See Also: NATURE, WEATHER
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< TRAVEL [39]
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Trees
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< TREES
< UNCOMFORTABLENESS
See Also: LEAVES,NATURE
See: DISCOMFORT
< TREMBLING
< UNCONCIOUSNESS
See Also: ROCKING AND ROLLING, VIBRATION
See: NATURALNESS
< TRITENESS
< UNDEMONSTRATIVENESS See: COLDNESS
See: STALENESS
< TRIUMPH
< UNDERSTANDABILITY See: CLARITY
See: SUCCESS/FAILURE
< TROUBLES
< UNDERSTANDING See: KNOWLEDGE
See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
< TROUBLESOMENESS See: DIFFICULTY
< UNDESIRABILITY
< UNEMPLOYMENT See: WORK
< TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< TRUST/MISTRUST
< UNEXPECTEDNESS See: SUDDENNESS, SURPRISE
See Also: UNCERTAINTY
< TRUTH
< UNFAIRNESS See: INTOLERANCE
See Also: CANDOR, HONESTY
< UNFRIENDLINESS < TURNING AND TWISTING
See: SOCIABILITY
< TYRANNY
< UNGRACIOUSNESS
See: POWER
See: MANNERS
< UMBRELLAS
< UNHAPPINESS
See: OBJECTS, MISCELLANEOUS
See: DEJECTION, DISCONTENT, GLOOM
< UNATTRACTIVENESS
< UNHELPFULNESS
See Also: UNDESIRABILITY
See: USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
< UNAWARENESS
< UNIQUENESS
See: BLINDNESS
See: ORIGINALITY
< UNCERTAINTY
< UNKINDNESS
See Also: FATE
See: CRUELTY
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Victory
< UNLIKELIHOOD
< UP-TO-DATENESS
See: IMPOSSIBILITY
See: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS
< UNNATURALNESS
< URGENCY
See: NATURALNESS
< UNPLEASANTNESS See: UNDESIRABILITY
< UNPREDICTABILITY See: SURPRISES, UNCERTAINTY
< UNPROFITABILITY See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS
< UNREALITY
See: IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS See Also: FUTILITY, NECESSITY
< VAGUENESS
< VALOR See: COURAGE
< VALUE
See: REALNESS/UNREALNESS
See: IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE
< UNRELIABILITY
< VANITY
See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
See Also: PRIDE
< UNRESPONSIVENESS
< VARIETY
See: COLDNESS, REMOTENESS, RESERVE
See: DIVERSENESS
< UNSTEADINESS
< VEHICLES
See Also: MOVEMENT(S)
< UNTIDINESS See: ORDER/DISORDER
< UNTIMELINESS See: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS
< UNTRUSTWORTHINESS See: TRUST/MISTRUST
< UNTRUTH
See Also: ROAD SCENES
< VEHICLES, OPERATION OF
< VERBOSENESS See: TALKATIVENESS
< VEXATION See: ANGER, IRRITABLENESS/IRRITATING
< VIBRATION
See: LIES AND LIARS
See Also: TREMBLING
< UNWELCOMENESS
< VICE
See: UNDESIRABILITY
See: EVIL
< UPRIGHTNESS
< VICTORY
See: POSTURE, STRAIGHTNESS
See: SUCCESS/FAILURE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Vigilance
TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
< VIGILANCE
< VOTERS
See: ALERTNESS, WATCHFULNESS
See: POLITICS
< VIGOR
< VULGARITY
See: ENTHUSIASM, STRENGTH
See: TASTE
< VIOLENCE
< VULNERABILITY
See Also: ADVANCING, BEHAVIOR
< VIRTUE See Also: ACCOMPLISHMENT, MORALITY, PURITY
< VISIBILITY See Also: CLARITY, OBVIOUSNESS, PROTRUSION
< VIVIDNESS See: BRIGHTNESS
< VOCATION See: PROFESSIONS
< VOICE(S) See Also: CRYING; GROANS AND WHISPERS; SINGING; VOICE, EFFECT OF; VOICE, HARSH; VOICE, MONOTONOUS; VOICE, MUSIC-RELATED; VOICE, SOFT; VOICE, WEAK
< VOICE, EFFECT OF
< VOICE, HARSH
See: SENSITIVENESS
< WALKING See Also: AWKWARDNESS, CAUTION, MOVEMENT(S), RUNNING
< WAR See Also: ARMY
< WARMTH See: COMFORT, HEAT
< WASTE
< WATCHFULNESS See Also: ATTENTION, PROTECTIVENESS, SCRUTINY
< WATER See: OCEAN/OCEANFRONT; PONDS, RIVERS, AND STREAMS; SEASCAPES
< WEAKNESS
< WEALTH See: RICHES
See Also: HARSHNESS
< WEARINESS
< VOICE, MONOTONOUS
< WEATHER
< VOICE, MUSIC-RELATED
See Also: CLOUDS, COLDNESS, FOG, HEAT, MIST, RAIN, SUN, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING, WIND
< VOICE, SOFT
< WEDDINGS < VOICE, WEAK [42]
See: MARRIAGE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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TABLE OF THEMATIC CATEGORIES
Zeal
< WEIGHT
< WORD(S)
See: HEAVINESS, LIGHTNESS
See Also: SPEAKING; WORDS, DEFINED; WORDS, EFFECT OF; WORDS OF PRAISE; WRITERS/WRITING
< WELCOMENESS See: DESIRABILITY
< WORDS, DEFINED
< WELL-BEING See: HEALTH
< WORDS, EFFECT OF
< WHISPERS
< WORDS OF PRAISE
See: GROANS AND WHISPERS
< WHITE
< WORK
See Also: COLORS, COMPLEXION, PALLOR
See Also: ATTENTION, BOREDOM, DOCTORS, LAWYERS, PROFESSIONS
< WICKEDNESS
< WORLD
See: EVIL
See Also: LIFE
< WILDNESS
< WORRY
See: FEROCITY
See: AGITATION, ANXIETY
< WIND
< WOUND
See Also: WEATHER
See: PAIN
< WINNING
< WRINKLES
See: SPORTS, SUCCESS/FAILURE
See Also: COMPLEXION, FOREHEAD, SKIN
< WINTER
< WRITERS/WRITING
See: SEASONS
See Also: POETS/POETRY
< WISDOM
< YEARNING
See Also: EDUCATION, KNOWLEDGE
See: DESIRE
< WISH
< YELLOW
See: DESIRE
See Also: COLORS, HAIR
< WIT
< YELLS
See Also: CLEVERNESS, HUMOR, WISDOM
See: SCREAMS
< WIVES
< YOUTH
See: MARRIAGE
See Also: AGE
< WOMEN
< ZEAL
See: HEART(S), MEN AND WOMEN
See: AMBITION, ENTHUSIASM
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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> The Similes
< ABANDONMENT
Discard like a bad dream —Anon
See Also: ALONENESS, BEARING, FRIENDSHIP, REJECTION Abandoned as a used Kleenex —Anon Abandoned, like the waves we leave behind us —Donald G. Mitchell Cast off friends, as a stripper her clothes —Anon Cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack —Oliver Goldsmith (My youth has been) cast aside like a useless cigar stump —Anton Chekov Chuck me in the gutter like an empty purse —Edith Wharton Deserted as a playwright after the first night of an unsuccessful play —Somerset Maugham Deserted as a cemetery —Anon Desolate … as the dark side of the moon —Pat Conroy
Divest himself of his profoundest convictions and his beliefs as though they were a pair of old shoes whose soles had come loose and were flapping in the rain —Irving Stone
Discard like a withered leaf, since it has served its day —John Gould Fletcher (What have we come to when people … could be) discarded … like an old beer cans —May Carton Discarded … like used bandages —Louis MacNeice
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Feeling quite lost … like a fly that has had its head taken off —Luigi Pirandello Felt stranded, as if some solid security has left him, as if he had, recklessly and ruthlessly, tossed away the compass which for years had kept him straight and true —Carolyn Slaughter Leaving me alone like a shag on a rock —John Malcolm Left like balloons with the air let out —Gloria Norris Left high and dry like a shipwreck in a drained reservoir —Thomas McGuire Like a little lost lamb I roamed about —Leo Robin lyric “A Little Girl from Little Rock” from the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Neglected as the moon by day —Jonathan Swift People had fallen away like veils —Susan Richards Shreve Put off [as religious faith] quite simply, like a cloak that he no longer needed —Somerset Maugham
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Ability Shed [adult reality for past] like a snake sheds an old and worn skin —Guy Vanderhaeghe Vanderhaeghe used the snake comparison to describe someone shedding the reality of the present for the past Stood like a forgotten broom in the corner —Eudora Welty
< ABILITY See Also: ACCOMPLISHMENT Able to absorb punishment as open buds absorb the dew —Grantland Rice The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket —Sir William Temple The ability to make a great individual fortune … is a sort of sublimated instinct in a way like the instinct of a rat-terrier for smelling out hidden rats —Irvin S. Cobb
THE SIMILES 19, 1986 Faber’s simile pertained to the basic law that will govern Hong Kong in the future. His [Brendan Sullivan’s] management (of Oliver North) is like one of those pictures that museum directors settle for labeling “Workshop of Veronese” because the hand of the master is not there for certain but his touch and teaching inarguably are —Murray Kempton, New York Post, December 12, 1986 Kempton’s simile describes the legal abilities of a member in the Edward Bennett Williams law firm, representing Colonel North during the Iran weapons scandal. I can walk like an ox, run like a fox, swim like an eel … make love like a mad bull —David Crockett, speech to Congress Instinct as sure as sight —Edgar Lee Masters Native ability without education is like a tree without fruit —Aristippus
Being creative without talent is a bit like being a perfectionist and not being able to do anything right —Jane Wagner
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study —Francis Bacon
Chose [people] with swift skill, like fruit tested for ripeness with a pinch —Paul Theroux
Played bridge like an inspired card sharp —Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(My wife … ) cooks like Escoffier on wheels —Moss Hart Cuts like a saw through soft pine through the chatter of freeloaders, time-wasting delegations —Stephen Longstreet In Longstreet’s novel, Ambassador, from which this is extracted, the efficiency tactics are diplomatic. Efficient as a good deer rifle —Bruce DeSilva Functioned as smoothly as a hospital kitchen —Laurie Colwin Resourceful and energetic as a street dog —James Mills Having communists draft the law for the most capitalist society on earth is like having a blind man guide you through the Louvre museum —Mark Faber, Wall Street Journal, June
[46]
To see him [Chief Justice Hughes] preside was like witnessing Toscanini lead an orchestra —Justice Felix Frankfurter Skilled … like a mischievous and thieving animal —Émile Zola Skillful as jugglers —Daphne du Maurrier Talent is like a faucet. While it is open, one must write (paint, etc.) —Jean Anouilh, New York Times, October 2, 1960 Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious —Marguerite Countess Blessington You must work at the talent as a sculptor works at stone, chiseling, plotting, rounding, edging and making perfect —Dylan Thomas
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THE SIMILES
< ABSORBABILITY Absorbed them [the influences of women around whom I grew up] as I would chloroform on a cloth laid against my face —Vivian Gornick Absorbent as a sponge —Anon Absorbent as blotting paper —Anon Absorbent as cereal soaking up cream —Anon It [a huge Christmas tree] soaked up baubles and tinsel like melting snow —Truman Capote
< ABSURDITY See Also: DIFFICULTY, FUTILITY Absurd as a monkey in a dinner jacket —Anon Absurd as an excuse —Anon Absurd … as expecting a drowning man to laugh —German proverb Time and use often transform proverbs into similes. In this case, the original proverb was “A fool will laugh when he is drowning.” Absurd as hiring a street vendor to run major corporation —Anon Absurd as looking for hot water under the ice —Latin proverb
Absurdity Absurd … like jumping into the water for fear of the rain —French proverb Absurd, like using a guillotine to cure dandruff —Clare Booth Luce Absurd … like vowing never to be sick again —Lynne Sharon Schwartz As logical as trying to put out a fire with applications of kerosene —Tallulah Bankhead Attending the Gerald R. Ford Symposium on Humor and the Presidency is sort of like attending the Ayatollah Khomeini Symposium on the sexual revolution —Pat Paulsen, at September 19, 1986 symposium in Grand Rapids, Mich. Bizarre and a little disconcerting, like finding out that the Mona Lisa was a WAC —Jonathan Valin (His … ) body so sleek with health, that his talk of death seemed ludicrous, like the description of a funeral by a painted clown —Christopher Isherwood Comparing [Ronald] Reagan with [Franklin D.] Roosevelt is like comparing [Peanuts cartoonist] Charles Schultz to Rembrandt —Mike Sommer
Absurd as mathematics without numbers —Anon
Incongruous as a mouse dancing with an elephant —Anon
Absurd as to expect a harvest in the dead of winter —Robert South
Incongruous as a priest going out with a prostitute —Anon
Absurd as to instruct a rooster in the laying of eggs —H. L. Mencken
Looks as well as a diamond necklace about a sow’s neck —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs
Absurd as … to put bread in a cold oven —Latin proverb Absurd as … to put water in a basket —Danish proverb
Makes about as much sense … as it would to put army shoes on a … French poodle —William Diehl
Absurd as trying to drink from a colander —Latin proverb
Ridiculous as monkeys reading books —Delmore Schwartz
Absurd … like baking snow in the oven —German proverb The simile has evolved from “he baked snow in the oven.”
Stupid and awkward, like chimpanzees dressed up in formal gowns —Scott Spencer
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
That’s like Castro calling Tito a dictator —John Wainwright
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Abundance
THE SIMILES
You just can’t go around thinking that McDonald’s food is going to be steaming hot. It’s like expecting the hamburger to be served on a French roll —Ann Beattie
Ladled out fines like soup to breadline beggars —Bernard Malamud In Malamud’s novel The Natural the simile refers to fines issued by a baseball coach to rule-breaking players.
< ABUNDANCE
Lush as a Flemish oil painting —Anon
See Also: CLOSENESS, GROWTH, SPREADNG Abound like street vendors on a Spring day —Anon
Numerous as a bank or trust company’s vice-presidents —New York Tribune, January 6, 1921 With the lean-and-mean management style coming into vogue since the mid-eighties this long enduring simile may well be headed for obsolescence.
Abound like blades of grass —George Sandys Abundant as the light of the sun —Thomas Carlyle Abundant as the salt in the sea —Anon Abundant as air —Anon Modern day life has added “Abundant as polluted air and water.” Abundant as June graduates in search of jobs —Anon Abundant as poverty —Anon Ample as the wants of man —William Wadsworth Longfellow As full as fruit tree in spring blossom —Janet Flanner The simile refers to a letter filled with good news. As stuffed (with idle hopes and false illusions) as any Whitsun goose crammed with bread and spices —George Garrett As stuffed with ideas as a quilt is with batting —Anon Bountiful as April rains —William Cowper Bountiful as the showers that fall into the Spring’s green bosom —James Shirley Bulging like a coin purse fallen on the ground —D. Snodgrass [Dreams] came like locusts —Isaac Bashevis Singer (The big racket money) comes in like water from a pipe in your bathroom, a steady stream that never stops flowing —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
[48]
(Children appearing here and there … ) numerous as fireflies —Alice McDermott Overdo … like a host who stuffs his guests with too many hors’ d’oeuvres —Tom Shales, Public Radio, January 10, 1986 The simile referred to the directorial touches used in the movie The Color Purple Plentiful as blackberries —William Shakespeare. Henry IV, Part II Plentiful as New Year’s Eve predictions and resolutions —Elyse Sommer Plentiful as oak leaves, as plentiful as the fireflies that covered the lawn at evening —Ellen Gilchrist Plentiful as tabby cats —W. S. Gilbert Pour … over everything like ketchup —Gore Vidal President Art Hochstater reminiscing about political campaigning in the days when what made a speech was the frequent references to God. Stuffed like a Strasbourg goose Strasbourg geese are over-fed and under-exercised in order to obtain the largest possible liver for making pate. Being stuffed like a Strasbourg goose is linked to any kind of excess. They’re like plums on a tree —H.E. Bates Bates compared the abundance of plums on a tress to an abundance of admirers. Thick as autumnal leaves —John Milton
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THE SIMILES Thick as fleas —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Some variations from the American South: “Thick as fleas on a fat pup” “thick as flies on flypaper.” [The Reports came in] thick as hail —William Shakespeare, Macbeth (You have fallen into ripeness) thick as honey —Marge Piercy Thick as Japanese beetles —Herman Wouk Wouk’s simile from Inside, Outside refers to the behavior of people working for the president of the United States. (Eyelashes) thick as June grass —Elizabeth Spencer Thick as summer stars —William Blake
Acting Like a hog he does no good till he dies? —Thomas Fuller Rise to the occasion like a trout to the hook —Anon Skilled and coordinated as an NFL backfield —James Mills Something positive had been accomplished, like wrapping up a package in smooth paper, firm, taut, with a tight knot —Belva Plain (Slowly he crept upon the heart of Manhattan, his) talent poised like a knife —Scott Spencer To watch him is like watching a graceful basketball player sink shot after shot —Anon
< ACCUMULATION See: GROWTH
Thick as buttercups in June —Henry James Thick as … freckles —George Garrett In his novel Death of the Fox, Garrett refers specifically to the freckles of Sir Francis Drake.
< ACCURACY
Thick as the green leaves of a garden —Henry James
< ACCUSATION
< ACCEPTABILITY See: BELONGING
< ACCESSIBILITY See: AVAILABILITY, COURTESY
< ACCIDENT See: FATE
< ACCOMPLISHMENT See Also: ABILITY, CLEVERNESS, SUCCESS/ FAILURE Accomplishment and authority hang on him like a custom-tailored suit —Alvin Boretz Encased in talent like a uniform —W. H. Auden He uses irony as a surgeon uses a scalpel … with the same skill and to the same effect —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: CORRECTNESS
See: CRITICISM
< ACTING Acting is like letting your pants down; you’re exposed —Paul Newman Acting is like prize fighting. The downtown gyms are smelly, but that’s where the champions are —Kirk Douglas Acting is like making love. It’s better if your partner is good —Jeremy Irons Acting is like roller skating. Once you know how to do it, it is neither stimulating nor exciting —George Sanders Being given good material is like being assigned to bake a cake and having the batter made for you —Rosalind Russell The body of an actor is like a well in which experiences are stored, then tapped when needed —Simone Signoret
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Actions
< ACTIONS See Also: BEHAVIOR, CAUTION, LEAPING, JUMPING, MOVEMENT(S), VIOLENCE Acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming —B.C. Forbes The actions of men are like the index of a book; they point out what is most remarkable in them —Heinrich Heine
THE SIMILES Trying to shake off the sun as a dog would shake off the sea —James Dickey The vilest deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air —Oscar Wilde
< ACTIVENESS
[Meaningless] Actions that seemed like a charade played behind thick glass —Franz Werfel
See Also: ALERTNESS, BEHAVIOR, BUSINESS, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM, EXCITEMENT, MOVEMENT(S), PERSONALITY PROFILES About as active as a left-over fly in January —Anon
All action is involved in imperfection, like fire and smoke —Bhagavad Gita
About as animated as a suit on a hanger —Elyse Sommer
Best understood not as a sharply defined operation, like beheading, but as a whole range of activities, more like cooking —James R. Kincaid, “Plagiarist’s Tale,” New Yorker, August 11, 2011
(This region was as) active as a compost heap —Julia O’Faolain
Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year —Sir John Denham
Driven to make a move, like a dilatory chess player prodded on by an impatient opponent —Harvey Swados Evil deeds are like perfume, difficult to hide —George Herzog A good deed will stick out with an inclination to spread like the tail of a peacock —Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms Most of us shell our days like peanuts —Amor Towles, Rules of Civility Our deeds are like children born to us; they live and act apart from our own will —George Eliot Our least deed, like the young of the land crab, wends its way to the sea of cause and effect as soon as born, and makes a drop there to eternity —Henry David Reprehensible actions are like over-strong brandies; you cannot swallow them at a draught —Victor Hugo The acts of my life swarm down the street like Puerto Rican kids —William Meredith
[50]
Active as the sun —Isaac Watts Alive as a vision of life to be —Algernon Charles Swinburne (He looks) dead as a stump —Pat Conroy In Conroy’s Novel, The Prince of Tides, a character hearing someone described as above disagrees with another simile: “On the contrary, I think he looks as though he could rise up and whistle a John Philip Sousa march.” Frisky as a Frisbee —Helen Frisky as a colt —Geoffrey Chaucer He was behaving as though the party were his: like an energetic octopus, he was shaking martinis, making introductions, manipulating the phonograph —Truman Capote He is like a moving light, never still. He has the temperature and metabolism of a bird —Joy Williams He [James Cagney] was like fireworks going off —Television obituary, 1986 Lively as a boy, kind like a fairy godfather —Robert Louis Stevenson Lively as a weasel —Wallace Stegner Lusty as June —Wallace Stevens
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THE SIMILES
Advancing
Mechanically animated, like the masterwork of some fiendishly inventive undertaker —Sharon Sheehe Stark
< ADMIRATION
Pert as a sparrow —Walker Percy
< ADULTERY
(She had) rolled up her sleeves with all the vigor of a first-class cook confronting a brand-new kitchen —Mary McCarthy
See: MARRIAGE
She is active and strong as little lionesses —William James
See Also: ENTRANCES AND EXITS, MOVEMENT(S) Advanced like armies —Anon This simile is used to describe forward sweeps in a figurative as well as literal sense. For example, book critic Anatole Broyard used the simile about William Faulkner’s sentences in a New York Times Book Review on May 17, 1987.
From a letter to James’ family, describing the energy of a Dresden women, July 24, 1867. She was like a strong head wind —Marguerite Young Simmering … like a coal fire in the Welsh mines —Marvin Kittman about British actor Roy Marsden whose popularity thus simmers “in the collective unconscious of the American public” and bursts into flame whenever he makes an appearance in a new British import, Newsday, March 27, 1987 Sprightly as a Walt Disney cricket —Jean Thompson Tireless as a spider —Eudora Welty Vibrant as an E string —Carl Van Vechten We were blazing through our lives like comets through the sky —William Finn, from the song “When the Earth Stopped,” Elegies: A Song Cycle
< ACTORS See: STAGE AND SCREEN
< ADAPTABILITY See: BELONGING, FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY She’d taken to the suburbs like an actress getting into character. —Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I Leave You
See: FLATTERY, WORDS OF PRAISE
< ADVANCING
(The terrible old miser) advanced, like the hour of death to a criminal —Honoré de Balzac Advance like the shadow death —John Ruskin Approached … as stealthily as a poacher stalking a hind —Donald Seaman Bearing down like a squad of tactical police —Marge Piercy Bearing down like a tugboat busily dragging a fleet of barges —Frank Swinnerton Came on like a last reel of a John Wayne movie —Line from L.A. Law, television drama segment, 1987 Came [toward another person] … like a tidal wave running toward the coast —Isak Dinesen Came with slow steps like a dog who exhibits his fidelity —Honoré de Balzac Come down, like a flock of hungry corbies, upon them —George Garrett Garrett is comparing the corbies to a group of beggars. Come like a rolling storm —Beryl Markham
< ADJUSTMENT
Coming after me … like a wave —Calder Willingham
See: FLEXIBILTY/INFLEXIBILITY, HABIT
Coming at him like a fullback —Wallace Stegner
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Advantageousness
THE SIMILES
(She’d seen it) coming like a red caboose at the end of a train —Denis Johnson
Slid forward slowly as an alligator —Rudyard Kipling
(Cancer) coming like a train —William H. Gass
(He could hear the roar of darkness) sweeping toward him like a fist —Jay McInerney
Coming like a truck —James Crumley Here the strong advance describes an aggressive woman (People) converged upon them, like a stream of ants —Hortense Calisher (Faith’s father) descended … like a storm —Charles Johnson Descend on me like age —Margaret Atwood Forges ahead, lashing over the wet earth like a whipcrack —T. Coraghessan Boyle Glide toward them, as softly and slyly as a fly on a windowpane —Donald Seaman was upon them like a sun-flushed avalanche —Frank Swinnerton Invade like weeds, everywhere but slowly —Margaret Atwood Leaned forward like a magnificent bird of prey about to swallow its victim whole —Mike Fredman Like a figurehead on the prow of a foundering ship his head and torso pressed forward —John Updike Like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering, out came the children running —Robert Browning Moved forward [towards an attractive woman] like so many iron filings to a magnet —J. B. Priestley (He was) moving toward me like a carnivorous dinosaur advancing on a vegetarian sibling —Joan Hess Pressing forward like the wind —Sir Walter Scott
Swooped like chickens scrambling for a grain of corn —Aharon Megged Went firmly on as if propelled —Stephen Crane
< ADVANTAGEOUSNESS See Also: COST Beneficial … like water to a garden —Anon Benefits, like bread, soon become stale —Caroline Forne Benefits, like flowers, please most when they are fresh —George Herbert Free [things] … free as a well to get into, but like a rat trap, not exactly free to get out of —Josh Billings Billings wrote in a phonetic dialect. Here’s the dialect version of the above: “I hav found a grate menny things in this wurld that was free —free az a well tew git into, but like a rat trap, not edzackly free tu git out ov.” A good deal … like trading an apple for an orchard —Anon The opposite of this is a German proverb: “Like trading the hen for the egg.” Like parenthood, you bid [at an auction], then see what you’ve got —John Ciardi Privileges she could list as a prisoner might count out the days of his sentence —Margaret Sutherland
< ADVERSARY An adversary as easily wiped out as writing on a chalkboard —Elyse Sommer
Pushed forward like the nervous antennae of a large insect —Rita Mae Brown
Being in the same room with the two men was like dropping in on a reunion of Capulets and Montagues —P. G. Wodehouse
[An odor] Roll up … like fog in a valley —C.D.B. Bryan
A dead enemy is as good as a cold friend —German proverb
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THE SIMILES Fill me with strength against those who … like water held in the hands would spill me —Louis MacNeice
< ADVERSITY See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< ADVERTISING See Also: BUSINESS Commercials on television are similar to sex and taxes; the more talk there is about them the less likely they are to be curbed —Jack Gould, New York Times, October 20, 1963 Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does —Stewart Henderson Britt, New York Herald-Tribune, October 30, 1956 A good ad should be like a good sermon: It must not only comfort the afflicted, it also must afflict the comfortable —Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
< ADVICE See Also: FRIENDSHIP, FUTILITY
Affection Good advice is like a tight glove; it fits the circumstances, and it does not fit other circumstances —Charles Reade His (Ariel Sharon’s) advice on that subject (Lebanon 1984-1985) … was akin to a man with seven traffic accidents opening a driving school —Abba Eban, New York Times, February, 1986 It [excellent advice] is a good deal like giving a child a dictionary to learn a language with —Henry James A proposal is like a flashlight. It’s completely useless in the spotlight, but in the shadows it can do lots of good —Professor Steven Carvell, Wall Street Journal, December 11,1986 Professor Carvell’s simile was specific to a proposal for investment research. Telling a runner he can’t run … is a bit like being advised not to breathe —Thomas Rogers on runner Fred Lebow’s being so advised for medical reasons, New York Times, 1986 To heed bad advice is like eating poisoned candy —Anon To listen to the advice of a treacherous friend, is like drinking poison from a golden cup —Demophilus
Advice after an evil is done is like medicine after death —Danish proverb It’s quite common to substitute the word “mischief” for “evil.”
< AFFABILITY
Advice is like kissing: it costs nothing and is a pleasant thing to do —Josh Billings
< AFFECTION
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls … the deeper it sinks into the mind —Samuel Taylor Coleridge Advice, like water, takes the form of the vessel it is poured into —Punch, August 1, 1857
See: AVAILABILITY, COURTESY, FRIENDSHIP
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, LOVE Affectionate as a miser toward his money —Anon (She had an) affection for her children almost like a cool governess —D.H. Lawrence
The advice of old age gives light without heat, like winter sun —Marquis de Luc de Clapiers Vauvenargues
Affection is the youth of the heart, and thought is the heart’s maturity —Kahil Gibran Gibran completed the simile with “but oratory is its senility.”
Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take —Josh Billings
Affection, like melancholy, magnifies trifles —Leigh Hunt
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Afflictions Affection, like spring flowers, breaks through the most frozen ground at last —Jeremy Bentham Affection, like the nut within the shell, wants freedom —Dion Boucicault Affection or love that … intended for someone else and spilled accidentally like a bottle of ink under a dragging sleeve —Diane Wakoski Affections are like slippers; they will wear out —Edgar Saltus The affections, like conscience, are rather to be led than driven —Thomas Fuller Her cowlike, awkward affection surrounding him like a moist fog —Hank Searls
THE SIMILES Age, like a cage, will enclose him —Alastair Reid Age, like distance, lends a double charm —Oliver Wendell Holmes Age like winter weather … age like winter bare —William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 73,” The Passionate Pilgrim These comparisons of age to the weather are alternated with you and the weather similes. Age, like woman, requires fit surroundings —Ralph Waldo Emerson Ageless as the sun —Algernon Charles Swinburne
The human affections, like the solar heat, lose their intensity as they depart from the center —Alexander Hamilton
The age of man resembles a book: infancy and old age are the blank leaves; youth, the preface, and man the body or most important portion of life’s volume —Edward Parsons Day
My affection has no bottom, like the Bay of Portugal —William Shakespeare The shorter, more commonly used “Affection is like a bottomless well” was more than likely inspired by this comparison from “As You Like It.”
(Each year in me) ages as quickly as lilac in May —F. D. Reeve The simile marks the opening of a poem entitled “Curriculum Vitae.”
She was like a cat in her fondness for nearness, for stroking, touching, nestling —Katherine Anne Porter
< AFFLICTIONS See: HEALTH, PAIN
< AFFLUENCE See: RICHES
< AGE See Also: LIFE, MANKIND, YOUTH Age covered her like a shawl to keep her warm —Rose Tremain Age … indeterminate as a nun —Sharon Sheehe Stark Age is a sickness, and youth is an ambush —John Donne Age is like love, it cannot be hid —Thomas Dekker
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Antique as the statues of the Greeks —Edward Bulwer-Lytton As a white candle in a holy place, so is the beauty of an aged face —Joseph Campbell At middle age the soul should be opening up like a rose, not closing up like a cabbage —John Andrew Holmes At thirty-nine, the days grow shorter, and night kneels like a rapist on the edge of your bed —Richard Selzer At twenty man is like a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty nothing at all —Valtasar Gracian Awareness [of one’s own age] comes … like a slap in the eye —Ingrid Bergman, on seeing a friend no longer young Being seventy-five means you sometimes get up in the morning and feel like a bent hairpin —Hume Cronyn, “Sixty Minutes” interview with Mike Wallace, April 12, 1987
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THE SIMILES He could account for his age as a man might account for an extraordinary amount of money he finds has slipped through his fingers —John Yount In his novel, Hardcastle, Yount expands on the Simile as follows: “Sure, he could think back and satisfy himself that nothing was lost, but merely spent. Yet the odd notion persists that, if he knew just how to do it, he might shake himself awake and discover that he is young after all.” Grow old before my eyes … as if time beat down on her like rain in a thunderstorm, every second a year —Erich Maria Remarque He had reached the time of life when Alps and cathedrals become as transient as flowers —Edith Wharton
Age Awful Discontents,” New York Times, March 17, 2012 Old age is a tyrant which forbids the pleasures of youth on pain of death —François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld Old age is false as Egypt is, and, like the wilderness, surprises —Babette Deutsch Old age is like an opium-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re board there’s nothing you can do —Golda Meir, quoted on being over 70 by Oriana Fallaci, L’Europe, 1973
He who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer’s booth —Arthur Schopenhauer
Old age is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and dying as on a battlefield —Muriel Spark
How earthy old people become … moldy as the gravel —Henry David Thoreau
Old Age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young —Fred Astaire
Old as Methuselah —Seventeenth century proverb This has inspired many variations including another cliché “As old as the hills,” generally attributed to Sir Walter Scott’s The Monastery and Dickens’ David Copperfield.
Old age is rather like fatigue, except that you cannot correct it by relaxing or taking a vacation —B.F. Skinner and M.E. Vaughan
I feel age like an icicle down my back —Dyson Carter A man of fifty looks old as Santa Claus to a girl of 20 —William Feather A man’s as old as his arteries —Dr. Pierre J. G. Cabanis Most old men are like old trees, past bearing themselves, will suffer no young plants to flourish beneath them —Alexander Pope
Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go —B.F. Skinner & M.E. Vaughan Old age took her [Queen Elizabeth] by surprise, like a frost —Anon Old as a garment the moths shall eat up —The Holy Bible/Isaiah Old as a hieroglyph —John Berryman Old as civilization —Morley Safer, “60 Minutes” segment on torture, November 9, 1986
My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kind —William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Old as death —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
My body … continues to be a good sport. Provided my marvelous doctor pumps steroids into my hip or spine when needed, it runs along on the leash like a nondescript mutt and wags its tail —Louis Begley, “Age and Its
Old as the sun —Slogan, Sun Insurance Co.
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Old as God —Delmore Schwartz
Old as history —Slogan, Anheuser-Busch beer (I’m as) old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth —Jonathan Swift
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Aggression (Made her feel) older than coal —Joseph Wambaugh The old man is like a candle before the wind —Hilda Doolittle An old man, like a spider, can never make love without beating his own death watch —Charles Caleb Colton The old man who is loved is winter with flowers —German proverb (The Jewish women were as … ) old as nature, as round as the earth —Thomas Wolfe (The problem now is as) old as realism —Max Apple Old as stone —Marge Piercy Old as the most ancient of cities and older —Saul Bellow Old women and old men … huddle like misers over their bag of life —Randall Jarrell Some men mellow with age, like wine; but others get still more stringent, like vinegar —Henry C. Rowland The span of his seventy-five years had acted as a magic bellows —the first quarter century had blown him full with life, and the last had sucked it all back —F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE SIMILES
< AGILITY See Also: MOVEMENT(S), SPEED, TURNING AND TWISTING, WALKING Agile as a fish —William Humphrey Agile as a monkey —Alexandre Dumas, Pere Agile as squirrels —Luigi Pirandello As graceful as an elk, as nimble as a fawn —Leo Robin, “I’m A ’Tingle, I’m A ’Glow,” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Moved) as lightly as a bubble —Hans Christian Andersen As nimble as a cow in a cage —Thomas Fuller Feet as fleet as Mercury’s —Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal MO,” from the musical Damn Yankees Deft as spiders’ catenation —C. S. Lewis Frisky and graceful as young lambs at play —George Garrett Graceful as joy —Babette Deutsch Graceful as a panther —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodby Graceful as a premiere danseuse —Natascha Wodin
To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps —William Wadsworth Longfellow
Graceful as a Stillson wrench —Diane Wakoski
Wrinkled and weathered like old leather, emphysemic and broken down, like hard times —Jamie M. Saul, Light of Day
Graceful figure … which was as tough as hickory and as flexible as a whip —Thomas Wolfe
Graceful as the swallow’s flight —Julian Grenfell
Years steal fire from the mind as vigor from the limb —Lord Byron
He could leap like a grasshopper and melt into the tree-tops like a monkey —G. K. Chesterton
You know you’re getting older when every day seems like Monday —Kitty Carlisle, quoting her mother, 1985 television interview
Light-footed as a dancer waiting in the wings —Vita Sackville-West
Youth is like a dream, middle age a forlorn hope, and old age a nostalgia with a pervasive flavor of newly turned earth —Gerald Kersh
(Her tiny body as) limber as a grass —Jean Stafford Lithe as a swan —Richard Ford
< AGGRESSION
Lithe as a whip —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
See: PERSONAL TRAITS, VIOLENCE
Nimble as a cat —Anon
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THE SIMILES Herman Melville used this to begin chapter 78 of Moby Dick, but it probably dates back well before that. Nimble as a deer —Geoffrey Chaucer Quick as a wrestler —Edward Hoagland Spring [out of his bed] like a mastiff —T. Coraghessan Boyle Springy as a trampoline —Marge Piercy Spry as a yearling —Eugene O’Neill Step as elastic as a cat’s —Jo Bannister Supple as a cat —Irwin Shaw This is a variation of the often used “Agile as a cat” and “Agile as a cat, and just as sly” Supple as a red fox —Maxine Kumin Swift and light as a wild cat —D. H. Lawrence There was something breath-taking in the face of his big body which made his very entrance into a room like an abrupt physical impact —Margaret Mitchell Mitchell is describing Rhett Buttler, the hero of her epic Gone with the Wind.
< AGITATION See Also: EXCITEMENT, HEARTBEAT, NERVOUSNESS, TREMBLING Agitated with delight as a waving sea —Arabian Nights Agitation … like insects coming alive in the spring —William Goyen Calm as a tornado —Anon Composed as an egg gatherer in a rattlesnake pit —Harry Prince
Agitation Felt her heart make little leaps, as though it might creep onto her tongue and expose something —Leigh Allison Wilson Felt his heart quicken, as a horse quickens at the faint warning touch of the spur —Ben Ames Williams (Arrived in the library with every nerve twittering) felt like a tree full of starlings —M. J. Farrell Froze my heart like a block of ice —T. Coraghessan Boyle Hearts drumming like wings —Paul Horgan Her heart leaped like a fish —Katherine Mansfield Her heart … plucking inside her chest like a bird in a bag —Brian Moore His heart pumping like a boiler about to blow —Ira Wood Her heart … thundering like ten hearts —Sharon Sheehe Stark Her stomach leaped up inside her like a balloon —William Styron His heart beat so hard he sometimes fondled it with his hands as though trying to calm a wild bird that wanted to fly away —Bernard Malamud His heart chilled like a stone in a creek —John Farris His heart … like a madly bouncing ball, beating the breath out of his body —Helen Hudson
Disturbing as decay in a carcass —Julia O’Faolain
Heart moving so fast it was like one of those motorcycles at fairs that the fellow drives around the walls of a pit —Flannery O’Connor
Feel like he had a mouse water skiing in his stomach —Joseph Wambaugh
His heart racing like a quick little animal in a cage —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Feel my insides slipping away as if they are on a greased slide —W. P. Kinsella
His heart sinks like a soap in a bucket —Robert Coover
Felt as if his heart was beating itself to death in some empty hollow —Oscar Wilde
His heart thundered like horses galloping over a wooden bridge —Gerald Kersh
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Agreement/Disagreement His heart whammed like a wheezing steam engine —Bernard Malamud His soul seething within him like a Welsh rabbit at the height of its fever —P. G. Wodehouse I could hear my heart, like somebody hammering on a tree —John D. MacDonald It seemed like something snapped inside of me, something like a suspender strap —John Steinbeck (Scandal and chaos … ) kicked up like chicken feathers —Pat Ellis Taylor My heart behaved like a fresh-caught trout —Lael Wertenbaker My heart felt like a rabbit running wildly around inside my rib cage —James Crumley My heart jumped like a fox —Scott Spencer My heart leaped like a big bass after a willow fly —Borden Deal My heart pounded like a drowning swimmer’s —Frank Conroy My heart pounded … like the hoofbeats of a horse —Charles Johnson My heart stopped as if a knife had been driven through it —Rudyard Kipling My heart turned over like a dirt bike in the wrong gear —T. Coraghessan Boyle My heart would flutter like a duck in a puddle, and if I tried to outdo it and speak, it would get right smack up in my throat and choke me like a cold potato —Irving Stone My stomach plunged like an elevator out of control —T. Coraghessan Boyle Nerves melt like jellyfish —Derek Walcott Placid as a riptide —Joseph Wambaugh
THE SIMILES The sense of horror and failure had clutched his spine like the wet, wrinkled hand of a drowned woman —William Styron Set my heart to rocking like a boat in a swell —Edna St. Vincent Millay She explodes like a chestnut thrown on the fire —Colette
< AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT See Also: COMPATABILITY, FIGHTING About as far apart as an atheist and a born-again Christian —Anon Acquiesced like an old man acquiescing in death —Wilfrid Sheed (Nobody can be as) agreeable as an uninvited guest —Frank McKinney Humorists like McKinney are notable phrase converters. This simile may be a case in point, evolving from William Wordsworth’s sonnet To a Snowdrop which describes a flower bending its forehead “As if fearful to offend, like an unbidden guest.” Agree like a finger and a thumb —Anon Agree like two cats in a gutter —John Heywood’s Proverbs Agree like cats and dogs —John Ray’s Proverbs This sarcastic twist to the more commonly used “Fight like cats and dogs” dates back to the nineteenth century. Agree like pickpockets in a fair —John Ray’s Proverbs Agree like the clocks of London —Richard Brinsley Sheridan As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strive —The Holy Bible
The pressure was building in me like beer on a full bladder —T. Coraghessan Boyle
As far apart as the atheists who claim there is no soul, and the Christian Scientists who declare there is no body —Anon
Seemed to smolder like a tar-barrel on the point of explosion —Lawrence Durrell
Co-operate about as much as two tomcats on a fence —Raymond Chadler
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THE SIMILES Far apart as the poles —Anon Flock together in consent, like so many wild geese —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II Like the course of the heavenly bodies, harmony in national life is a resultant of the struggle between contending forces —Judge Louis D. Brandeis Sentiments as equal as if weighed on a golden scale —Janet Flanner We are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the row of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another is contrary to nature —Marcus Aurelius
< AILMENTS See: ILLNESS
< AIM
Air How does it feel / To be on your own / With no direction home / Like a complete unknown / Like a rolling stone? —Bob Dylan, from the song “Like a Rolling Stone” Kept going … like a car without a driver —Cornell Woolrich Woolrich’s description of aimlessness is a variant of “Aimless as a ship without a rudder;” in fact, in his story Dawn to Dusk Woolrich used the two similes together. Lived from day to day as if the years were circular —Alice McDermott Never really taking hold of anything, he slides in and out of jobs like a wind-up toy sledding about until the inevitable slowdown —Alvin Boretz, film treatment Ran out of motives, as a car runs out of gas —John Barth
See: PURPOSEFULNESS
Walking in aimless circles like children during a school fire drill —James Crumley
< AIMLESSNESS
Wandered about at random, like dogs that have lost the scent —Voltaire
See Also: BELONGING, EMPTINESS Aimless as a cloud in the sky —Oscar Hammerstein, “The Man I Used to Be,” Pipe Dream Aimless as a leaf in a gale. Oscar Hammerstein. “The Man I Used to Be,” Pipe Dream Aimless as an autumn leaf borne on November’s idle winds —Paul Hamilton Hayne
< AIR See Also: ATMOSPHERE, HEAT Air as clear as water —Maya Angelou Air … as cool as water —Ethan Canin
Chuckled aimlessly, like an old man searching for his spectacles —James Crumley
The air, as in a lion’s den, is close and hot —William Wordsworth
The crowd scurried aimlessly away like ants from a disturbed crumb —O. Henry
The air brightens as though ashes of lightning bolts had been scattered through it —Galway Kinnell
Drift about … aimlessly as a ghost —Lawrence Durrell Drifted like winter moons —Richard Wilbur Drifting like breath —Robert Penn Warren Drifts like a cloud —Dante Gabriel Rossetti He was without subject matter, like a tennis player in the Arctic or a skier in Sahara’s sand —Delmore Schwartz
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
The air flowed like a liquid —Dan Jacobson The air had a sweet, keen taste like the first bite of an apple —Phyllis Bottome Air … hot like the air of a greenhouse —Rose Tremain The air hovered over the city like a fine golden fog —Isak Dinesen
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Airplanes Air had lain about us like a scarf —Irving Feldman The air … lay stifling upon the city, like a cat indifferently sprawled upon a dying mouse —Brian W. Aldiss The air in the room was jumpy and stiff like it is before a big storm outside —Lee Smith The air is calm as a pencil —Frank O’Hara The air is pure and fresh like the kiss of a child —Mikhail Lermontov Air light and pleasant as children’s laughter —James Crumley Air like a furnace —Benjamin Disraeli, about Spain Air like bad breath —T. Coraghessan Boyle
THE SIMILES The air was smoky and mellow as if the whole earth were being burned for its fragrance like a cigar —John Braine The air was so heavy that we could feel it pressing down on us like mattresses —Jean Stafford The air was so rich and balmy it seemed that it could be scooped up with the hand —Rosine Weisbrod The air was still as if it were knotted to the zenith —Saul Bellow The cold air was like a quick shower —Paul M. Fitzsimmons The crystal air cut her like glass —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Air like honey —John Updike
(The air was moist, odorous and black; one) felt it [the air] like a soft weight —Saul Bellow
The [hazy] air muffles your head and shoulders like a sweater you’ve got caught in —William H. Gass
The gray air in summer burned your eyes and throat like tractor exhaust trapped in a machine shed —Will Weaver
Air pure as a theorem —Lawrence Durrell
There was a slow pulsation, like the quiver of invisible wings in the air —Ellen Glasgow In Glasgow’s novel, Barren Ground, this simile sets the scene for an approaching storm.
The air smelled like wet clothes —Andrew Kaplan The air softly began a low sibilance that covered everything, like the night expiring —Richard Ford Air so thick and slow its like swimming —Jayne Anne Phillips Air streams into me like cold water —Erich Maria Remarque Air sweet and fresh like milk —George Garrett Air thicker than chowder —Peter Meinke
The warm air and moisture … close in around her like a pot —Susan Neville
< AIRPLANES See: VEHICLES
< ALCOHOL See: DRINKING
The air was like soup —Derek Lambert
< ALERTNESS
The air was like the silk dress Sharai wore, clean and complex and sensual —A. E. Maxwell Sharai is the name of a character in a novel entitled The Frog and the Scorpion
See Also: ATTENTION/ATTENTIVENESS, EYES, SCRUTINY, WATCHFULNESS Alert as a bird in the springtime —George Moore
The air was mild and fresh, and shone with a faint unsteadiness that was exactly like the unsteadiness of colors inside a seashell —Maeve Brennan
Bright as a bee —Julia O’Faolain
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Alert as a bloodhound at dinnertime —T. Coraghessan Boyle Bright as a cigar band —Rita Mae Brown
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THE SIMILES Bright as a salesman in a car showroom —Donald Seaman Bright-eyed as hawks —Walt Whitman, on the pioneer cowboys of the West
Aloneness
< ALIKENESS See: SIMILARITY
< ALIMONY
(It helps to have a friend at City Hall with) ear like a redskin, always to the ground —Arthur A. Cohen
See: MARRIAGE
Ears … as sensitive as two microphones —Robert Culff
See: ATTRACTIVENESS
< ALLURE
Ears quick as a cat’s —Frank Swinnerton
< ALONENESS
Head cocked to one side like a lizard waiting for its prey to wander into range —Michael Korda, Another Life
See Also: ABANDONMENT Alone as a nomad —Richard Ford
His brain [when free of restrain] skips like a lambkin —Calder Willingham
Alone as a wanderer in the desert —Anon
Alone as a scarecrow —Truman Capote
His mind … was crackling like a high-tension wire —Cornell Woolrich
Alone … like a lost bit of driftwood —Harvey Swados
Keen as a hawk’s eye —Barbara Howes
Alone, like a planet —Richard Lourie
Keen as robins —Frank Swinnerton (His alertness is nearly palpable,) keenness trembling within him like his pilot light —Philip Roth about Primo Levi, New York Times Book Review, October 12, 1986
Alone … like bobbing corks —Jean Anouilh Playwright Anouilh’s simile from Thieves’ Carnival describes two characters who thus bob about because their adventures are over. Alone like some deserted world —Bayard Taylor
On the watch [for recurring problem], like a captain at sea, riding the unknown forces which may produce the known disaster all over again —Paul Horgan
Like the moon am I, that cannot shine alone —Michelangelo
Quest about like a gun-dog —Lawrence Durrell
By himself he felt cold and lifeless, like a match unlighted in a box —Stefan Zweig The simile, from a short story entitled The Burning Secret, describes a man content only in the company of others.
Saw like Indian scouts and heard like blind people … and smelt like retrievers —Wilfrid Sheed Sharp-eyed as a lynx —Sir Walter Scott
[Building] As isolated as an offshore lighthouse —Nicholas Proffitt
Wait like a set trap for a mouse —Anon
Feel lonely as a comet —Anton Chekhov, letter to his wife
Wide awake as a lie detector —Wallace Stegner
Felt like an island —Derek Lambert
Wide awake, brain cells flashing like free-game in a pinball machine —T. Coraghessan Boyle
In your absence it is like rising every day to a sunless sky —Benjamin Disraeli
< ALIENATION
Isolated as if it were a fort in the sea or a log-hut in the forest —Israel Zangwill
See: ALONENESS, REMOTENESS
Isolated like a tomb —Ian Kennedy Martin
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Aloofness Left him standing like a stump —Willa Cather Like the deserted bride on her wedding night / All alone and shaking with fright —Fred Ebb, “I Can’t Do It Alone,” from the musical Chicago Loneliness became as visible as breath that turned to vapor —Tennessee Williams Loneliness fell over me and covered my face like a sheet —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Loneliness overcame him like a suffocating guilt —Irving Stone Loneliness … rises like an exhalation from the American landscape —Van Wyck Brooks Loneliness surrounded Katherine like a high black fence —Tess Slesinger (I wandered) lonely as a cloud —William Wordsworth One of the poet’s most famous lines.
THE SIMILES A solitary figure, like the king on a playing card —Marcel Proust Solitary … like a swallow left behind at the migrating season of his tribe —Joseph Conrad Solitude affects some people like wine; they must not take too much of it, for it flies to the head —Mary Coleridge Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character —James Russell Lowell Solitude … is like Spanish moss which finally suffocates the tree it hangs on —Anais Nin Solitude swells the inner space like a balloon —May Sarton Solitude wrapped him like a cloak —Francine du Plessix Gray
Lonely as a Hopper landscape —Brian Moore
Stand … alone, like a small figure in a barren landscape in an old book —John D. MacDonald
Lonely as a lighthouse —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Stand alone on an empty page like a period put down in a snowfall —William Gass
Lonely as a wave of the sea —Katherine Anne Porter Lonely as priests —Anon Lonely as Sunday —Mark Twain The lonely, like the lame, are often drawn to one another —Harvey Swados Lonesome as a walnut rolling in a barrel —Edna Ferber Lonesome … like the a sharp way down at the left-hand end of the keyboard —O. Henry Lone women, like empty houses, perish —Christopher Marlowe (And I) Sit by myself like a cobweb on a shelf —Oscar Hammerstein II, from lyric for Oklahoma Solitary as a lonely eel —Richard Ford Solitary as a tomb —Victor Hugo
Survive like a lonely dinosaur —Mary McCarthy (Celibate and) unattached, like a pathetic old aunt —Alice McDermott Undisturbed as some old tomb —Edgar Allen Poe Walk alone like one that had the pestilence —William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona In common usage, most generally, “Like one who has the plague,” or whatever contagious disease might be afoot. We whirl along like leaves, and nobody knows, nobody cares where we fall —Katherine Mansfield When I am alone, I feel like a day-old glass of water —Diane Wakoski
< ALOOFNESS See: PERSONAL TRAITS, RESERVE
Solitary as an explorer —Donald Hall
< AMAZEMENT
Solitary as an oyster —Charles Dickens
See: SURPRISE
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THE SIMILES
< AMBITION See Also: PURPOSEFULNESS Ambition … coursed like blood through her —Vita Sackville-West
Anger (I think of) that ambition of his like some sort of little engine tick, tick, ticking away, and never stopping … —Gore Vidal about Abraham Lincoln
(One woman’s) ambition expanded like yeast —Rita Mae Brown
To reach the height of ambition is like trying to reach the rainbow; as we advance it recedes —William Talbot Burke
Ambition is as hollow as the soul of an echo —Anon
Zeal without knowledge is like an expedition to a man in the dark —John Newton
Ambition is a sort of work —Kahil Gibran Ambition is like a treadmill … you no sooner get to the end of it then you begin again —Josh Billings Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite —Josh Billings Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals —Sir John Denham Ambition is like the sea wave, which the more you drink the more you thirst —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back —Ben Jonson Ambitions thin with age —James Goldman Ambitious as the devil —Francis Beaumont As ambitious as Lady Macbeth —James Huneker Aspirations prancing like an elephant in a skirmish —Frank O’Hara Good intentions … like very mellow and choice fruit, they are difficult to keep —G. Simmons How like a mounting devil in the heart rules the unrestrained ambition! —N.P. Willis The word “unrestrained” has been substituted for “unrein’d.”
< ANCESTORS See: PAST, THE
< ANGER See Also: EMOTIONS, IRRITABLENESS Anger … flowing out of me like lava —Diane Wakoski Anger.… hard, like varnished wood —Lynne Sharon Schwartz Anger … hot as sparks —Wallace Stegner Anger is a short madness —Horace Anger is as useless as the waves of the ocean without wind —Chinese proverb Anger is like wind is like a stone cast into a wasp’s nest —Malabar proverb Anger like a scar disfiguring his face —William Gass Anger like grief, is a mark of weakness; both mean being wounded and wincing —Marcus Aurelius Anger … like Mississippi thunderstorms, full of noise and lightning, but once it passed, the air was cleared —Gloria Norris
A man without ambition is like a woman without beauty —Frank Harris
The anger of a meek man is like fire struck out of steel, hard to be got out, and when got out, soon gone —Matthew Henry
Overambitious … like a musician trying to play every instrument in the band —Anon
Anger spreading through me like a malignant tumor —Isabel Allende
People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl —Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Angers … crippling, like a fit —May Sarton
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The anger [of a crowd of people] shot up like an explosion —H.E. Bates
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Anger
THE SIMILES
Anger … smoldered within her like an unwholesome fire —Charles Dickens
A draft of anger and deep hurt trailing her like a cheap perfume —Paul Kuttner
Anger … spreading like a fever along my shoulders and back —Philip Levine
Feel as though I had swallowed a hand grenade —Erich Maria Remarque
Anger standing there gleaming like a four-hundred-horsepower car you have lost your license to drive —Marge Piercy
Feeling mean … like a bull gator —Robert Campbell
Anger surged suddenly through his body like a quick pain —Beryl Markham
A feeling of rage cut him as with a sharp knife and took possession of him —Mikhail P. Arzybashev
(His) anger was quick as a flame —Phyllis Bottome
Felt furious and helpless as if she had been insulted by a child —Flannery O’Connor
Anger welled up in him like lava —Frank Ross
Few of the authors mention e-books. Those who do tend to regard with dread and disgust, like a farmhand studying a handful of fallen locusts —Robert Moor, “Bones of the Book”
Angry as a hornet —George Garrett A variation by movie critic Rex Reed: “angry as a ruptured hornet.” Angry as a wasp —John Heywood’s Proverbs
A fit of anger is as fatal to dignity as a dose of arsenic to life —Josiah Gilbert Holland
Angry as a bear with a sore head —Stanley Weyman
Fumed like champagne that is fizzy —Bliss Carman
Some variations of this popular simile are “Angry as a grizzly bear with a bad tooth” and “Cross as a bear with a sore head.”
Fumes like Vesuvius —Cole Porter, lyrics from “I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthy In Padua,” one of the songs from Kiss Me Kate, the musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Since Porter rarely used similes, it’s natural to wonder if working on a play by as prolific a simile creator as Shakespeare inspired not just this but the several other similes in this one song.
Angry words fan the fire like wind —Epigram Bounced with indignation, as if she had robbed him of his reputation, of the esteem of honest people, of his humor, of something rare that was dearer to him than life —Guy de Maupassant (He was) burning like a boiler —Saul Bellow
Fuming anger like a toaster with crust jammed against its heating coil —Ira Wood
Carried on as though he had uremic poisoning —Rita Mae Brown
Furious … like a wounded bull in an arena —Alexandre Dumas, Pere
Cold, vicious rage that covered every inch of me like a rank sweat —Jonathan Valin
Fury pervading her like a bloat —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Come boiling out like bloodhounds —Richard Ford
Fury was running all through his blood and bones like an electric flood —Robert Campbell
Could feel her fury buzzing and burrowing into the meat under my skull like a drill bit —Stephen King Die in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole —Jonathan Swift
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Gall … like a crown of flowering thorn —W. D. Snodgrass The poem from which this simile is extracted is about a dead marriage and the narrator’s regret
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THE SIMILES that his love has become a galling thing. He follows up the flowering thorn comparison with: “My love hung like a gown of lead that pulled you down.” Getting angry is like worshipping idols —L’Olam Midrash Growling like a fox in a trap —William Diehl Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned —William Congreve Her rage … damned up regularly as water —Louise Erdrich Her resentment was like a coagulant … she felt sullen, dull, thick —Nancy Huddleston Packer
Anger In Picturesque Expressions,” Lawrence Urdang speculates that this is a twist on being ‘hopping’ mad. On the warpath [against world’s injustices], like a materialistic Don Quixote —Clarence Day Outrage which was like sediment in his stomach —Paule Marshall Outrage … worked like acid in his temper —Frank Swinnerton Puffed up with rage like a squid (my psyche let out angry ink) —Saul Bellow Rage … as infectious as fear —Christopher Isherwood Rage, as painful as a deep cut —Jean Stafford
He’s like a scalded cat —William Alfred
Rage … burst in the center of my mind like a black bubble of fury —Lawrence Durrell
He was like the mule in the story that kept running into the trees; he wasn’t blind, he was just so mad he didn’t give a damn —Rex Stout
Rage sang like a coloratura doing trills —Marge Piercy
His cheeks quiver with rage —Walker Percy
Rages like a chafed bull —William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II
Hissed like an angry kettle —Herbert Lieberman
Rage swells in me like gas —Marge Piercy
(Barcaloo’s rage took about five seconds to boil up) It was like dropping cold water into a pot of hot iron. —Robert Campbell
Rage whistling through him like night wind on the desert —Paige Mitchell
Let it [anger at wife] all come out of him, like air from a tire —Bruce Jay Friedman Like ice, anger passes away in time —Anon Mad as a bobcat —James Kirkwood Mad as a buck —William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors Mad as a bull among bumble bees —Anon Mad as a cat that’s lost a mouse —O’Henry Mad as all wrath —Anon Mad the sea and wind —William Shakespeare, Hamlet Mad as a wet hen —American colloquialism A variation from George Garrett’s novel The Finished Man: Mad as a doused rooster. Mad as hops —American colloquialism
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Raging back at her [an angry woman] like a typhoon —T. Coraghessan Boyle Raging like some crazed Othello —Suzi Gablik describing Marc Chagall’s behavior in review of My Life with Chagall by Virginia Haggard, New York Times Book Review, August 17, 1986 (Enemy chase me) sore as a bird —The Holy Bible/Lamentations Sore as a boil —American colloquialism Sore as a crab —John Dos Passos Stammering with anger like the clucking of a hen —Émile Zola Stewing hostility and mordant self-pity … pooled like poison almost daily in his soul —Joseph Heller surges of anger, like the rush of an incoming tide —P. D. James, Death Comes to Pemberly
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Animals Tempers boil over like unwatched spaghetti —Tonita S. Gardner Turned crimson with fury —Lewis Carroll When he (Woody Hayes) is angry he is like those creatures that lurk in hollow trees. His glare … causes brave men to run like scalded cats —George F. Will The angry man described by Will is football coach Woody Hayes. Words heat up room like an oven with door open —Anon (The young man’s) wrath is like straw of fire, but like red hot steel is the old man’s ire —Lord Byron
THE SIMILES The Llama is a wooly sort of fleecy hairy goat with an indolent expression and an undulating throat. Like an unsuccessful literary man —Hilaire Belloc [A cow] lying on her back like a fat old party in a bathtub —Edward Hoagland [A cat] purring like a Packard engine. It worked like a lullaby —Harold Adams Sheep huddled likes fallen clouds —George Garrett Silver whiskers … like rice-threads —D. H. Lawrence The silver whiskers described by Lawrence belong to a fox, from which his story takes its title. Squirrels … fat as housecats —Doris Lessing
< ANIMALS See Also: BIRDS The cat … carried his tail like a raised sword —Helen Hudson The cat was sleeping on the floor like a tippedover roller skate —Paul Theroux Crows … circle in the sky like a flight of blackened leaves —Stephen Vincent Benét Dogs … all snarls and teeth like knives —George Garrett Dog … with a marking down his breast like a flowing polka-dot tie. He was like a tiny shepherd —Eudora Welty Dour as a wet cat —Warren Beck Fins [on fish] like scimitars —Richard Maynard Frogs sparkling like wet suns —Margaret Atwood He [a dog] dragged her around the block like a horse pulling a wheelless carriage —Margaret Millar A herd of black and white cows moved slowly across a distant field, like pieces of torn paper adrift on a dark pond —Hilary Masters His tail [a cat’s] waved like a pine tree —Sheila Kaye-Smith
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Swarms of bees like a buzzing cloud flew from flower to flower —Erich Maria Remarque A white poodle … like an animated powder puff —Penelope Gilliatt Wings of the swans are folded now like the sheets of a long letter —Donald Justice
< ANIMATION See: ACTIVENESS, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM
< ANNOYANCE See: IRRITABLENESS
< ANTICIPATION See Also: HOPE Anticipation went through me like a ripple of discordant notes —A. E. Maxwell Lay in waiting like a giant crab —August Strindberg In Strindberg’s play,, The Stranger, a character named Mrs. X thus compares the woman who wants her husband. Like chill dawn waiting for sunrise, I am waiting for you —Rainer Maria Rilke Wait, breathless as a bride —George Garrett
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THE SIMILES
Anxiety
Waited … keenly as fisherman waiting for a bite —Lawrence Durrell
Anxious as a mid-level manager in a corporate takeover —Mike Sommer
Waiting for her like a king awaiting the arrival of a courtier —Harvey Swados
Anxious as an investor watching his stock go down —Anon
Waiting [without thought or action], like a radio set equipped with a receiver only, for a signal from a distance which he wasn’t even certain would be transmitted —Kenzaburo Oe
Anxious as a tax payer with an audit notice from the IRA —Anon
Wait … like a dog expecting to be taken for a walk —Rosamund Pilcher
As worried as she would have been over a lover she had cared for passionately —Sumner Locke Elliot
Wait … like a pair of sea captains’ wives in their widow’s walks —Thomas McGuane
A case of the dreads so thick they seemed to whistle out the heating ducts and swarm the room like a dark mistral —Richard Ford
< ANXIETY
Desperation rising from him like a musk —Paule Marshall
See Also: EMOTIONS, NERVOUSNESS, TENSION Anxiety flowed through the core of his bones like lava —Calder Willingham (It is in those marriages and love affairs which are neither good or bad … that) anxiety flows like a muddy river —Norman Mailer An anxiety had settled like a fine dust on everything she did —Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question An anxiety hung like a dark impenetrable cloud —Anon Anxiety … is somewhat like a blow on the head —Delmore Schwartz Anxiety moved like a current through his belly —Bernard Malamud Anxiety receives them like a grand hotel —W. H. Auden Anxious as a law associate during his sixth year with a major law firm —Elyse Sommer Anxious as a mid-level manager in a corporate takeover —Mike Sommer Anxious as an aspiring Miss Universe contestant sequestered in a soundproof booth and brought out moments later to tell what she loves most about America —Susan Barron, New York Times
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A feeling of foreboding … like a wind stirring the tapestry, an ominous chill —Evelyn Waugh A feeling of vague anxiety … snuffling about me like cold-nosed rodents, like reading of a favorite baseball player whose star has descended to the point where he parks cars at a restaurant or sits in a room above a delicatessen in Indianapolis, drinking vodka and waiting for his pension —W. P. Kinsella Felt as if a serpent had begun to coil round his limbs —George Eliot Felt as if her nerves were being stretched more tightly, like strings on violin pegs —Leo Tolstoy Felt chilled as by the breath of death’s head —Victor Hugo Felt like a switchboard with all my nerves on Emergency Alert —Dorothy B. Francis Frantic as a mouse in a trap —Anon Had a chill and heavy feeling in his stomach like a lump of lead —Vicki Baum Her mild, constant worries had engraved no lines in her bisque china face but had gradually cracked it like a very old plate —Lael Wertenbaker His heart seemed to slide like the hook on a released pulley —Frank Swinnerton
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Apartness I’m ’bout as worried as a pregnant fox in a forest fire —Peter Benchley Over it [a face that had looked hopeful] now lay like a foreign substance a film of anxiety —Thomas Hardy Second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on —Charles Dickens Stress is like an iceberg. We can see one-eighth of it above, but what about what’s below —Patrice O’Connor Suspended in his own anxiety as if in a cloudy solution of some acid —Lawrence Durrell That news went through me like a cold wind. —Susan Vreeland, Clara and Mr. Tiffany There is the same pain and panic when your computer locks up as when you have an attack of appendicitis —Brendan Gill, quoted New York Times, August 2, 1986, in article by William E. Geist about a man (computer tutor Bruce Stark) who helps people with their computer problems. This is typical of similes that are borrowed and modified to fit a personal sphere of interest. Unease … it slipped out without his being able to control it, like sweat from his pores —Clive Barker Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere —Anon
< APARTNESS See: ALONESS
< APATHY
THE SIMILES
< APPETITE See Hunger
< APPLAUSE See: NOISE Applause … like pebbles being rattled in a tin —Francis King
< APPRECIATION Cherish like a secret —D.H. Lawrence Poorly appreciated … like a fine landscape in dull weather —Arthur Schopenhauer She looked on him as a kind of gigantic treat, a prize won in a lottery —Anita Brookner Ungrateful as children, who can never pay their debt of gratitude because they owe so much —Honoré de Balzac An ungrateful man is like a hog under a tree eating acorns, but never looking up to see where they come from —Timothy Dexter
< ARGUMENTS See Also: FIGHTING Argue like geese —Ben Hecht Argued like a lawyer —Edith Wharton Arguing like sparring fish in a tank —Graham Swift Arguing with Owen was like fencing with a bag of wool —Julia O’Faolain The argument broke open, porous as cheese —Julia O’Faolain
See: REMOTENESS
Arguments are like the grinding of rusty blades —Elizabeth Hardwick
< APPAREL
Can’t help arguing like I can’t help the man in the moon —Louise Erdrich
See: CLOTHING
< APPEAREANCE See: PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
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Clash like the coming and retiring wave —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Clash, like waves of the sea —John Hall Wheelock
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THE SIMILES Contention is like fire, both burn so long as there is any exhaustible matter to contend with —Thomas Adams Grabbed the argument as if it were a beach ball we were tossing between us —Dorothy B. Francis Her argument clung to its point like a frightened sharp-clawed animal —Edith Wharton Her arguments are like elephants. They squash you flat —Rumer Godden His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death —Abraham Lincoln Protesting like children at nap time —George Garrett Split [in disagreement] like an egg —Paige Mitchell Talking to Oscar [Levant] is like fighting a man who has three fists instead of the regulation two —Alexander Woolcott
Arm(s) Arms delicate as daisy stems —Sharon Sheehe Stark Arms folded across his chest as primly as two blades in a Swiss Army knife —Pat Conroy (An old man with) arms like driftwood scoured by salt and wind —Marge Piercy Arms like gateposts —Leslie Thomas Arms like logs —James Crumley Arms like pythons —Nicholas Proffitt Arms loose … like ropes dangling toward the floor —Cornell Woolrich Arms … pink and thick as country hams —Robert B. Parker Arms … rounded and graceful and covered with soft down, like a breath of gold —Wilbur Daniel Steele Arms, soft and smooth; they must be like peeled peaches to the touch —Stefan Zweig Arms spread like a crucifix —Carolyn Chute
True disputants are like true sportsmen, their whole delight is in the pursuit —Alexander Pope
Arms swinging wildly, like a great gull flapping toward the sea —Kay Boyle
Words … flew between them like sparks between steel striking steel —Edna Ferber
Arms … thick as hickory logs —Elinor Wylie
The words [during an argument] whipped away like weightless leaves —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
< ARITHMETIC See: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
< ARM(S) See Also: ARM MOVEMENTS, FINGER(S), HAND(S) Arm … like a fat bread roll —James Lee Burke
Arms thick as firs —Paige Mitchell Arms thick like a butcher’s —Richard Maynard Arms … very thin and pale, as though they’d been tucked away in some dark place, unused —Margaret Millar Bent arms like pothooks —Erich Maria Remarque Delicate wrists that moved bonelessly as snakes —Margaret Millar Elbows … pointy, like a hard lemon —Ann Beattie
Arms and legs like tendrils —Jonathan Kellerman
Forearms so hard and well-defined that the skin looked as if it had been flayed away, like drawings in an anatomy book —Jonathan Valin
(Her bare) arms and legs were like white vines —James Robison
Held their arms like bundles to their chest —William H. Gass
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Arm Movements It [arm] was so thin … its covering didn’t look like flesh but like paper wrapped around a bone to take home to a dog —Margaret Millar Let her arms drop like folded wings —Julie Hayden My arms fit you like a sleeve —Anne Sexton The descriptive frame of reference in Sexton’s poem “Unknown Girl” is a baby.
THE SIMILES Crook his arm like an usher at a wedding —Susan Neville Crooking her arms like broken branches —Bernard Malamud Folded her arms like hemp cord —Leigh Alison Wilson Opened your arms like cupboard doors —Marge Piercy
My arms lie upon the desk like logs sogged with rain —David Ignatow
Raised his arms like a fight announcer —Harvey Swados
One of her arms hung down to the floor like an overfed white snake —Ross Macdonald
Spreading their arms wide like galleons in full sail —Lawrence Durrell
Skinny, muscular arms … like the twisted branches of an old apple tree —Arthur Miller
Waving his arms like a deranged pelican —George Garrett
Swarthy arms like rolls of copper —Aharon Megged
Waved … like a queen in a passing coach —William McIlvanney
Thin arms … ridged like braided leather —R. Wright Campbell
< ARMY
Upper arms big as legs —Will Weaver
An army, like a snake, goes on its belly —Frederick the Great
Wrists like twigs —Eleanor Clark Wrists … like two by fours —Charles Bukowski Wrists … looked thin as a dog’s foreleg —John Updike Wrist … small like the throat of a young hen —Philip Levine Wrist that looked like a lean ham —William Faulkner
< ARM MOVEMENTS See Also: HAND MOVEMENTS Arms extended over his head, fists clenched, like a soccer player running mad with triumph —Daniel Curley Arms spread out like wasps —James Patterson
Military intelligence has about as much to do with intelligence as military music has to do with music —John le Carré Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer —John Ray’s Proverbs The word ‘chimneys’ has been modernized from ‘chimnies.’
< ART AND LITERATURE See Also: BOOKS, MUSIC, POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds —Barnett Newman, New York Times Book Review, February 18, 1968 Art is a jealous mistress —Ralph Waldo Emerson Art is an absolute mistress —Charlotte Cushman
Arms upraised like two giant branches —Harvey Swados
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization —Lincoln Steffens Forbes S
(His) arms waggled like duck wings —Martin Cruz Smith
Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold they can no longer be worn —John Updike
Arms working like a windmill —Mike Fredman
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THE SIMILES
Art and Literature
Art is like religion. As long as you do your best to stamp it out of existence, it flourishes in spite of you, like weeds in a garden. But if you try and cultivate it, and it becomes a popular success, it goes to the dogs at once —Jane Wardle
In literature, as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others —André Maurois, New York Times, April 14, 1963
Art is science in the flesh —Jean Cocteau
Literature, like a gypsy, to be picturesque, should be a little ragged —Douglas Jerold
Art is wild as a cat and quite separate from civilization —Stevie Smith The artist, like the neurotic, has withdrawn from an unsatisfying reality into this world of imagination; but, unlike the neurotic, he knew how to find a way back from it and once more to get a firm foothold in reality —Sigmund Freud Artists … like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give —Ralph Waldo Emerson Art, like Eros, stirs senses to full life, demands devotion —Steven Millhauser Art like life is an open secret —Lawrence Durrell Art, like life, should be free, since both are experimental —George Santayana Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere —Gilbert Keith Chesterton Art, like the microscope, reveals many things that the naked eye does not see —George Moore As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life —Sir John Lubbock Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness —George Jean Nathan I have seen the beauty evaporate from poems and pictures, exquisite not so long ago, like hoar frost before the morning sun —W. Somerset Maugham In art, as in diet, as in spiritual life, the same rules of elimination apply: the more one can do without the better —Anne Freemantle In art, as in love, instinct is enough —Anatole France In art, as in politics, there is no such thing as gratitude —George Bernard Shaw
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(Nine times out of ten,) in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed —H. L. Mencken
Literature, like virtue, is its own reward —Lord Chesterfield Literature’s like a big railway station … there’s a train starting every minute —Edith Wharton In her short story, The Angel at the Grave, Wharton continues the simile as follows: “People are not going to hang around the waiting room. If they can’t get to a place when they want to, they go somewhere else.” It [empty white canvas] looks like an anemic nun in a snow storm —James Rosenquist, quoted in television documentary about his work, 1987 Modern paintings are like women. You’ll never enjoy them if you try to understand them —Harold Coffin Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication —Rebecca West Naiveté in art is like zero in a number; its importance depends on the figure it is united with —Henry James One must act in painting as in life, directly —Pablo Picasso, Time interview Two modern paintings … like Rorschach inkblots gone to seed —Pat Conroy A painting requires as much cunning as the perpetration of a crime —Edgar Degas A picture is a poem without words —Latin proverb (Some of the canvases had no pictures at all, just colors,) swirls and patches and planes of color, thickened and lumped, like hunks of emotion —Dan Wakefield
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Astonishment Without favor art is like a windmill without wind —John Ray’s Proverbs The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period —Samuel Butler
< ASTONISHMENT See Also: SURPRISE
< ATMOSPHERE See Also: AIR Air … full of unspoken words, unformulated guilts, a vicious silence, like the moments before a bridge collapses —John Fowles The atmosphere (of the room) was as vapid as a zephyr wandering over a Vesuvian lava-bed —O. Henry Evil which hung in … air like an odorless gas —Ross Macdonald (The circle in which I moved was a self-contained world … ) it was like being in the treacly, supersaturated air of a hothouse filled with luxuriant vegetation, or in an aquarium with its own special heating unit and food supply, its own species of plankton —Natascha Wodin (The whole place seemed restless and troubled and) people were crowding and flitting to and fro, like shadows in an uneasy dream —Charles Dickens Sensed a wrongness around me, like an alarm clock that had gone off without being set —Maya Angelou They [women who run shops in a town] have given the Square a fussy, homespun air that reminds you of life pictured in catalogs —Richard Ford Thick and sultry the atmosphere steams like an island in the Pacific —T. Coraghessan Boyle
THE SIMILES (When listening he is) as focused and as still as a chipmunk spying something unknown from atop a stone wall —Philip Roth about Primo Levi, New York Times Book Review, October 12, 1986 The attention [of listeners] is like a narrow mouthed vessel; pour into it what you have to say cautiously, and, as it were drop by drop —Joseph Joubert Attention rolled down like a window shade —Sharon Sheehe Stark Attention [of students] sinking … like sluggish iron from the cooling crust —John Updike Attentive and indifferent as a croupier —George Garrett Attracted about as much attention as a flea in a dog pound —Ross Thomas Attracted about as much attention (in the artistic world) as the advent of another fly in a slaughter house —James L. Ford Attracted as little attention as a dirty finger nail in the third grade —Ring Lardner Attracted attention like the principal heads in a picture —Honoré de Balzac Collected attention like twists of silver paper or small white pebbles —Elizabeth Bowen Concentrates … like a cancer victim scanning a medical dictionary in hopes that the standard definitions have been repealed overnight in favor of good news —James Morrow Curiosity, keen and cold as a steel knife —Maxim Gorky Deaf as a door nail —Thomas Wilson This is the best known of many “Deaf as” similes. It’s used in its literal sense as well as to describe inattentiveness. Popular variants include “Deaf as a post,” “Deaf as a door,” and“Deaf as a stone.”
< ATTENTION
Deaf as a piecrust —Lawrence Durrell
See Also: ALERTNESS, SCRUTINY, WATCHFULLNESS
(Had honed her ability to turn) deaf as a snail —Joseph Wambaugh
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Attraction
Drinking it [information] like a bomber pilot getting ready for a mission —Harvey Swados
[Poets] Receive the same care as xylophones and equestrian statues —Delmore Schwartz
(The hoot of laughter that always made Mary) flick him off like television —Sumner Locke Elliott
Seems not to listen to her words, but rather watches her forming them … like some fervent anthropologist —William Boyd
Had taken in her every anecdote as completely as a recording machine —Louis Auchincloss
Snaps to attention like a thumb —Irving Feldman
Heads are turning like windmills —Arthur Miller Heedless as the dead —Lord Byron { His eyes wandered, like a mind —Penelope Gilliatt His mind keeps slipping away like a fly —John Rechy Inattentive, like the ear of a confessor —Mary McCarthy Intent as a surgeon —Jean Stafford
(He tried to apply his mind to the work he was doing but his) thoughts fluttered desperately, like moths in a trap —W. Somerset Maugham The words bounced off Harry, like pebbles skipped on water —Paul Kuttner (So scatter-brained that) words went by him like the wind —Louisa May Alcott
< ATTIRE See CLOTHING
Interest spread like a net —Nadine Gordimer
< ATTRACTION
(She could not keep her mind on anything;) it [her mind] kept darting around like a darning needle —Jean Stafford
Absorbing as a love affair —Elyse Sommer
Leaned forward … like hounds just before they get the fox —Steven Vincent Leapt from theme to theme like a water-bug —Eleanor Clark Listened as intently as a blind woman —Rita Mae Brown Listened, very still, like a child who is being told a fascinating and gruesome fairy tale —Isak Dinesen Listen like an uncle —Herbert Gold Listen … like snakes to a charmer’s flute —Jan de Hartog Mind jumps from one thing to another like drops of water bouncing off a larded pan when you test whether the griddle is hot enough to pour the pancake batter in —John Hagge
(A charismatic man) attracting young men to himself like filings to a magnet —Linda West Eckhardt Come at him [girls to a boy] like ducks to popcorn —Max Apple Drawn to as bathers to sea shore —Anon Drawn to as children to amusement parks —Anon Drawn to as readers to a library —Anon Drawn to us warily but helplessly, like a starved deer —Louise Erdrich Drew … like pipers charming rats —Lynne Sharon Schwartz In her novel, Disturbances in the Field, Schwartz alludes to ideas that are attractive to the heroine and her college friends.
My mind wanders like smoke —Clifford Odets
Drew (many confidences … ) as unintentionally as a magnet draws steel filings —Vita Sackville-West
Pricked up his ears like two railroad signals —Lewis Carroll
Enchanted … like a meadow full of four-leaf clovers —Mary McCarthy
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Attractiveness
THE SIMILES
Fascinated like sick people are fascinated by anything … scrap of news about their own case —James Thurber
Temptations, like misfortunes, are sent to test our moral strength —Marguerite de Valois
Fascinating and fantastic as toys in a shop window to a little poor boy in the street —Isak Dinesen
Took to it … like a retriever to water-ducks —Ouida
Fascinating as a burning fuse —William McGivern, about fellow writer Michael Gilbert’s espionage novel Overdrive. Whenever a simile is used to praise a book, it is invariably highlighted on the book jacket or in ads, as this one was.
You pull me like the moon pulls on the tide —Richard Thompson, “The Dimming of the Day”
(The salesgirls) fell on me like pigeons on breadcrumbs —Judith Rascoe Had drawn her to him like a flower to the sun —John le Carré (The warm sweet center of her) had taken hold of him like a hand —John Yount Held her mesmerized like a snake —Julia O’Faolain He moves to you like a stable hand to a new horse —Allan Miller This comes from Miller’s dramatization of D. H. Lawrence’s short novel, The Fox. It did not appear in the Lawrence text. Irresistible [thoughts] as intruders who force their way into your house —Dan Wakefield Like children taking peeps at pantry shelves, we think we’re tempted when we tempt ourselves —Arthur Guiterman Men just love to buzz around me like there was a sweet smell coming from me —Pat Conroy Mesmerizing as a flickering neon sign —Anon (Kept watching because) something about her stayed with me. Like a cold matzo ball —Nat Hentoff Take to the way a hypochondriac takes to a bed —Lorrie Moore Temptation leapt on him like the stab of a knife —Edith Wharton
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Took to as an ant to a picnic —Harry Prince
Was drawn to … as if by strong cords —Aharon Appelfeld
< ATTRACTIVENESS See Also: BEAUTY, DESIRABILITY, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Adorable as a baby —Anon Babies have long been linked with adjectives that equate appealing (or peaceful) qualities. This commonly used form may have its origins in Swinburne’s “Adorable as is nothing save a child.” Alluring as a ripe peach —Guy de Maupassant Appealing as power to a politician —Anon Appealing as something for nothing —Anon Appealing as sunlight after a stormâ —Anon An appeal shone from her as light from a twisted filament —John Updike As handsome as a movie legend —Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge As likable as a jaguar —William Beechcroft Charm is almost as poor a butter for parsnips as good intentions —Heywood Broun Charm rolled off him like a halo off an angel —James Kirkwood In the television movie adaptation of Kirkwood’s There Must Be a Pony the character played by Elizabeth Taylor’s uses this simile to characterize the man played by Robert Wagner. Cute as a bug’s ear —Bobbie Ann Mason Dazzle like an Impressionistic painting in which every brush stroke tells and contains some-
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THE SIMILES thing germane to the whole —V.S. Pritchett on George Meredith Decorative as the scalps of an Indian brave —Frank Swinnerton (The novel is often as) disarming as a work of folk art —Bethami Probst, New York Times Book Review, April 12, 1987 Have all the charm of a black widow —Pia Lindstrom, television movie review, 1986 Interesting, like a plot in the mystery books —Louise Erdrich Inviting as a down comforter —Anon The last time he was on Broadway, critics called him the hottest leading man since Hugh Jackman. This time many thought he was as sexy (and as wooden) as a tree stump —Michael Riedel, New York Post, January 6, 2012, about Jackman in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever Look like something that ought to be eaten for dessert —Irwin Shaw More alluring than an invitation to visit rich and charming friends on the Cote d’Or —Ogden Nash Seductive as Cleopatra —Louis Bromfield She’s like a mound of nectarines —Saul Bellow Unappealing as a meringue with hardly any crust —Anon
< AUTHENTICITY
Awareness
< AVAILABILITY About as hard to get as lion shit in Africa —Stephen Longstreet Accessible a candidate looking for another hand to shake —Mike Sommer Accessible as a hooker plying her trade —Anon As unapproachable as a star —Anon As unattainable, as desirable, as beauty —Margaret Sutherland (Drinks here) flow like cement —John Mortimer, Public Television series, Paradise Postponed, 1986 Has been handed round like snuff at a wake —Ellen Currie The descriptive frame of reference is a promiscuous girl. Inaccessible as time —Alice McDermott In her novel That Night, the author talks about old neighborhoods of which parents who have moved away say “You can’t go there anymore” as if change made a place inaccessible as time. Laying around like pop-corn —Clifford Odets Odets follows this up with “You think good boys are laying around like pop-corn?” Like an apple hanging on a tree, waiting for somebody to come along and pick it —Lee Smith Like Meissen china in a glass case, the admiration [for an appealing but inaccessible woman] had to be kept at a distance —Jilly Cooper
See: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
Lived high up [in an apartment complex] … as accessible as a bald Rapunzel —William McIlvanney
< AUTHORITY
Unobtainable as a taxi when it rains —Anon
See: POWER
Untouchable as God —Erich Maria Remarque
< AUTHORSHIP
< AVARICE
See: POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING
See: GREED
< AUTOMOBILES
< AWARENESS
See: VEHICLES
See: REALIZATION
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Awkwardness
< AWKWARDNESS See Also: MOVEMENT(S) Awkward as a bull in a china shop —Anon This still-popular simile endures with many substitutions for the bull such as “a blind dog,” “a gorilla,” “a monkey.” Often, instead of a substitute comparison, a different context can lift a simile like this beyond the cliché for example, “Like wild bulls in a china shop … are my awkward hands of love” from poet Delmore Schwartz’s journals and notes Awkward as learning newly learned —Adrienne Rich Awkward in her movements, as if she had been in solitary for years —Ross Macdonald
THE SIMILES Moving stiffly like a man in a body cast —Martin Cruz Smith She ran on like a clumsy goat, trampling and trespassing on land and that was preserved —Daphne du Maurier Stiff as a gaffer —Richard Wilbur Stiff as a line in Euclid —Saul Bellow Stiff as a poker grew —Wallace Irwin Stumbling about like a drunken bear —James Crumley Uncoordinated as a rag doll —Dorothea Straus Unwieldy as a pregnant elephant —Anon
< BACHELOR
Awkward … like a guest at a party to whose members he carried bad news he had no right to know, no right to tell —Hortense Calisher
See: MEN AND WOMEN
Awkward like a leaden ballet dancer lifting a fat partner —Ed McBain
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
Awoke as stiff as if I’d been spray-starched —Jonathan Kellerman
< BADNESS
Blunder and fumble like a moth … a rabbit caught in the glare of a torch —William Faulkner
< BALANCE
Bumbled up to him like a mole —Wilfrid Sheed
< BAD LUCK
See: CRUELTY, EVIL
See: REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
Clumsy as two kids on their first date —Anon
< BALDNESS
Clumsy … like a leaky old engine with the driving belt slipping and steam escaping from every joint —Christopher Isherwood
See Also: HAIR Bald as a ballpeen hammer —Thomas Lux
Feel awkward like a boy on a date with an older girl —Bobbie Ann Mason
Bald as a nun —Patrick White
Bald as a brass knob —Beverly Farmer
Graceless as a pelican on the ground —George Garrett
Bald and wrinkled as a lizard —Sarah Bird
Had about as much grace as a hippopotamus in a bubble bath —Harry Prince
Bald as a barefaced lie —Anon
Has the grace of an arthritic elephant on roller skates —Corey Sandler
Bald as a billiard ball —Anon Of the many objects used as comparisons comparatively liked with baldness, the billiard or cue ball probably ranks at the very top.
Moved thickly, like a clumsy, good-tempered horse —William Faulkner
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Bald as a balloon —Percival Wilde Bald as a bearing —Loren D. Estleman
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THE SIMILES
Bareness
Bald as a brick —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
His strong, bald head had a dull glow, like old ivory —Ivan Bunin
Bald as an egg —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
No more hair than a stone —John MacDonald
Bald as a football —William Boyd Bald as an orange —Thomas Bailey Aldrich
A semi-circular fringe of white hair surrounding his bald pate like a broken halo —Margaret Millar
Bald as a winter tree —William Morris Bald as convicts —George Garrett
< BARENESS
Bald as peeled onion —Margaret Laurence
Bare as the back of my hand —John Ray’s Proverbs
Bald as the beach —William Diehl
As naked as the last leftover clap in a theatre —Joe Coomer
Bald as the palm of your hand —Richard Harris Barham Bald as time —Richard Prome Bald head shining like a polished stone —George Garrett The gleaming skull [of bald-headed man] shone like a supernatural sun —Sholom Ash Had gone completely bald very young as though to get that over with as soon as possible —Helen Hudson Hair beginning to recede like the polar ice cap in warm weather —Jean Thompson Head as smooth as a knob —Russell Baker, New York Times, May 17, 1986 He had a bald patch on the top of his head which made him look rather like a monk —Guy de Maupassant He was bald, his back hair was thick and projected like one of those large tree mushrooms that grow on the mossy side of a trunk —Saul Bellow His bald head coming to a point, like an egg —Richard Llwellyn His bald head shone … like an agitated moon —Erich Maria Remarque His head [bald, with ring of grey-brown hair] was like the brown edges of a leaf in fall, a sign that the tree, however tall and green from a distance, was being eaten away at the edges, dying from the outside in —Jay Parini
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Bare as a birch at Christmas —Sir Walter Scott Scott used this in both The Fortunes of Nigel and Quentin Durward. Bare as a bird’s tail —Edward Ward Bare as a newly shorn sheep —John Lydgate The simile has been modernized from “Bare as a sheep that is but newe shorn.” (There she was, on the bed beside me, as) bareassed as Eve in Eden —George Garrett Bare as shame —Algernon Charles Swinburne Bare as winter trees —William Wordsworth Bare like a carcass picked by crows —Jonathan Swift More desolate than the wilderness —The Holy Bible/Ezekiel Naked as an egg —F. van Wyck Mason Naked as a peach pit —Helen Dudar, Wall Street Journal, November 26, 1986 Even writers not given to using similes often use them as attention-grabbers at the beginning of an article, as Helen Dudar did to introduce her subject, novelist Paget Powell. Naked as a stone —Angela Carter Naked as a table cloth —Frank O’Hara Naked as a weather report —Robert Traver Naked as rain —Wallace Stevens Nude as fruit on limb —George Garrett
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Bargains (Voice wearing) raw as a rubbed heel —Sharon Sheehe Stark (I’m simply against) showing girls as if they were pork chops —Germaine Greer on Playmate features in Playboy Magazine, January, 1972 Standing naked as a dead man’s shadow —A. D. Winans
< BARGAINS See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS
< BARRENNESS See: EMPTINESS
< BASEBALL See Also: SPORTS The ball … came floating up to the plate like a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream bobbing to the top of a drugstore soda —Howard Frank Mosher A ballpark at night is more like a church than a church —W. P. Kinsella The ball … sailed through the light and up into the dark, like a white star seeking an old constellation —Bernard Malamud The ball was coming in like a Lear jet —T. Glen Coughlin Baseball games are like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two are ever alike —W. P. Kinsella Baseball is like writing. You can never tell with either how it will go —Marianne Moore Baseball, like writing, was a passion for Marianne Moore Boston hit Dwight Gooden like they were his wicked stepparents —Vin Scully, commenting on the second game of the 1986 World Series (He) bats like a lightning rod —W.P. Kinsella The catcher is padded like an armchair —London Times, 1918
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THE SIMILES Defeat stains a pitcher’s record as cabernet stains a white carpet —Marty Noble, Newsday, August 25, 1986 The dirt flew as if some great storm had descended and would have ripped up the entire [baseball] field —Craig Wolff, New York Times August 3, 1986 Dwight Gooden [of New York Mets] pitching without his fastball was like Nureyev dancing on a broken leg or Pavarotti singing with a sore throat —Anon, Newsday, October 25, 1986 The earth around the base is … soft as piecrust. Ground balls will die on the second bounce, as if they’ve been hit into an anthill —W. P. Kinsella [Baseball] field … cool as a mine, soft as moss, lying there like a cashmere blanket —W. P. Kinsella (He) bats like a lightning rod —W. P. Kinsella He gets power from his bat speed … it’s like he has cork in his arms —Pete Rose about Eric Davis, David Anderson, New York Times, May 7, 1987 He ran the bases as if he was hauling William H. Taft in a rickshaw —Heywood Broun His fastball crackling, his curveball dropping as suddenly as a duck shot in the air, [Dwight Gooden] has begun his charge for a third straight award-winning season —Ira Berkow, New York Times/Sports of the Times, August 3, 1986 Homers are like orgasms. You run out of them after a time —Norman Keifetz It [the patched-up Shea Stadium field] was dangerous underfoot as the Mets and the cubs tiptoed their way through a 5-0 Met victory the way soldiers would patrol a mine field —George Vecsey, New York Times/Sports of the Times, September 19, 1986 The ball players has to navigate their way through the field like soldiers because their fans had behaves so destructively the day before.
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THE SIMILES Knowing all about baseball is just about as profitable as being a good whittler —Frank McKinney Outfielders ran together as if directed by poltergeists —George Vecsey, New York Times/ Sports of The Times column on dreadful things that happen to the Mets when they play against the Houston Outfielders, October 8, 1986 Someone once described the pitching of a no-hit game as like catching lightning in a bottle (How about catching lightning in a bottle on two consecutive starts?) —W. P. Kinsella Sometimes I hit him like I used to hit Koufax, and that’s like drinking coffee with a fork. Did you ever try that? —Willie Stargell on Steve Carlton, Baseball Illustrated, 1975 Stepping up to the plate now like the Iron Man himself. The wind-up, the delivery, the ball hanging there like a pinata like a birthday gift, and then the stick flashes in your hands like an archangel’s sword —T. Coraghessan Boyle To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim —John Cheever Trying to sneak a pitch past him is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster —Amos Otis, baseball outfielder, about Rod Carew, former first baseman
Beard(s) Bearded like a black sky before a storm —George Garrett Beard not clipped, but flowing like a bridal veil —Sinclair Lewis Beards like Spanish moss —T. Coraghessan Boyle Beard stiff and jutting like a Michelangelo prophet —Harvey Swados Bristly gray beard … as rusted as old iron —Paige Mitchell Flecks of premature gray in his beard, like the first seeds of age beginning to sprout in him —Ross Macdonald Gray beard like a goat’s chin tuft —Ernest Hemingway A heavy black beard that grew high on his cheeks like a mask —James Crumley His beard is like a bird’s nest, woven with dark silks —Bobbie Ann Mason His red beard looked like a toy doctor’s beard stuck on a child’s face —Gloria Norris His sideburn, shaped like the outline of Italy, juts out onto his jaw —Bobbie Ann Mason Long beard was spread out like a little blanket on his chest —Willis Johnson Massive sideburns hung like stirrups on either side of his face —Ross Macdonald
Twenty years ago rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for IBM —George F. Will, on the Chicago Cubs, Washington Post, March 20, 1974
A neat little beard, like a bird’s nest, cupped his chin —Bobbie Ann Mason
< BASKETBALL
Sideburns like brackets —Max Shulman
See: SPORTS
Sideburns stood like powerful bushy pillars to the beard —Saul Bellow
< BEACHES See: OCEAN/OCEANFRONT
A small goatee stuck to his chin like a swab of surgical cotton —Dorothea Straus
< BEARD(S)
A two-day growth of beard that made him look like a cactus —Sue Grafton
See Also: HAIR, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Bearded as Abraham —George Garrett
Whiskers grew like small creeper upon a scorched face —Frank Swinnerton
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A shadow of beard lay over his bony cheeks like soot on a chimney sweep —W. T. Tyler
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Bearing
< BEARING See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS; LYING; PERSONALITY PROFILES; PHYSICAL APPEARANCE; POSTURE; SITTING; STANDING; WALKING
THE SIMILES His shoulders slumped like a man ready to take a beating —James Crumley His straight black hair and craggy face gave off a presence as formidable as an Indian in a gray flannel suit —Norman Mailer,
Carried it [a bright, haggard look] … like a mask or a flag —William Faulkner
Holding herself forward [as she walks] like a present —Alice Adams
Exuded an air, almost an aroma, of justification, like a mother who has lived to see her maligned boy vindicated at last —Harvey Swados
I felt that if he [man with threatening presence] were to rise violently to his feet, the whole room would collapse like paper —Margaret Drabble
Sitting up against the pillow, head back like a boxer between rounds —John le Carré
Lay piled in her armchair like a heap of small rubber tires —Patricia Ferguson
Head lifted as though she carried life as lightly there as if it were a hat made of tulle —Paule Marshall
Leaned forward eagerly … looking like a bird that hears a worm in the ground —Robert Lowry
Held her body with a kind of awkward pride mixed with shame, like a young girl suddenly conscious of her flesh —Ross Macdonald Held herself like a daughter of the Caesars —W. Somerset Maugham Held his shoulders like a man conscious of responsibility —Willa Cather He leaned back and crossed his legs, as if we were settling in front of the television set to watch “Masterpiece Theater” —Joan Hess Her head … carried well back on a short neck, like a general or a statesman sitting for his portrait —Willa Cather He seemed enduringly fixed on the sofa, the one firm object in a turbulent world … like a lighthouse … the firm, majestic lighthouse that sends out its kindly light —Isak Dinesen
A lofty bearing … like a man who had never cringed and never had a creditor —Herman Melville Looked like a prisoner in the dock, hangdog and tentative —T. Coraghessan Boyle Looking regal as a king —Gloria Norris Perched on her armchair like a granite image on the edge of a cliff —Edith Wharton (Sat) prim and watchful as a school girl on her first field trip —Robert Traver Relaxed and regal as a Siamese cat —Harold Adams (They were mute, immobile, pale —as) resigned as prisoners of war —Ignazio Silone Sat like a bronze statue of despair —Louisa May Alcott
He seemed to have collapsed into himself, like a scarecrow in the rain —Christopher Isherwood
Sat like a Greek in a tragedy, waiting for the gods to punish her for her way of life —Jonathan Valin
His chin hung on his hand like dead weight on delicate scales —Reynolds Price
Sat helpless and miserable, like a man lashed by some elemental force of nature —Flannery O’Connor
His erect figure carrying his white hair like a flag —John Updike
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Sat like a man dulled by morphine —Albert Maltz
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THE SIMILES (The leading members of the Ministry) sat like a range of exhausted volcanoes —Benjamin Disraeli Sat on the arm of the sofa with a kind of awkward arrogance, like a workman in a large strange house —Paul Theroux (Professor Tomlinson) sat up in the witness chair like a battleship raising its most powerful gun turret into position to fire —Henry Denker She drew herself up with a jerk like a soldier standing easy called to stand-at-ease position —Kingsley Amis She holds up her head like a hen drinking —Scottish proverb
Beauty Stands there vacantly, like a scared cat —Bobbie Ann Mason Stately [movement] like a sailing ship —William H. Gass Stood around casual as tourists —James Crumley Stood before them, like a prisoner at the bar, or rather like a sick man before the physicians who were to heal him —Edith Wharton Stood in one place, staring back into space and grinding fist into palm, like a bomb looking for someplace to go off —William Diehl Stood looking at us like a figure of doom —Edith Wharton
She walked like a woman at her lover’s funeral —Derek Lambert
Stood morosely apart, like a man absorbed in adding millions of pennies together, one by one —Frank Swinnerton
She was still and soft in her corner [of the room] like a passive creature in its cave —D. H. Lawrence
Stood stiffly as a hanged man —Leigh Allison Wilson
She wore defeat like a piece of cheap jewelry —Pat Conroy
Stood … stiffly, like a page in some ancient court, or like a young prince expecting attention —Mary Hedin
Slumped into her seat like a Pentecostal exhausted from speaking in tongues —Sarah Bird Spread his arms and went springy like a tennis player —Graham Swift Slumps in his chair like a badly hurt man, half life-size —Ted Hughes Standing like a lost child in a nightmare country in which there was no familiar landmark to guide her —Margaret Mitchell Standing … poised and taut as a diver —George Garrett Standing still alone, she seemed almost somber, like a statue to some important but unpopular virtue in a formal garden —Douglas Adams
Stood there like an angry bull that can’t decide who to drive his horns in next —Danny Santiago Walked like a man through ashes, silent and miserable —Robert Culff Went about looking as though she had had a major operation that had not proved a success —Josephine Tey Wore abuse like widow’s weeds —Lael Wertenbaker Wore their beauty and affability like expensive clothes put on for the occasion —Edith Wharton
< BEAUTY
Stands there like a big shepherd dog —Clifford Odets
See Also: BEAUTY, DEFINED; FACE; PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Stands there like a prizefighter, like somebody who knows the score —Raymond Carver
(He was) all beauty, as the sun is all light —Phyllis Bottome
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Beauty Beautiful and faded like an old opera tune played upon a harpsichord —Amy Lowell Beautiful and freckled as a tiger lily —O. Henry, “The Voice of the City” (The Complete Works of O. Henry), 1926
THE SIMILES Beauty in a woman’s face, like sweetness in a woman’s lips, is a matter of taste —M. W. Little Beauty is as good as ready money —German proverb
Beautiful as a feather in one’s cap —Thomas Carlyle
Beauty is striking as deformity is striking —Edmund Burke
(He is) beautiful as a law of chemistry —Robert Penn Warren
Beauty, like a lantern’s light, will shine outward from within him —George Garrett
Beautiful as a motherless fawn —Bruce de Silva
Beauty … like fine cutlery —John Gardner
Beautiful as an angel —William Paterson
Donned beauty like a robe —Iris Murdoch
Beautiful as an icon —Rachel Ingalls
Exquisite as the jam of the gods —Tennessee Williams
Beautiful as an illusion —Angela Carter Beautiful as a prince in a fairy story —Mary Lee Settle Beautiful as a rainbow —John Dryden
Fair as the lily —Henry Constable, “Damelus Song to His Diaphenia,” 1859 One of the most popular and enduring flower/ beauty comparisons.
Beautiful as a well-handled tool —Stephen Vincent Benét
Fair as any rose —Christina Rossetti
Beautiful as a woman’s blush and as evanescent too —Letitia Landon
Fair as heaven or freedom won —Algernon Charles Swinburne
(For he was) beautiful as day —Lord Byron
Fair as is the rose in May —Geoffrey Chaucer
Beautiful as fire —Ambrose Bierce
Fair as marble —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Beautiful as honey poured from a jar —People book review
Fairer than the morning star —Oscar Wilde
Fair as a star —William Wordsworth
(There was a woman) beautiful as morning —Percy Bysshe Shelley
A fair face without a fair soul is like a glass eye that shines and sees nothing —John Stuart Blackie
Beautiful as nature in the spring —O. S. Wondersford
Gorgeous as Aladdin’s cave —Eleanor Mercein Kelly
Beautiful as sky and earth —John Greenleaf Whittier
(In the dingy park) her beauty fled as swiftly as the marmalade kitten had leapt from her grasp —William Trevor
(She was) as beautiful as the devil, and twice as dangerous —Dashiell Hammett Beautiful as youth —Dollie Radford
Her beauty was as cool as this damp breeze, as the moist softness of her own lips —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beautiful … like a dream of youth —Oliver Wendell Holmes
He’s as pretty as those long-defunct lover-gods —Charles Simic
Beauty … extraordinary, as if it were painted —Anita Brookner
(A novel that would be as) lovely as a Persian carpet, and as unreal —Oscar Wilde
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THE SIMILES Lovely as Spring’s first rose —William Wordsworth
Beauty Defined You boys are as cute as a couple of lost golf balls —Raymond Chandler, The High Window
Lovely as the evening moon —Amy Lowell Outstanding beauty, like outstanding gifts of any kind, tends to get in the way of normal emotional development, and thus of that particular success in life which we call happiness —Milton R. Sapirstein Pretty as a diamond flush —Alfred Henry Lewis (Face … ) pretty as a greeting card —Donald E. Westlake Pretty as a new-laid egg —American colloquialism, attributed to Midwest (There sat Mary) pretty as a rose —Jump Rope Rhyme Pretty as a spotted pony —American colloquialism, attributed to Southeast Pretty as a spotted pup —Mary Hood Pretty as a wax doll —Katherine Mansfield
< BEAUTY DEFINED Beauty as definite as that of a symphony by Beethoven or a picture by Titan —W. Somerset Maugham Beauty can pierce one like a pain —Thomas Mann Beauty in a modest woman is like a distant fire or a sharp-edged sword: the one does not burn, the other does not cut, those who do not come near it —Miguel de Cervantes Beauty is a fading flower —The Holy Bible/Isaiah Beauty is like an almanac; if it lasts a year, it is well —Thomas Adam Beauty is like summer fruits which are easy to corrupt and cannot last —Francis Bacon Transposed for modern style from “beauty is as summer fruits.”
Pretty as the carved face on a … cameo —Davis Grubb
Beauty … is like the morning dew —Samuel Daniel
Pretty like children on their birthdays —Truman Capote
Beauty is like the surf that never ceases —Struthers Burt
Shed beauty like winter trees —George Garrett
Beauty is the virtue of the body, as virtue is the beauty of the soul —Ralph Waldo Emerson
She walks in beauty like the night —Lord Byron A timeless and much-quoted Byron line. It continues with “of cloudless nights and starry skies.”
Beauty, like supreme dominion is best supported by opinion —Jonathan Swift
She was as cute as a washtub —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Beauty, like truth and justice, lives within us —George Bancroft
She was lovely as a flower, and, like a flower, she passed away —Richard Le Gallienne
Beauty, like wit, to judges should be shown —Lord Lyttleton
There is in true beauty, as in courage, something which narrow souls cannot dare to admire —William Congreve In the original manuscript of The Old Bachelor the word “something” was “somewhat.”
The beauty of a lovely woman is like music —George Eliot
A thing of beauty is a joy forever —John Keats A Keats classic that proves discretion is best when it comes to including or implying “like” or “as.”
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Beauty passes like a breath —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Beauty vanishes like vapor —Harriet Prescott Spofford Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait —Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Beginnings and Endings
THE SIMILES
Beauty without modesty is like a flower broken from its stem —Anon
Like a horse breaking from the gate, my life had begun —Scott Spencer
Beauty without virtue is a rose without fragrance —German and Danish proverbs
Like some low and mournful spell, we whisper that sad word, “farewell” —Park Benjamin
Glorious beauty is like a fading flower —The Holy Bible/Isaiah
Parted [husband and wife] as an arrow from the bowstring —Amy Lowell
Women’s beauty, like men’s wit, is generally fatal to the owners —Lord Chesterfield Had Chesterfield lived to become attuned to nonsexist language he might have eliminated the gender references as follows: “Beauty, like wit, is generally fatal to the owners.”
Parting is inevitably painful … like an amputation —Anne Morrow Lindbergh
< BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
Things [like, popularity] come and go, like the business cycle —William Brammer
See Also: BIRTH, ENTRANCES AND EXITS Breaking off with a hard dry finality, like a human relationship —Lawrence Durrell [A distressing event] Came like a door banging on to a silent room —Hugh Walpole Comes and goes like a cyclone —Marianne Hauser Comes and goes like a fever —George Garrett (My urge to gamble) comes and goes like hot flashes —Tallulah Bankhead Come to a final end like a step climbed or a text memorized —John Cheever [The ecstasies and tears of youth] Die like the winds that blew the clouds from overhead —Noel Coward, lyrics for “Light Is the Heart” Ebbing then flowing in again, like mud tides around a mollusk —Julia O’Faolain Finished, like the flipped page of a book (this day was finished … ) —Isaac Bashevis Singer The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little —Jonathan Swift It was over, gone like a furious gust of black wind —William Faulkner Leaving [a place to which one has become accustomed] is like tearing off skin —Larry McMurtry
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(You and that money are going to be) separated like yolks and whites —Saul Bellow Spent is my passion like a river dried up by the sun’s fierce rays —W. Somerset Maugham
< BEHAVIOR See Also: ACTION, LIFE, MANKIND, PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY Accepted the crisp bills with a certain famished delicacy, like an aristocrat determined not to slaver at the sight of food —John Farris Accumulated [information] like a nest-building bird —Louis Auchincloss Act badly … like a man hitting a woman in the breast —G.B. Shaw Acted bored but patient, as though an enthusiastic acquaintance had just shown him the picture of a new grandchild —Joel Swerdlow Allowed himself to be absorbed (into the softly palpitating life about him,) like a tired traveler sinking, at his journey’s end, into a warm bath —Edith Wharton As touchy as cabaret performers and as stubborn as factory machinists —Justin Cartwright, To Heaven by Water Ate like Satan, and worked like a gnat —A. E. Coppard Attention-getting behavior … like I was screaming at the universe [to fulfill my ambitions] —Mel Brook, Playboy, April, 1973 Battled failure like the seven plagues —Anon
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THE SIMILES
Behavior
Behave … like a sort of love-crazed sparrow —Roald Dahl
Gripped life like a wrestler with a bull, impetuously —Stephen Vincent Benét
Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He had a way of … suddenly pouncing on something [someone says] that interested him, like a heron spearing a fish —Antonia White
Bluster like the north wind —Mrs. Centlivre Butters it [the truth] over like a slice of bread —Erich Maria Remarque In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses the simile to explain that man is “Essentially a beast” but covers up this truth “With a little decorum.”
Her not doing it was like the Baskerville hound that didn’t bark —William Dieter
(All he was doing was) calling attention to himself, rather like those movie stars who go around wearing dark glasses on cloudy days —Loren D. Estleman
I talk half the time to find out my own thoughts, as a schoolboy turns his pockets inside out to see what is in them —Oliver Wendell Holmes
Carrying on like a revivalist facing a full tent —Robert Traver Charm was put forward like a piece of acting in a theatre —Hugh Walpole Clutched at her throat like one stifled for want of air —Anzia Yezierska Crawl into (his secret life) and nestled there, like the worm in the rose —Mary McCarthy Dangled herself [before men] … like a drum majorette —Margaret Millar
In public, they act like flat-chested old maids preaching temperance —Charles Simic Intruded upon my vision like a truck on an empty road —Mary Gordon
Jerked at the [fishing] net like a penitent —T. Coraghessan Boyle Like a nun withdrawing, or a child exploring a tower, she went upstairs —Virginia Woolf Lived and behaved like that sandpiper [in my poem] … just running along the edges of different countries, looking for something —Elizabeth Bishop, acceptance speech at University of Oklahoma, 1976 on receiving an Books Abroad/Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Deny like a piano player in a bordello who claimed he didn’t know what went on upstairs —Ed McBain
Looked round … desperately like someone trying to find a way of crossing a muddy path without getting her shoes soiled —Franz Werfel
Flinched as if someone had thrown a baseball directly at his face —Graham Masterton
Lurking like a funeral director at a christening —W. P. Kinsella
Flinched back like a box turtle into its shell —F. van Wyck Mason
Many talk like philosophers, and live like fools —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs
Flirtatious as a Southern belle —Alice McDermott
Men’s behavior should be like their apparel, not too straight … but free for exercise or motion —Francis Bacon
For the promise of favor he will kneel down and lick boots like a spaniel —George Garrett Glancing around him like a hunting dog nosing for a spoor —Kenzaburo Oe Go forward like a stoic Roman —Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Nodded judiciously like someone making a mental note —Lynne Sharon Schwartz Pedestrians in the East behave like lemmings rushing dispassionately to their deaths —W. P. Kinsella
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Behavior People loll upon the beaches ripening like gaudy peaches —Ogden Nash Play with … like a clever cat with a rubber mouse —Maureen Howard (She) poured out feelings and thoughts that most people keep to themselves like a prodigal flinging gold pieces to a scrambling crowd —W. Somerset Maugham
THE SIMILES Shrugged their shoulders as if to shake off whatever chips of responsibility might have lodged there —Helen Hudson Spoke like a fool, and acted like a fiddler —Saul Bellow Stuffed his own emptiness with good work like a glutton —Flannery O’Connor
Pushed me across [stage] like a broom —Edith Pearlman
Swallowed his temper but it left a sour taste in his stomach like heartburn —Donald McCaig
Pull rank like a little red wagon (if it’d get her a place in the shade) —Tom Robbins
Swallowing hard like a stiff-necked goose —Paige Mitchell
(Mary) pulled nerves like string in a blanket —Louise Erdrich
Talk like a saint and behave like a fool —Jerome K. Jerome
Pushing and jostling like a stormy sea —Stephen Vincent Benét
Talks like a prophet and acts like a comedian —Amos Oz
Raving, but soundlessly … so that she looked like a film of herself without a sound-track —Lawrence Durrell Recoiled … like a man walking in his sleep, awakened from a frightful dream —Charles Dickens Rose like a trout to the fly or a pickerel to the spoon —Mary McCarthy The simile as used in the short story, “Yellowstone Park,” describes a character who’s an easy prey for any appeal for money to be spent for educational purposes. (A day after helping the Giants to their victory over the Raiders in Los Angeles, Lionel Manuel, the third-year wide receiver) sauntered through the locker room like an explorer just back from a glorious expedition —William R. Rhoden, New York Times, September 23, 1986 (She sat in bed,) sharpening her charms and her riddles like colored pencils —Yehuda Amichai She went toward the sitting room seeking him like a cold animal seeking the fire —Margaret Mitchell Shook himself like an angry little dog coming out of the water —Barbara Pym
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Thought and action … were simultaneous in her, rather like thunder and lightning —Leigh Allison Wilson Took them [spectacles] off, polished the lenses, and held them to the light like a spinster checking her crystal —Donald MacKenzie Were MacKenzie writing the novel from which this is culled, Postscript to a Dead Letter, he might well use a new bride or a proud homeowner instead of spinster, which has fallen into disfavor. Toys with … as with a yo-yo —Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli representative to the United Nations, New York Times, November 23, 1986 This simile was used in connection with an article on Syrian terrorism. Typically, the simile was highlighted as a blurb! Treat us like mushroom … keep us in the dark and throw shit at us —Loren D. Estleman Used tranquilizing drugs … like the inhabitants of besieged medieval cities who, surprised by death, went back to bed, trying to fall asleep by telling themselves that the threatening flames were only a nightmare —Marguerite Yourcenar
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THE SIMILES Using a … flippant tone, as if he were talking about people in a play, or watching the ceiling at the dentist’s —Ross Macdonald Wore abuse like widow’s weeds —Lael Wertenbaker (Unbidden Guests, 1970)
< BELIEFS See Also: GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, RELIGION Belief is as necessary to the soul as pleasures are necessary to the body —Elsa Schiaparelli Belief, light as a drum rattle, touches us —A. R. Ammons Communism is like Prohibition, it’s a good idea but it won’t work —Will Rogers Conservatives, like embalmers, would keep intact the forms from which the vital principle has fled —John Lancaster Spalding Convictions … the deeper you went the filmier the convictions got, until they were like an underwater picture, shifting, dreamy, out of focus —Wilfrid Sheed Fascism would sprout to life like a flower through a coffin’s cracks, watered by the excreta of the dead —Dylan Thomas Faith is like a lily lifted high and white —Christina Georgina Rossetti Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope —Herman Melville
Beliefs course by them —Carl Schurz speech, Faneuil Hall, Boston, April 18, 1859 (He was fast in the clutches of his theory.) It seemed to guide him like some superior being seated at the helm of his intelligence —Edith Wharton (Fanatics are a pain.) It’s like talking to a rock trying to talk to a fanatic —Robert Campbell Living up to ideals is like doing every day work with your Sunday clothes on —Ed Howe Love of country is like love of woman … he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good —Felix Adler A man’s ideal, like his horizon, is constantly receding from him as he advances toward it —W. G. T. Shedd (Like many another big boss,) nationalism is largely bogus … like a bunch of flowers made out of plastics —J. B. Priestly One by one, like leaves from a tree all my faiths have forsaken me —Sara Teasdale Our dogmas have been greatly enlarged to make them fit in with all sorts of necessities, so that they are like a patched coat, well-worn, and comfortable to wear. Our religion is as variegated as a Harlequin’s dress —Anatole France Patriotism is a kind of religion: it is the egg from which wars are hatched —Guy de Maupassant
Faith … stronger than a bank vault —Jimmy Breslin
Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone and irrational as a headless man —Ambrose Bierce
His religious ethics fell like drowned fences —Graham Masterson
(I think) patriotism is like charity —it begins at home —Henry James
Ideals are like comets, revisit the earth periodically after long cycles of years —always excepting the enormous ideas that so many sublime donkeys envision of themselves —Punch, 1850
Principles are like mountains; they rise very near heaven, but when they stand in our way, we drive a tunnel through them —Cardinal Rampolla
Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our
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Skepticism [in preference to superstition] … it seems to be like a choice between lunacy and idiocy, death by fire or by water —Henry
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Believability James, letter to Thomas Sergeant Perry, November 1, 1863 The theory towered up … like some high landmark by which travelers shape their course —Edith Wharton We naturally lose illusions as we get older, like teeth —Sydney Smith When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again. —Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, in response to his daughter’s pleas to compromise his ideals and save his life.
THE SIMILES Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in milk —Henry David Thoreau That this feeble, unintelligent old man was possessed of such power … seemed as impossible to believe as that he had once been a pink-and white baby —F. Scott Fitzgerald To tell a soldier defending his country that this is The War That Will End War is exactly like telling a workman, naturally rather reluctant to do his day’s work, that this is The Work That Will End Work —G. K. Chesterton
A wise conviction is like light —Sir Arthur Helps
Unimaginable as hate in heaven —John Milton The word ‘heaven’ has been modernized from ‘heav’n’ as it appeared in Paradise Lost.
< BELIEVABILITY
Unthinkable as an honest burglar —H. L. Mencken
As full of shit as a Christmas goose —American colloquialism
The whole idea was fantastic, like a polar bear in the Sahara desert —Ken Follett
Believable as a declaration of eternal love from a call girl —Elyse Sommer
< BELONGING
Believable as a forced confession —Anon Believable as the testimony of a proven perjurer —Anon Giving up credibility in a free society is like giving up force in a totalitarian society —Mario M. Cuomo, commenting on President’s Special Review Board findings on the Reagan Administration’s involvement in Iran-Contra affair, New York Times, March 1, 1987 It’s [my growing cold towards him ] unbelievable … as if I had suddenly waked and found this lake dried up and sunk in the ground —Anton Chekhov The comparison from Chekhov’s play The Sea Gull refers the relationship between two of the characters, Nina and Trepleff. Like a man who dreams he sees a friend run on him sword in hand, felt not pain so much as a wild incredulity —Dorothy Canfield Shadowy and plausible as a ghost —W. D. Snodgrass
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As much at home … as a fish in water —Honoré de Balzac An enduring comparison, as illustrated by a 1986 quote from the New York Times: “We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” As much out of his element as an eel in a sandbag —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs As well adapted to the purpose as a one-pronged fork for pitching hay —Herman Melville (She had) clicked into place [as teacher in school] like a well-hung door closing evenly —Barry Targan Felt as well placed in the world as a fresh loaf of bread —Laurie Colwin Fit [poor fit] like a breeching on a pig —Anon Fit like a duck’s foot in the mud —Anon Fit … like a tongue into a groove —Jonathan Valin in the novel Life’s Work, the simile refers to the way a man’s body fits into a chair.
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THE SIMILES
Bending/Bent
Fits as a hollow fits a circle —Anon
Bend like sheets of tin —Palmer Cox
Fits him as easily as his skin —Thomas Hughes
Bends with her laugh … like a rubber stick being shaken —Alice McDermott
Fits like the skin on a sausage —Anon Fitted (into their scheme of life) as a well-made reel fits the butt of a good rod —Henry Van Dyke
Bent as a country lane —John Wainwright
Fitted in like a Marine in a parade —William Beechcroft
Bent down like violets after rain —Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Fitted (its new home) like a coin in a slot —George Garrett
Bent like a birch ice-laden —James Agee
Fitting comfortable and heavy like a gun in a holster —George Garrett I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye Like a barber’s chair, fit for everyone —Thomas Fuller Like Miniver Cheevy, he had been born too late —Joseph Heller Looking as lost as a shipwrecked mariner —Yisrael Zarchi [Feel] misplaced … as if she had been expelled from a dream which she would have dearly loved to remain —Milan Hundera
Bent double like a tree in a high wind —Caryl Phillips
Bent like a bow —Aharon Megged A variation on the bent bow image from William McIlvanney’s novel, Laidlow: “Arching his body like a bow.” Bent like a broken flower —Algernon Charles Swinburne Bent like a rainbow —Robert Southey Another way to express this image is to be “Bent like a rainbow arch.” Bent … like a soldier at the approach of an assault —Victor Hugo Bent like a wishbone —William Kennedy Bent slightly like a man who has been shot but continues to stand —Flannery O’Connor
Part of the landscape, like a tree —John Updike
(The headwaiter) bowed like a poppy in the breeze —Ogden Nash
Salander fitted into this picture about as well as a buffalo at a boat show —Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Bows down like a willow tree in a storm —Erich Maria Remarque
Swam as happily in society as a fish swam in schools —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Coiled like a fetus —William H. Gass A variation by Derek Lambert: “Curled up like a bulky fetus.”
< BENDING/BENT
Coiled up like the letter “s” —Damon Runyon
As crooked as a corkscrew —George Kaufman and Moss Heart
Crooked like a comma —Sharon Sheehe Stark
As crooked as a dog’s elbow —F.T. Elworthy
Curled himself like a comma into the waiting cab —William H. Hallhan
As crooked as a ram’s horn —Charles Caleb Colton
Curled like a ball —Sterling Hayden
Bending from the waist as if he was going to close up like a jackknife —John Dos Passos
Curled up [in sleeping position] like a fist around an egg —Leonard Michaels
Bend like a finger joint —Charles Wright
Curled up like a gun-dog —Colette
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Curled up in a ball like a wet puppy —Amos Oz
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Benefits
THE SIMILES
(Bent over your books) curled up like a porcupine with a bellyache —Marge Piercy
Bewildering like a fruitless spring —Jean Garrigue
Curled up like fried bacon —Anon
Confounded utterly, like an orphan in solitary confinement —Jean Stafford
Curling up like a small animal —Nina Bawden Curling up like burning cardboard —Lawrence Durrell [A cat] Curls up like a dormer mouse —Jayne Anne Phillips Drooped like a flower in the frost —John Greenleaf Whittier Folded over like a ruler from the waist —William Gass Folded up, like a marionette with cheap wooden hinges, and sat down —Graham Masterton (Never will I be) gibbous like the moon —Diane Ackerman Lean forward like firemen pulling a hose —Miller Williams
Confused, like a mourner who has wandered into the wrong funeral parlor —James Crumley He’s as mixed up as the twentieth century —Clifford Odets Inexplicable as the birth of a star —Stephen Vincent Benét It [Speaking candidly] muddled her like wine, or like a first breath of freedom —Kate Chopin Mysterious as the sea —Robert Traver So confused he’s like a hypnotized rabbit —Derek Lambert Wrinkled his long nose uncertainly, like a hound robbed of the scent by heavy rain —Donald Seaman
Tilting like a paper cutout —Susan Minot
< BIBLE
Twisted as an old paint tube —Fannie Hurst
See: BOOKS
A very old lady, her back curved over like a snail’s —Daphne Merkin
< BICYCLING See: SPORTS
< BENEFITS See: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS
< BIGNESS
< BEREAVEMENT
See Also: FATNESS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, TALLNESS Ample as a fat man’s waistline —Anon
See: GREIF, SADNESS
As large as life —Maria Edgeworth
< BEWILDERMENT See Also: EMOTIONS, STRANGENESS As confounding as the groom who drives into a stop sign on the way to his wedding —Amy Hempel As puzzling as a page in an unknown language —Henry James In James’ story, The Pupil, the personality of one of the characters serves as a frame of reference for the comparison.
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As large as life and twice as natural —Anon While this is most commonly attributed to Lewis Carroll, who used it in Through the Looking Glass in 1873, Stevenson’s Proverbs, Maxims and Famous Phrases includes an earlier (though likely not the earliest) source, Cuthbert Bede’s 1853 work, Verdant Green. Big as a braggart’s mouth —Anon Big as a den bear —Richard Ford Big as a draft animal —William Brammer
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THE SIMILES
Birds
Big as all out of doors —Anon
< BIRDS
[A man] big as an express train —T. Coraghessan Boyle
See Also: ANIMALS, INSECTS, SINGING
(Bombers) big as bowling alleys —Marge Piercy
Bird, its little black feet tucked under its belly like miniature bombs —Peter Meinke
A big man, filling the chair like a great mound of wheat —H.R.F. Keating
Birds afloat, like a scarf —Babette Deutsch
Great as man’s ambition —Dame Edith Sitwell Huge as a planet —Lord Byron Huge as mountains —Walter Savage Landor Immense as whales —Sir William Davenant Large as a log of maple —Refrain from “Yankee Doodle,” early American folk song (My disappointment) large as capsized tugs —Richard Eberhart
Birds … bobbed like clothespins on the telephone line —Elizabeth Savage Birds … circling like black leaves —Hugh Walpole Birds flew up like black gloves jerked from a line —Paul Theroux Birds … gliding like pieces of dark paper abandoned suddenly by an erratic wind —John Rechy
A large business organization is like a damn big dragon. You kick it in the tail, and two years later, it feels it in the head —Frederick Kappell, Look, August 28, 1962 Kappell, chairman of American Telephone and Telegraph, began his comparison with “the Bell System is … ” instead of the more general phrase used here.
Bird, shaped like the insides of a yawning mouth —Charles Simic
A list big as a comedian’s gag file —Anon Over-sized like a clown’s shoes —Anon
Bird songs rang in the air like dropped coins —George Garrett
She’s big as a damned barn and tough as knife metal —Ken Kesey
Birds rose into the air like blown leaves (at his approach) —Margaret Millar
She was big as three women —Ernest Hemingway
The birds sang as if every sparkling drop were a fountain of inspiration to them —Charles Dickens
Vast a water —Madeleine L’Engle Vast like the inside of a Pharaoh’s tomb —Arthur A. Cohen. Taken from Cohen’s novel In the Days of Simon Stern, the comparison describes New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Birds in flight, fluid as music on a page —Anne Morrow Lindberg Birds … like planes stacked up over the airport, circling until they get a permission-to-land signal —Italo Calvino
Birds … they roll like a drunken fingerprint across the sky —Richard Wilbur (Birds) twitter louder than a flute —Phyllis McGinley Birds … white as scraps of paper —Willa Cather
< BIGOTRY See: INTOLERANCE
< BIOGRAPHY See: BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING
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Crows whirled lazily in the sky like flakes of black ash rising from a fire —Guy Vanderhaeghe A dove … glistening like a pearl —Hans Christian Andersen
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Birth The eagles were reveling in the air like bank robbers who had broken into the vault —Edward Hoagland A flight of egrets … flying low, and scattered … like a ripple of white notes, sweet and pure and springlike, which an unseen hand drew forth, like a divine arpeggio, from an unseen harp —W. Somerset Maugham
THE SIMILES The pigeons lolloped from illusory pediment to window-ledge like volatile, feathered madmen, chattering vile rhymes and laughing in hoarse, throaty voices —Angela Carter Pigeons … settled into trees that shone with them like soft blue and gray fruit —Marge Piercy Pigeons … with spreading wings like falling snow —Émile Zola
A flock of white swans flew like a long white veil over the water —Hans Christian Andersen
Soared high above the other birds, climbing like a dart —R.Wright Campbell
The fluttering, honking formation of birds was like a ship borne by the wind into the high invisible distance —Bernard Malamud
A solid line of pelicans flew … in graceful unison like a crew of oarsman in a racing shell —George Garrett
Geese … blackening the sky like a shake of pepper —Diane Ackerman
Sparrows scatter like handfuls of gravel —William H. Gass
Gulls cry like hurt children —George Garrett
Storks and pelicans flew in a line like waving ribbons —Hans Christian Andersen
Gulls … settling and stirring like blown paper —Sylvia Plath A handful of thrushes set down in an oak tree, like a flurry of leaves —Linda Bierds This simile marks the closing of Bierds’ poem “Mid-Plains Tornado.” (The great) hawk circling like a black planet —Ellen Gilchrist Hens … like dowager women, plump and impeccably arrayed in brown and grey —Rolf Yngve
Swans floated about like white lanterns —Lawrence Durrell Swans go by like a snowy procession of Popes —George Garrett Terns rise like seafoam from the breaking surf —Robert Hass White gulls … in such close formation they were like a cloud —Phyllis Roberts
His wings [Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s] were smooth and perfect as sheets of polished silver —Richard Bach
< BIRTH
Hummingbird … with a beak that looked as long as a darning needle and about as sharp —A. E. Maxwell
Birth and death are like two ships in a harbor. There is no reason to rejoice at the ship setting out on a journey [birth], not knowing what she may encounter on the high seas, but we should rejoice at the ship returning to port [death] safely —Amora Levi
A jaybird … flying in a feathered flash of blue and white like a swift piece of the sky —George Garrett The parrots shriek as if they were on fire —Ted Hughes In a poem entitled “The Jaguar,” the parrots not only shriek but “strut like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.”
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See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DEATH, ENTRANCES AND EXITS, LIFE
Into the world we come like ships launch’d from the docks, and stocks, and slips, for fortune fair or fatal! —Edward Fitzgerald Once upon a time we were all born, popped out like jelly rolls —Anne Sexton
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THE SIMILES Passed like an envelope through a letter box [about an easy birth] –Anais Nin The solemnity of birth, like that of death, is lost in repulsive or merely commonplace details for those who are in attendance —Marguerite Yourcenar
< BITTERNESS See Also: ANGER, FRIENDSHIP, LOVE Bitter and sharp as a pulled leek with earth still clinging to it —George Garrett
Black A flood of bitterness that washes over me every seven minutes like plagues visited upon a speeded-up pharaoh —William H. Gass
< BLACK See Also: COLORS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS; GLOOM (Hair) black and gleaming as a new galosh —Loren D. Estleman (The newel post) black and shiny as a skull —W. P. Kinsella
Bitter as a broken friendship –Anon
Black as a black poodle’s nose —Babette Deutsch
Bitter as acorns —Ann Tyler
Black as a baker’s shovel —Isaac Bashevis Singer
Bitter as a day of mourning —Joseph Conrad
[A hall] Black as a billy goat’s belly —Ruth Chatterton
(My youth was) bitter as a hard green fruit —Marilyn Hacker Bitter as alum —Reynolds Price (The air was) bitter as a stiffed hooker —Loren D. Estleman Bitter as a tear —Algernon Charles Swinburne Bitter as blood —Algernon Charles Swinburne Bitter as coffee that’s set too long —Rebecca Rule A variation: “bitter as warmed up coffee.” (His voice was) bitter as dregs —Stephen Crane Bitter as gall —John Webster Bitter as self-sacrifice —Elizabeth Barrett Browning Bitter as soot —Laurence Sterne Bitter as the breaking down of love —Algernon Charles Swinburne Bitter to me as death —William Shakespeare Cymbeline Bitter as wormwood —The Holy Bible/Proverbs Bitterness … kept coming back like a taste in the mouth after eating something bad —Rachel Ingalls Embittered in mind, as a bear robbed of her whelps —The Holy Bible/Samuel
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Black as a bull-moose in December —Henry Van Dyke Black as a child’s midnight waking —Marge Piercy Black as a crow —Petronius An ancient simile that’s still going strong, with “Black as a raven” from The Holy Bible the most frequently used variant Black as a funeral procession —Diane Ackerman [Darkening sky] Black as a giant tortoise —Stefan Zweig Black as a heavy smoker’s lungs —Elyse Sommer Black as a manic depressive’s thoughts —Elyse Sommer (The room was) black as an honest politician’s prospects —Dashiell Hammett Black as an undertaker’s hat —Donald Seaman Black as a pine at night —Stephen Vincent Benét (Locks) black as a raven —The Holy Bible/Song of Solomon Black as a stack of black cats in the dark —H.W. Thompson Black as a tar-barrel —Lewis Carroll Black as black —W.B. Yeats
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Blessedness
THE SIMILES
(Eyes … ) black as bottomless water —Ellen du Pois Taylor
It [a room] was black as the inside of a cat —Davis Grubb
(Eyes) black as caverns —T. Coraghessan Boyle
The sky was as black as a monsoon —Dominique Lapierre
(Black coats were) black as coffins —Rebecca West Black as despair —John Phillips Black as dusk —William Styron
< BLESSEDNESS See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
Black as ebony —Oscar Wilde
< BLINDNESS
Black like an oven (our kin was … ) —The Holy Bible/Lamentations
See Also: EYE(S), EYE EXPRESSIONS, BLANK Blind as a bat —Anon Attribution for this enduringly popular cliché dates back to the seventeenth century and a somewhat longer old English version from John Clarke’ Paromiologia: “Blind as a bat at noone.” Less used variants are “Blind as a beetle” and “blind as a buzzard.”
Black as fate —Dame Edith Sitwell Black as hell —William Shakespeare Shakespeare, the master of so many similes, can be credited for a fair share of the best-known “black as” comparisons. Besides this one from Hamlet, and Sonnet/147, they include “Black as ink,” “Black as ebony,” and “Black as jet.” Black as midnight without a moon —Anon Black as murder —Thomas Dekker
Blind as a flame of fire —Algernon Charles Swinburne Blind as a fool’s heart —Robert Browning
Black as perjury —Anon
Blind [about understanding love and hate] as a newborn child —Marguerite Duras
(Our hands were) black as potatoes dug from the ground —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Blind as a newt —Leigh Allison Wilson
As black as some charred rafter —W. D. Snodgrass Black as sorrow —Sir Philip Sidney Black as the ace of spades —Anon Black as the devil’s hind foot —T.C. Haliburton Black as the devil’s heart —Ariel Dorfman Black as the head of a hanged man —F. D. Reeve (Black holes) black as the moments before birth and after death —T. Coraghessan Boyle Black as thunder —William Makepeace Thackeray
Blind as a night fog —Daniel Berrigan Blind as a stone —Anon This still commonly used expression dates back to the fourteenth century, even before Chaucer used it in Canterbury Tales: “Blind as is a stoon.” (Eyes staring) blind as glass —Rose Tremain Blind as Hell —William Habbington Blind as ignorance —Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Blind as inexperience —Victor Hugo Blind as love —Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Their visages) blacker than coal —The Holy Bible/Lamentation
Blind as maggots —Mark Helprin
(Deep and) black like an abyss —Aharon Megged
(Bright and) blind as the moon in the blank midmorning sky —F. D. Reeve
Black … like a subway tunnel —William Faulkner
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Blind as night —Beryl Markham
Blind as the waves of the sea —Eva Gore-Booth
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THE SIMILES
Blue
Oblivious of … as an ant or flea might be to the sound of the avalanche on which it rides —William Faulkner
Blue as a jay bird’s wing —Ellen Glasgow
< BLOOD
(Sky … ) blue as a staring Northern eye —Elizabeth Enright
See Also: : VIOLENCE Bleeding like a stuck pig —Anon Bleed, like a can of cherries —D. H. Lawrence Blood … hot and sticky like spilled wine —Harvey Swados Blood is like a parachute. If it’s not there when you need it, you’ll probably never need it again —slogan for blood donor drive, June, 1987 Blood spouting … as generously as water from a fountain —Jack London Blood like turpentine —George Garrett Blood spurting out of his nose holes like tomato puree —Jay Parini Bloodthirsty as a tick —Diane Ackerman Blood … which flows like a scream through the woods —Charles Simic Bubbled blood like a little red spring —William Goyen Face bloody as raw pork —Nelson Algren [Man in hopes of improving world] scatters blood like a fish leaping from a lake —Janet Flanner Stale, coppery smell [of blood], like the taste of pennies on the tongue —Jonathan Valin
(Eyes as) Blue as a peacock’s neck —Flannery O’Connor
Blue as autumn mist —Thomas Hardy (Eyes as) blue as corn-flowers —Lawrence Durrell (Sea and sky are a matched set) blue as delftware —T. Coraghessan Boyle (Eyes) blue as heaven —Lord Byron Other famous poets to link heaven and the color blue include Christina Rosetti with “Sapphires shining blue as heaven” and Percy Bysshe Shelley with “Blue as the overhanging heaven.” For every day usage there’s “Blue as the sky.” Blue as hyacinths —Richard Ford Blue as melancholy —Anon (Sky) blue as the core of a match flame —George Garrett Blue as the decks of the sea —Dame Edith Sitwell Blue as the glimpses of sea beyond —John Greenleaf Whittier Blue as the nose that graduate drunkards wear —Don Marquis Blue as the sky —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Blue as with the cold —Israel Zangwill
< BLOOMING
Blue like a corpse —Nikolai V. Gogol
See: GROWTH
Blue [of a repelling place] … like the color of the lips of an asthmatic plumber dying of lead poisoning who has put himself out of his misery with cyanide —Gerald Kersh
< BLUE See Also: COLORS Blue and delicate as spring sky reflected in an old window —Elizabeth Spencer
Blue like the last thundercloud of a tempest dispersed —Alexander Pushkin
(Eyes) blue as chicory in bloom —Ed McBain
Pale blues like old people’s eyes —Edna O’Brien
(Sky … ) blue as a robin’s egg —Lee Smith
Your eyes were bluer than robin’s eggs —Joan Baez, “Diamonds and Rust”
Blue as a brochure sea —William McIlvanney
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Blushes
< BLUSHES See Also: FACIAL COLOR, RED, SHAME, SHYNESS Blood gushed crimson to her cheek … as though red wine had been poured into a crystal glass —Stefan Zweig The blood showed clearly [on his face], like wine stains a pearly glass —Elinor Wylie Blushed like a beetroot —Anatoly Rybakof Blushed like a brick —Samuel Hopkins Adams Blushed like a rose —Isak Dinesen Blushed, like a wave of illness —Nadine Gordimer Blushes rising like the tide —Lael Wertenbaker Blushing like a strawberry —Marcel Proust Blushing like a tomato —E. V. Lucas Blushing pink as dawn —George Garrett Blush like a black dog —John Ray’s Proverbs
THE SIMILES Red crawling across her face like a stain —Harvey Swados Ruddiness spreading across her cheeks like a wound —Joseph Koenig Turned all colors —as a peacock’s tail, or sunset streaming through a Gothic skylight —Lord Byron Turned as red as a winter apple —American colloquialism The comparison of blushing cheeks to apples is common in every day language as well as literature. An example of the latter: “Color like an apple” from Truman Capote’s short story “Children on Their Birthdays.” Turned red as … a nectarine, as a dahlia, as the most divinely red thing in the world —Colette
< BOATS See: SEASCAPES
Blush like a geranium —Harry Graham A blush that felt like a gasoline fire —R. V. Cassill
< BODY
Color came to his face like blood on a galled fish —Loren D. Estleman
See Also: AGILITY, AWKWARDNESS, BODY ORGANS, FATNESS, MUSCLES, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, SHOULDERS, STRENGTH, STOMACH, THINNESS (A big soft) ass as wide as an axhandle —George Garrett
The color flew in her face like a flag —D. H. Lawrence A deep flush enveloped him like darkness —Heinrich Böll A delicate flush of pink … like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kissed the lips of the bride —Oscar Wilde, (I could feel my) face flaming as red as all the tomatoes in the world —H. C. Witwer A faint blush, like the shadow of a rose in a mirror of silver came to her cheeks —Oscar Wilde
Body and mind, like man and wife, do not always agree to die together —Charles Caleb Colton Body grown light as a shell, empty as a shell —Joyce Carol Oates The body is like a piano. It is needful to have the instrument in good order —Henry Ward Beecher
Felt shame flooding his cheeks like a hot geyser —Mark Helprin
The body, lady, is like a house: it don’t go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile: always on the move —Flannery O’Connor
His face went red as a peony —Julia O’Faolain
Body … light as milk —Philip Levine
Red as a barn —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Body like a block of granite —Brian Glanville
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THE SIMILES Body like a spring —Marguerite Duras (Had a) body like a stack of lumpy pillows —Robert Campbell Body like dry bone —Robert Silverberg
Body A quick simile is about as much space as a master of conciseness like Hemingway devotes to physically describing a character. The woman with the racing yacht curves is Lady Brett from The Sun Also Rises
Body … long like a weasel’s —Anton Chekov
Chest like a nail keg —Peter Matthiessen
Body … shaped like a sack half full of cement —Sterling Hayden
Chest like an oak wine cask —Ira Wood
Body … silvery like a white rose —Isak Dinesen The body turns empty as the shell of an insect, or like something inflatable but flattened —Jayne Anne Phillips Body warm and flat as beer that’s been standing —Marge Piercy Buddha-like body still as an onyx boulder —Ralph Ellison Build like a sack of angle irons —Loren D. Estleman Built like a bowling pin —Clive Cussler (She’s hard to fit, being) built like a cement root cellar —Louise Erdrich Built like a Coke machine —Joseph Wambaugh Built like a crate —William Diehl Built like a fire plug —Pat Conroy Built like a greyhound —Miles Gibson Built like a hammer —Lee K. Abbott Built like a Russian weightlifter —William Diehl Built like a skyscraper —Slogan, Shaw-Walker steel filing cabinets Built like a snowman. A small round head atop a large round body with no neck in between —Rick Borsten Built like a vault —Anon Built like refrigerators —Jonathan Valin Built solid, firm and square, like an unencumbered pine —Sylvia Berkman
Chest like an oyster barrel —Ogden Nash Chests and bellies like a pair of avalanches —T. Coraghessan Boyle Chunky, heavy, like a Samoan swimmer —Herbert Gold Corded and tough as a short piece of tallowed cable —George Foy The simile in Foy’s novel Coaster applies to a sailor. Delicate and softly rounded as a painting by Boucher —F. van Wyck Mason (Against the light of the lamp) the delicate erotic lines of her slender body came up like a photographic print in a developing tray —Brian Moore Even her hipbones [like rest of angular body] jutted out as if her skirt was draped on a coathanger —Richard Maynard A figure like a beer barrel —Oscar Wilde A variation by Charles Johnson: “Broad as a beer barrel.” Figure like a sack of flour —Josephine Tey A figure like a two-armed Venus de Milo who had been on a sensible diet —David Niven Being an actor as well as a writer Niven probably had a special appreciation for any device which would capture audience attention the minute the curtain rises; and so this simile in the first sentence of his autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon.
Built square, like a van —William Beechcroft
Figure … so delicate that she moved like a shadow —Inez Haynes Irwin
Built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht —Ernest Hemingway
(She had ) a figure that was like a swift unexpected blow to the diaphragm —that to linger
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Body on makes the beholder feel obscene —Frederick Exley A fine small body, like a miniature dog bred for show —Maureen Howard (He was) flat and wide as a gingerbread man —Charles Portis Flat-chested and straight as a board —MacDonald Harris Graceful figure —which was as tough as hickory and as flexible as a whip —Thomas Wolfe He placed his hands on her hips, over the stretch marks that were like inlaid streaks of motherof-pearl that would never fade, whose brilliance spoke only for the body’s decay —Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth Her body seemed somehow to hang on her, like somebody else’s clothing —William McIlvanney Her broad sexless body made her resemble a dilapidated Buddha —Ross Macdonald Her firm protruding ass looked like a split peach —Steve Shagan Hips like hills of sand —Arabian Nights Hips like jugs —Eugene McNamara His ancient, emaciated body looked as though it were already attacked by the corruption of the grave —W. Somerset Maugham His body was covered with a dense mat of black hair. He looked like an overfed chimpanzee —Andrew Kaplan
THE SIMILES Look like a hot-air balloon with insufficient ballast —Anna Quindlen, New York Times, March 27, 1986 The cause for the hot-air balloon appearance is pregnancy. (A man with) a middle like a flour bag —Sharon Sheehe Stark (Kaplan was examining the) midriff bulge that ballooned out over his belt like an inflated inner tube —William P. Kennedy The simile marks the opening of Kennedy’s espionage novel The Masakado Lesson. (Was halfway through the process of turning from muscular to fat, so that at present he was) of uncertain consistency, like a cheap mattress —Richard Francis Round and curved as a marble statue —George Garrett A small boned body as easy to fragment as a young grouse’s —Penelope Gilliatt A small, plump woman, with her waist cinctured in sternly, like a cushion with a noose around it —John Cheever Spine … like an iron rod —Angela Carter Square as a wooden block —T. Coraghessan Boyle Square like a block of stone —Willis Johnson (She no longer had her slim waist or rounded bosom but was) square like a stack of firewood —Isak Dinesen (A massive woman … ) square, rather like a great piece of oak furniture —Willa Cather
His body waved like a flame in the breeze —television obituary describing James Cagney’s physical grace, 1986
Still had an athlete’s frame … but the flesh had sagged on the hanger, like an old suit with change left in the pockets —Jonathan Valin
His pectorals hung flabbily, like the breasts of an old woman —Gerald Kersh
Straight as a mast, muscled like a gorilla —Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings
It [worn body] was as if it were charred by a thunderbolt —Honoré de Balzac
A strong, supple body, like a tigress —Anthony Powell
Long body, devoid of developed muscles, was like a long, limp sash —Yukio Mishima
Torso … thick and circular, like the bole of a tree —Madison Smartt Bell
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THE SIMILES
Books
(His body looked soft, his) waist puffing out like rising bread dough —Sue Grafton
tree —just good for cutting up and building your house with —Christina Stead
We are bound to our bodies like an oyster to its shell —Plato
Bad books are like intoxicating drinks; they furnish neither nourishment, nor medicine —Tryon Edwards
Weight was … beginning to hang like slightly inferior clothing —William McIlvanney (Jill Martin was what they call a healthy lady.) Well rounded, like something out of Rubens —Mike Fredman (He was) wide as a door —Andre Dubus
< BODY ORGANS See Also: SEX, TONGUE A liver [from excessive drinking] like an old boot —J. B. Priestly Penises as flaccid as ruined breasts —James Crumley Penis … like a hard, live bedpost —Alice Walker Penis like an upraised club —John Farris Prostate like an Idaho potato —dialogue spoken by Marlon Brando in The Last Tango in Paris, 1972
The Bible among books is as a diamond among precious stones —John Stoughton A book is a friend whose face is constantly changing —Andrew Lang A book is a mirror: if an ass peers into it, you can’t expect an apostle to look out —Georg Christoph Lichtenberg A book is like a garden carried in the pocket —Arab proverb A book, like a child, needs time to be born —Heinrich Heine A book, like a grape-vine, should have good fruit among its leaves —Edward Parsons Day A book, like a landscape, is a state of consciousness varying with readers —Ernest Dimnet A book may be as great a thing as a battle —Benjamin Disraeli
Prostate … as round and elastic as a handball —Walker Percy The prostate comparison is made by the doctor-narrator of Percy’s Love In the Ruins about an old male patient.
Books are like individuals; you know at once if they are going to create a sense within the sense … or if they will merely leave you indifferent —George Moore
< BOISTEROUSNESS See: NOISE
Books … arranged carefully according to size, like schoolchildren lined up for recess —Helen Hudson
< BOLDNESS
Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen —Thomas Fuller
See: COURAGE
< BONDS See: CONNECTIONS
< BOOKS See Also: READERS/READING All the juice of a book is in an unpublished manuscript, and the published book is like a dead
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Books, like men their authors, have no more than one way of coming into the world, but there are ten thousand to go out of it and return no more —Jonathan Swift Books like proverbs receive their value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed —Sir William Temple Books … as little read as tombstones —Frank Swinnerton
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Boredom/Boring
THE SIMILES
The [thick] book was just like a warm, thick eiderdown that she could pull over herself, snuggle into —Alice Munro
A new book … not one of a number of similar objects, but like an individual man, unmatched —Marcel Proust
A book without an index is as incomplete as an eunuch —Theodore Stanton
Novels are useful as bibles, if they teach you the secret that the best of life is conversation and the greatest success is confidence —Ralph Waldo Emerson
A classic … is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it’s safe, like a style in architecture or furniture —F. Scott Fitzgerald Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true —Samuel Johnson Disliking a classic like disliking a nation one visits, it’s the result of a blind spot, which goes away and leaves one embarrassed —Edward Hoagland Each new book is as a ship that bears us away from the fixity of our limitations into the movement and splendor of life’s infinite ocean —Helen Keller Every book is like a purge, at the end of it one is empty … like a dry shell on the beach, waiting for the tide to come in again —Daphne Du Maurier, Ladies Home Journal, November, 1956 The harmonies of bound books are like the flowers of the field —Hilaire Belloc It is with books as with new acquaintances. At first we are highly delighted, if we find a general agreement … with closer acquaintances differences come to light; and then reasonable conduct mainly consists in not shrinking back at once —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part —Voltaire Like the fortune teller who sees a long journey in the cards or death by water, they [books] influence the future —Graham Greene
An old book, like an old man, is bound to have a good character already established, and must expect to be looked upon with suspicion if it has not —Clarence Walworth The reading of good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries —René Descartes A room without books is like a body without a soul —Cicero A twist to this, variously attributed to Hanna More and Henry Ward Beecher, is “A house without books is like a room without windows.” Such books are like frowzy old broads who have been handled by a thousand men —Peter De Vries The books being compared to frowzy old broads are telephone directories in phone booths. There is no frigate like a book —Emily Dickinson Dickinson’s simile serves as both title and first line for one of her best-known poems Volumes [of books produced in America] by the dozens like doughnuts, big and soft and empty at the core —Helen Hudson
< BOREDOM/BORING See Also: DULLNESS, LIFE Bored as Greta Garbo —Alice McDermott Boredom enveloped her like heavy bedding —Yukio Mishima
Most books, like their authors are born to die —Joshua Swartz
Boredom … like a cancer in the breast —Evelyn Waugh
A new book, like a young man, has a reputation to acquire —Clarence Walworth
Boredom, like hookworm, is endemic —Beryl Markham
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THE SIMILES
Breasts
Boredom wafted from her like the scent of stale sweat —Anon
Fired himself across the ring like a stone from a catapult —Gerald Kersh
Boredom was increasing … like a silent animal sadly rubbing itself against the sultry grass —Yukio Mishima
Got up the third time with blood like a livid splash of ripe fruit all over his face —H. E. Bates
Bore me the same as watching an industrial training film, or hearing a lecture on the physics of the three-point stance —Richard Ford
He (Joe Louis) punches like he had a baseball bat in his both hands —Irwin Shaw
Boring as airline food —Anon Boring as going to the toilet —Sylvia Plath Boring, like reading the Life Cycle of the Hummingbird —Dan Wakefield Could feel his boredom like an actual presence, like a big German shepherd that must be fed and restrained —Marge Piercy Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale —William Shakespeare, King John This famous simile also appeared in Homer’s Odyssey the format of a question, “What’s so tedious as a twice-told tale?” She felt her brain begin to soften like something forgotten at the back of the fridge. —David Nicholls, One Day Yawns [caused by a dull discussion] inflated in his throat like balloons —Derek Lambert
< BOUNCING See: ROCKING AND ROLLING
< BOUNDLESSNESS See: CONTININUITY
< BOXING AND WRESTLING See Also: SPORTS A boxing match is like a cowboy movie. There’s got to be good guys and there’s got to be bad guys. What people pay for is to see the bad guys get beat —Sonny Liston, quoted from his obituary, New York Times Fell on his face, kicking and heaving like a wounded leopard —Gerald Kersh
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Louis —his nostrils like the mouth of a doublebarreled shotgun took a quiet lead and let him have both barrels —Bob Considine, International News Service report on Louis-Schmeling fight, June 22, 1938 (Sharkey) kept coming in like the surf —Anon comment about the 1899 Jeffries-Sharkey fight Their long, stiff jabs made their gloves dip and seem heavy, like big red balloons —Richard Ford They clung together, spinning round and round like two twigs in a whirlpool —Gerald Kersh Went down like a letter in a mail chute —Anon When he (Jake La Motta) was in the ring, it was like he was in a cage fighting for his life —Ray Arcel, boxing trainer, quoted in Ira Berkow’s Sports of the Times column, New York Times Wrestled together, interlaced like snakes —Honoré de Balzac
< BRAIN See: INTELLIGENCE, MIND
< BRAVERY See: COURAGE
< BREASTS See Also: BODY, BODY ORGANS Bosom like a Spanish balcony —Colette Bosom like the prow of a ship —M. J. Farrell Bosoms … large, like mounds of earth on the banks of a dug-up canal —R. K. Narayan Bosoms like cheese-wheels —David Huddle
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Breasts
THE SIMILES
Bosoms like vast, half-filled hot-water bottles —M. J. Farrell
Breasts … sag from her chest like two plump gourds —Susan Yankowitz
Bosoms set like two great prows of battleships —Brian Donleavy
Breasts sagging like overripe fruit —George Garrett
Breasts as large and round as a bald man’s head —James Crumley
Breasts … shaped like crescent moons —Ira Wood
Breasts hard as stone, project like a bulwark —Erich Maria Remarque
Breasts swelling … like rising bread —Marge Piercy
A breast divided into segments like a peeled orange, or a pair of thighs that converge into a single swollen knee —Kingsley Amis
Breasts that drop, big as barrels —Dylan Thomas
Breasts heaving like a flight deck —Rita Mae Brown
Breasts, which were like apples cut in half —Colette
Breasts … hung like water-filled balloons from her chest —Bernard Malamud
Breasts … whose fruits are dark as plums —C. J. Koch
Breasts lie flat on her ribs like soft purses —Rose Tremain Breasts, like a nursing mother’s —Katherine Anne Porter
Bursts like creamy milk-fed veal —Susan Lois The character who thus pronounces and describes a woman’s breast in a novel entitled Personals, is a kosher butcher.
Breasts like a pair of piggies —Vladimir Nabokov
Chest like a promontory —Daphne Merkin
Breasts like armaments —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Cleavage deep as the jungle —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Breasts … like bread loaves hot from the oven —Francine du Plessix Gray Breasts like … clusters of the vine —The Holy Bible/Song of Solomon Breasts … like dried apples —Annette Sanford Breasts like dunes —John D. MacDonald Breasts … like empty purses except when they filled briefly and fed another child —H. E. Bates Breasts like giant cabbages —W. Somerset Maugham Breasts like overripe squash —Patricia Henley Breasts like pennants —Irwin Shaw
Breasts swaying like party balloons —Jilly Cooper
Breasts were like long white grapes in the hot sun —D. H. Lawrence
Enormous breasts that seemed to rise up and nearly out of her gown with every deep breath, defying physical laws, like a half-finished bridge —William Brammer Full breasts soaring all over the place like billowing pennants in a strong wind —Joseph Heller Her bosom heaved like an opera singer’s —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Her breasts are tiny and hang from her chest like a pair of prunes —Milan Kundera (An ample woman) her breasts hung like calabashes inside her grey dress —Thomas Keneally
Breasts like small hard apples —Francine du Plessix Gray
Her breasts looked like two five-pound flour sacks from which some of the contents had spilled —Sue Grafton
Breasts like smooth and ivory-colored hills —Marguerite Young
Her large heavy breasts seemed to lift like wings —James Crumley
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THE SIMILES
Breathing
Her nipples preceded her like scouts —Yehuda Amichai
Breath came like puffs from a steam locomotive —Gerald Tomlinson
Her small girlish breasts already sagged like little pockets on her white chest —Jonathan Valin
Breath clear and sweet like a child’s —Flannery O’Connor
His bared breast glistened soft and greasy as though he had sweated out his fat in his sleep —Joseph Conrad
Breathed as if she had a fever —Mark Helprin
Jutting breasts like hills —Robinson Jeffers Little mounds had appeared like soft marshmallows through her sweater —Carol Ascher
Breathed deeply like a swimmer coming up for air —George Garrett (He) breathed like a prisoner set free —Willa Cather
Long pointed breasts rearing like the muzzles of two Afghans —James Crumley
Breathe hard like a horse when you take the saddle off —O. Henry
The nipple [of mother nursing child] looked like the end of a Tootsie Roll —Bobbie Ann Mason
Breathe like a chugging train —Tony Ardizzone
Nipples … flat and wide as poker chips —Sue Miller Nipples large as cookies —Ira Wood Nipples … like buds of peonies —Amy Lowell Nipples like two dark eyes —David Michael Kaplan
Breathe like a second-hand bicycle pump —O. Henry Breath [from snoring] grating like bark stripped from a tree —T. Coraghessan Boyle Breathing as rapidly as an exhausted dog —Derek Lambert Breathing as softly as a butterfly —Ellen Glasgow
Nipples shaped like discs of milk chocolate —Ira Wood Wood’s novel “The Kitchen Man,” is filled with food-related images.
Breathing as though steam engines were working his lungs —Pat Conroy
Nipples … small as buttons —Miles Gibson
Breathing like a hard-run horse —James Crumley
Nipples standing out like two overgrown M&Ms —T. Glen Coughlin The profile of her body stood forth like the prow of a clipper ship —Calder Willingham She had fenders like a GMC truck —Loren D. Estleman They [breasts] were wide mounds growing like muscles across her chest —Will Weaver A woman without breasts is like a bed without pillows —Anon
Breathing like almost any sort of man who has just been chased for a mile or so uphill by a bull in the pink of condition —Kingsley Amis Breathing like an escape valve —Joseph C. Lincoln Breathing like a tire pump —Dashiell Hammett Breathing like the friction of rusted gears —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Alimentary canal … working like a derrick without a soul —Tess Slesinger
Breathing like two hippos with a chest cold —Jane Wagner This line, spoken by the character Paul (interpreted by Lily Tomlin), describes his participation at his wife’s labor.
(His) breath came heavily, like puffs of wind over a stormy sea —Walter De La Mar
Breathing, quick and hoarse like a dog’s panting —Albert Camus
< BREATHING
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Breathing Breathing … slow and rhythmical, like the bellows at a forge rising and falling —HenriPierre Roché Breathing [an overweight man’s] sounded like someone sitting down on a leather couch —Sue Grafton Breathing with irregularity, like an overworked horse. Breathing deeply like a man asleep —George Garrett Breath is like the gentle air of Spring —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Breath … like the steam of apple-pies —Robert Greene Breath popping like steam valves in old boilers —Denis Johnson (Rankin’s) breath rushed out like an undertow beneath the words —Richard Moran Breath sweet as May —Christina Rossetti The breath was pumped from their bodies as though from machines —Vicki Baum Breath [of dying woman] whistled like the wind in a keyhole —Edith Wharton Each breath was expelled in a puff, as if one were blowing a trumpet, Dizzy Gillespie fashion —Stephen King Each breath was like a hill to climb —Barbara Reid Gasped for breath like a wounded animal —Vicki Baum Gasped the air deeply, like a diver escaping from a watery grave —Jan Kubicki Gasping like a fish stranded on a sandbank —F. van Wyck Mason An extension of “Gasped like a stranded fish.”
THE SIMILES Hack and wheeze like an overworked horse —T. Coraghessan Boyle Her breath seems to flow like the water in a frozen stream —Rochelle Ratner His breath [as he kissed her hand] was between her fingers like a web on summer grass —Ellen Gilchrist His breath was staccato, like obstructed sobs —Nancy Huddleston Packer Holds her breath like a seal —John Berryman Huff like windy giants —W. D. Snodgrass Let out a long, whistling breath like a deflating tire —Cornell Woolrich Lungs … blowing like leathern bellows —Frank Ross (Stearn’s) lungs fluttered like a sparrow’s heartbeat —Z. Vance Wilson (I was panting and) my breath came like fire —Louise Erdrich Pant like a fat man running for a bus —Lawrence Durrell Panting like a steamboat —Joyce Cary Puffed like a leaky steam pipe —O. Henry Puffing like a blown shire horse —Donald Seaman A rasping gasp as though he were swallowing his false teeth —W. P. Kinsella Sharp intake of breath, like a toy balloon suddenly deflated —Ralph Ellison Snort [while asleep] like a timid locomotive —MacDonald Harris Sound of breathing … like the soft crackle of tissue paper —Frank Swinnerton
Gulped in air through her mouth, straining like a nearly drowned man dragged out of the water —William Moseley
Sucked air like a drowning fish —Miles Gibson
Gulping in air like a swimmer exhausted from fighting a heavy surf —Margaret Millar
Wheezing … like a horse with a progressive lung disease —T. Coraghessan Boyle
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Took as much breath as if I’d heaved a shot put —Larry McMurtry
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THE SIMILES
Brightness
< BREVITY
Bright as a frog’s eyes —Hart Crane
See Also: TIME As compact as a drop of pure water —Richard E. Shepard, New York Times, November 3, 1986 The simile attempts to explain the mystery of the Flamenco Puro dance troop’s creative wellsprings.
Bright as all between cloudless skies and windless streams —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Brief as a classified ad —Anon
Bright as a newly painted toy —Hugh Walpole
Brief as a drop of dew —Cale Young Rice
Bright as an icon —Margaret Atwood
Brief as a grouch’s smile —Anon
Bright as any glass —Geoffrey Chaucer
Brief as a sinner’s prayer —Anon
Bright as any meteor ever bred by the North Pole —Lord Byron
Brief as a twinge —Margaret Atwood Brief as the Z column in a pocket dictionary —Irvin S. Cobb Or, to be even more specific, “Brief as the Z column in this dictionary.” Brief as youth in retrospect —Elyse Sommer (Smiled) briefly —on and off like a light switch —Gavin Lyall Concise as a telegram —Elyse Sommer Short as any dream —William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream Short, clear as a bird-note, trailing away —E. B. White
< BRIGHTNESS See Also: GLIMMER, GLITTER, AND GLOSS; LIGHTING; SHINING Blazing like the windows of the city —James Dickey (He possessed a brainful of information) bright and beautiful as diamonds swaddled in midnight-blue velvet —W. P. Kinsella
Bright as a nettle rash —Diane Ackerman (Laugh …) bright as a new ensign’s buttons —Frederic Wakeman
Bright as a parakeet —Dame Edith Sitwell (Every day) bright as a postcard —Karl Shapiro Bright as a roomful of crystal chandeliers —Anon Bright as a splinter from a glazier’s table —Beryl Markham (A face) bright as a waterdrop —Padraic Fallon Bright as day —Geoffrey Chaucer Bright as foil —Molly Giles Bright as freedom —Marge Piercy Bright as joy —Hartley Coleridge Bright as light —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Bright as moonlight over snow —Wallace Stegner Bright as Spring —Walter Savage Landor (Eyes as) bright as the Dipper —Stephen Vincent Benét Bright as the fullest moon in blackest air —Arabian Nights
Bright and light as the crest of a peacock —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Bright as the promises of a new administration —Elyse Sommer
Bright and pleasing as a child’s rattle —Virginia Woolf
Bright as the promise of life on commencement day —Elyse Sommer
Bright as a beach in the moonlight —Alfred Austin
Bright as the promise of a cloudless day —C.P. Wilson
(An image came to me across the years) bright as a coin from the mint —Norman Mailer
Bright as the raindrops and roses in June —Dame Edith Sitwell
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Brittleness Bright as the world was in its infant years —John Banks
THE SIMILES
< BRITTLENESS See: FRAGILITY
Bright as truth —Barry Cornwall Bright like a brimming bowl of jewels —Peter De Vries Bright, like a flash of sunlight —Earle Bulwer-Lytton Bright (eyes) like agate —D. H. Lawrence Bright like blood —Algernon Charles Swinburne Brightness … bright as dipper —Stephen Vincent Benét Brilliant as a postage stamp —Lawrence Durrell (Eyes) brilliant as fire —Nadine Gordimer [Oranges and grapefruits] Brilliant as planets —Cynthia Ozick Brilliant as the stars —Ouida Brilliant as the sun —Slogan, Lustberg-Nast, Lustray shirts Brilliant like a Chinese porcelain —W. Somerset Maugham
< BROWN See Also: COLORS (Wine) as brown as November leaves —Wilbur Daniel Steele [Pupils of eyes] Brown and shiny like melting chocolate —Margaret Millar Brown as a berry —Geoffrey Chaucer The old English original read “Broun as is a berye.” (His face was) brown as an old boot —Christopher Isherwood Brown as an old daguerreotype fading —Robert Penn Warren Brown as a nut —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Cheeks) brown as oak-leaves —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Hair) brown as a pecan shell —Reynolds Price
Brilliantly, gaudily colored as a Gypsy camp —Kate Simon
Brown as cinnamon —Truman Capote
Dazzled the eyes like a second noonday sun —Edna Ferber
Brown as rust —George Garrett
Growing brighter and brighter like a forest after a rain —Denis Johnson Lights up like a Star Wars pinball machine — Looking brighter than a Christmas tree —Oscar Hammerstein, “Everybody’s Got a Home but Me,” Pipe Dream Vivid as sun through a thin brown bottle —Reynolds Price Vivid as the granules of paint in a Dubuffet —John Updike Again: In Cymbeline, old Belarius says of the “two princely boys” that are with him, —“They are as gentle / As zephyrs, blowing below the violet, / Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough
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Brown as onion soup —Saul Bellow (A tan) brown as seven-grain bread —Patricia Henley (A girl as) brown as the ground —Cynthia Ozick Brown as tobacco spit brew —Truman Capote Brown … like the color of the basket —H. E. Bates A dreggy brown, like bad coffee —Irvin S. Cobb Pale brown, like canvas —Mary McCarthy
< BRUTALITY See: CRUELTY, VIOLENCE
< BUILDINGS SEE: HOUSES
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THE SIMILES
Business
< BURST
pull apart and dissipate, so there is something in business that continually tends to scatter, destroy and shift possession from this man to that. A million mice nibble eternally at every business venture —Elbert Hubbard
See Also: DISINTEGRATION, SUDDENNESS (Your unexpected letter has just) burst into my existence like a meteor into the sphere of a planet —William James letter from Dresden to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., May 15, 1868 (My poor head would) burst like a dropped watermelon —Maya Angelou Burst like a raw egg —William Diehl Burst like a ripe seedpod —Beryl Markham Burst like a thunderbolt —Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Seeds) burst like bullets —Anne Sexton [Details of an event would] burst open like garbage from a bag dropped from a height —Thomas Keneally Burst out like a rash —Nadine Gordimer Bursting like an overdone potato —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Comes apart like a slow-ripping seam —Sharon Sheehe Stark The character coming apart in the author’s story, In the Surprise of Life, is a girl who has been trying to contain her laughter. Flashed [a remark] like a sheet of heat lightning —Rita Mae Brown (The cursing and grumbling) flashed like a storm —Enid Bagnold Like the buds let us burst —Ogden Nash (He had a real gift for those flaring exclamations, those raucous) outbursts, like wounds suddenly opened —Romain Gary
Business is like a man rowing a boat upstream. He has no choice; he must go ahead or he will go back —Lewis E. Pierson Business is like oil. It won’t mix with anything but business —J. Grahame Business … is very much like religion: it is founded on faith —William McFee Business policy flows downhill from the mountain, like water —Anon A business without customers is like a computer without bytes —Anon As the entries that follow show, this concept lends itself to many additional twists. A business without customers is like a stage without light —Anon A business without orders is like a room without windows —Anon Buying and selling like a Rockefeller —Arthur A. Cohen A corporation is just like any natural person, except that it has no pants to kick or soul to damn —Ernst and Lindley Playwrights Ernst and Lindley wrote this wrote this simile to be spoken by a judge in their 1930’s play Hold Your Tongue. Corporate politics is like the days of Andrew Jackson, the spoils system —Rita Mae Brown
Sputtering like a leaky valve —John Peter Touhey
Customers drop away like tenpins —Anon
(Our imaginations seem to have been) torn open … as by a charge of dynamite —Dorothy Canfield
Inventory that just sits there like it’s nailed to the floor —Anthony E. Stockanes
< BUSINESS See Also: ADVERTISING, SUCCESS/FAILURE As oxygen is the disintegrating principle of life, working night and day to dissolve, separate,
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Like a boxer who has taken a series of heavy blows, and starts to lose his legs, the mighty American economy had finally begun to sag —Edward Rutherfurd, New York Nowadays almost every business is like show business, including politics, which has be-
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Busyness come more like show business than show business is —Russell Baker Orders fell like stones —Anon (Being in the microcomputer business is) risky, like going 55 miles an hour three feet from a cliff. If you make the wrong turn you’re bankrupt so fast you don’t know what hit you —George Morrow, quoted in New York Times, March 11, 1986 when his company went bankrupt Some businesses are like desert flowers. They bloom overnight, and they’re gone —George Morrow, quoted in New York Times, March 11, 1986 The first two words transposed from “Computer companies” to generalize the comparison. Sometimes, it seemed to him, the market was nothing more than an aggregate of individuals, like a great school of fish, feeding upon small hopes until some fright causes them all to swerve together —Edward Rutherfurd, New York The tide of business, like the running stream, is sometimes high and sometimes low, a quiet ebb, or a tempestuous flow, and always in extreme —John Dryden Tradespeople are just like gardeners. They take advantage of your not knowing —Agatha Christie
< BUSYNESS See Also: ACTIVENESS, WORK Busier than a cat covering shit on a marble slab —American colloquialism Busier than a gulag gravedigger —Joseph Wambaugh Bustled about like so many ants roused by the approach of a foe —J. Hampden Porter Ants rank with bees as a means to describe busyness. In modern day usage and literature the above is usually shortened; for example, “Busy as an ant” used by Ogden Nash in his poem “Children.”
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THE SIMILES (I’ve been) busy as a bartender on Saturday night —Irwin Shaw Busy as a bee —Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer’s old English version of what has become a commonly used expression read “Bisy as bees ben they.” Busy as a dog with fleas —Anon Busy as a fiddler’s elbow —Harry Prince As busy as a hen with one chicken —John Ray’s Proverbs To strengthen the impact of the simile, there’s “As busy as a hen with ten chickens” and “As a hen with fifteen chickens,” attributed to James Howell, and “As busy as a hen with fifteen chickens in a barnyard,” attributed to John Russell Bartlett. Busy as an oven at Christmas —Michael Denham Busy as ants in a breadbox —Anon (I am) busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the itch —American colloquialism This is often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, who used it in a letter to his daughter. Some extensions on the one-armed paperhanger image include: “Busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with the hives” (one of the many common expressions in Carl Sanburg’s The People, Yes), “Busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the seven-year itch” (H. W. Thompson, Body, Boots and Britches) and “Busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the nettle rash” (O. Henry, The Ethics of a Pig). As busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest all week long —Pat Conroy About as busy as a pair of lizards on a warm brick —James Cain Busy as a ticking clock —Anon (Wilstak.1st) (Birds shrill and musical) busy as bullets —John Farris Busy as catbirds —Hilary Masters Busy as jumper cables at a Mexican funeral —Thomas Zigal Busy as maggots —Marge Piercy
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THE SIMILES Busy as the day is long —Vincent Stuckey Lean Busy as the devil in a gale of wind —Sir Walter Scott
Calmness [Said it as] calm as a virgin discussing flower arrangement —George MacDonald Fraser Calm as beauty —Robert Browning
Get busy like a bomb —Erich Maria Remarque
Calm as dewdrops —William Wordsworth
Humming like a hive —John Gardner
Calm as fate —John Greenleaf Whittier
Hurried … like one who had always a multiplicity of tasks on hand —Charlotte Brontë
Calm as glass —Charlotte Brontë
[The demands job of being secretary of Defense] It’s like getting a shave and having your appendix out at the same time —Robert Lovett, Saturday Evening Post, May 28,1960
Calm as if she were sitting for her portrait —Henry James
Calm as ice —Nathaniel Hawthorne
Calm as in the days when all was right —Frederich Von Schiller
Like a squirrel in a cage, always in action —Aphra Behn
Calm as night —Victor Hugo
Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement —Oliver Goldsmith
(Voice) calm as the deepest cold —Sharon Sheehe Stark Calm as the sky after a day of storm —Voltaire
< CALMNESS
Calm as virtue —William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
See Also: PEACEFULNESS
Calm as water in a glass —standing water in clean cut glass —Reynolds Price
Calm as a bathtub —George Garrett
Calm as a cud-chewing cow —Harold Adams
Calm descended (on the pool hall) as nerve shattering as if the (long barnlike) room were the ship from which Jonah had been cast into the sea —Flannery O’Connor
Calm as a frozen lake when ruthless winds blow fiercely —William Wordsworth
Calmed down, like a Corinthian column —John Ashberry
Calm as a gliding moon —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A calm … like the deep sleep which follows an orgy —Mark Twain
Calm as a marble head —Eudora Welty
Cold as cucumbers —Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher In its original meaning this referred to sexual coldness. As currently used it meansbeing calm, collected, or “Cool as a cucumber.” Poet Stevie Smith used the simile as a title for a poem which begins with this and two other cliché to describe the subject of the poem, a girl named Mary: “Cool as a cucumber calm as a mill pond sound as a bell was Mary.”
Calm as a Buddhist —Elizabeth Taylor Calm as a convent —Anon
(I’m) calm as a Mediterranean sky —Frank Swinnerton Calm as a mirror —Alexandre Dumas, Pere (The sky was) calm as an aquarium —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Calm as an iceberg —Gelett Burgess Calm as a sea horse —Susan Vreeland, Clara and Mr. Tiffany Calm as a slumbering babe —Percy Bysshe Shelley As part of our daily language this has evolved into “Calm as a sleeping baby.”
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Cool and collected as a dean sitting in his deanery —Ogden Nash Cool and ordinary as a gallon of buttermilk —Borden Deal
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Candor Cool as a Buddha —Jan Epton Seale The simile, from a short story about a new mother entitled “Reluctant Madonna,” reads as follows in full context: “Christie intends to be cool as a Buddha about this baby. Unflappable.” Cool as a cop with a clipboard —Gary Gildner Cool as a cube of cucumber on ice —Carl Sandburg This extension of the familiar “Cool as a cucumber” is particularly apt in Sanburg’s epic The People, Yes, which beautifully and cleverly incorporates many familiar similes. Cool as a frozen daiquiri —Linda Barnes Cool as an Easter lily —Erich Maria Remarque Cool as a quarterback —Dan Wakefield (He was) cool as a refrigerator —R.A. J. Walling Cool as a veteran horse race jockey —Carl Sandburg Cool as lettuce —Jay Parini (He’s as) cool as the other side of your pillow —Merlin Olsen, NBC-TV broadcaster, about Ken O’Brien, quarterback for the Jets, January 1987 Expression … as calm and collected as that of a doctor by a patient’s bedside —Stefan Zweig Felt a certain calm fall over me like a cloak —R. Wright Campbell
THE SIMILES Mellow as old brandy —Anon Mild as cottage cheese —Stephen Vincent Benét Mild as milk —Dame Edith Sitwell Nonchalant as a shoplifter in the checkout line —Donald McCaig The sea was calm like milk and water —Isak Dinesen The sense of rest, of having arrived at the longpromised calm center, filled him like a species of sleep —John Updike Serene as a man who has just got a promotion and raise —Geoffrey Wolff Stayed calm, like a hero before the battle when all the cameras are on him —Clancy Sigal Unshakable as a pyramid in the desert —Joe Williams, The Draft (Your opinion at the moment) worries me exactly as much as dandruff would a chopped-off head —William McIlvanney
< CANDOR See Also: HONESTY About as sincere as the look upon the face of an undertaker conducting a nine-hundred dollar funeral —H. L. Mencken As candid as the C.I.A. —Anon
Have kept composure, like captives who would not talk under torture —Richard Wilbur
As devoted to candor as a high school valedictorian —Jonathan Valin
He lay as calm as a boulder in the sun —Loren D. Estleman, Sugartown: An Amos Walker Mystery
As forthcoming as Pravda —Joseph Wambaugh
His calmness was like the sureness of money in the bank —Anzia Yezierska Looked as cool as a yellow diamond —Robert Campbell Looking calm as an eggshell —Edith Wharton (The April morning) mellow as milk —Sharon Sheehe Stark Mellow as moonlight —Slogan, Vogan Candy Co.
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As frank as a candid camera shot —Anon As open [about revealing self] as an unsteamed clam —Elyse Sommer As revealing as a locked diary —Anon Candid as mirrors —Robert G. Ingersoll Direct as a bullet —Flannery O’Conner Penny’s honesty has always been like nudity in an action movie: gratuitous, but no less welcome for it. —Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I Leave You
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THE SIMILES Phony as a laugh track —Vincent Canby, about the movie Murphy’s Romance, New York Times, January 17, 1986 Sincerity is like traveling on a plain beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey’s end than by-ways in which men often loose themselves —John Tillotson Took off the mask of tranquility she had worn … like an actress returning weary to her room after a trying fifth act and falling half-dead upon a couch, while the audience retains an image of her to which she bears not the slightest resemblance —Honoré de Balzac (You get right) to the point … like a knife in the heart —Harvey Fierstein
Cause and Effect
< CAUSE AND EFFECT Affect me [with revulsion] like the smell of a cheap cigar left smoldering in an ashtray —Jonathan Valin In Valin’s novel, Final Notice, the descriptive frame of reference for the simile is a tattoo. The certainty [of his desire] landed in the bottom of my stomach like a flatiron —Mary Gordon The change [in living accommodations] would be like going from Purgatory to Paradise —Louisa May Alcott The conviction that I am loved and loving affects me like a military bracing —John Cheever
Two-sided, like Janus —L. P. Hartley
The effort made him choke like a tiger at a bone —Robert Frost
< CAPABILITY
Every gesture … aroused a beat chant like the beat of the heart of the desert —Anais Nin
See: ABILITY
< CAREFULNESS See: ATTENTION, CAUTION, CORRECTNESS
< CARELESSNESS Act with the calm forethought of a beheaded chicken —Herman Wouk In his novel, Inside, Outside, Wouk used the comparison to describe the behavior of political characters.
(This city) exacerbates loneliness in may the same way that water makes Alka-Seltzer fizz —Pat Conroy The general effect was exactly like a microscopic view of a small detachment of black beetles in search of a dead rat —John Ruskin Has a disruptive effect … like a torpedo coming down Main Street —Anon politician on Gramm-Rudman Law, February, 1986
Careless as a child at play —William Winter
Has as little effect on me as water on a duck’s back —American colloquialism, attributed to South A variation: “As water rolling off a duck’s back.”
Careless as saints who live by faith alone —George Garrett
Her absence felt like a presence, an electrical charge of silence in the house —John Updike
[Charles de Gaulle] Has been abysmally careless, like a man running a bus over mountains, who forgot to equip it with good brakes —Janet Flanner
His death served to remind me, like a custard pie in the face, that life is sometimes like one big savage joke —Sue Grafton
Ignore caution like a gambler with a hot tip —Anon
< CARES See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
(A blast of Prince [music] … ) hit me like a feather boa with a length of lead pipe in it —Jonathan Valin The image hit him like a train —Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge
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Caution Its [melancholy] effect upon you is somewhat similar to what would probably be produced by a combined attack of toothache, indigestion and a cold in the head —Jerome K. Jerome It [forcing an old priest into retirement] was just like ripping an old tree out of the ground —W. P. Kinsella The kind whisper went into my heart like a dagger —Charlotte Brontë Offering a flight attendant a $20 bill for a $2 drink is like spitting on an Alabama state trooper —Louis D. Wilson, Wall Street Journal, June 30, l986 Pain and poverty and thwarted ambition … can break the virtues like brittle bones —George Garrett [A dying woman being interviewed by a journalist] People must grow terribly upset when you turn up with a notepad. No? Like the undertaker arriving to measure the dowager —Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists Seeing her again … was like rediscovering a halfforgotten landmark —Ann Petry [When a tired-looking woman smiles] Some of the years of hard living fell away like happy tears —James Crumley
< CAUTION See Also: BEHAVIOR Cagey as a feral cat —John Yount Careful as a cat walking on egg shells —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Carries it [a plant] as if it’s made of Steuben glass —Ann Beattie Carry … like a hot tureen —Eudora Welty Caution flowed over the [telephone] wire like a wave —Robert M. Coates Caution, like that of a wild beast that is fierce but feeble or like that of an insect whose little fragment of earth has given way, and made it pause in a palsy of distrust —George Eliot
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THE SIMILES Cautious as a burglar walking over a tin roof in cowhide boots —Wallace Irwin Cautious as a good housekeeper —Honoré de Balzac Cautious as a tightrope walker with a severe itch —Anon This is yet another perversion of the popular “Busy as a one-armed paperhanger” comparison Cautious as his gray suit —John Dancy, NBC-TV about Robert Gates at CIA confirmation hearings, April, 1987 Cautiously, like a man handling sixteenth-century lace —Roald Dahl Choosy as a stud in a harem —Mike Sommer Discreet … as if you’re trying to tail yourself —William McIlvanney Going as if he trod upon eggs —Robert Burton Like a weight-watcher at the feast of San Gennaro, I just nibbled a bit —Leonard M. Heine Jr., commenting on his cautious stock purchases when others were investing freely, quoted Wall Street Journal column by Vartanig G. Vartan, January 19, 1987 Peeped out carefully like a mole from its hole —Derek Walcott Picked up the pieces as carefully as if they were cuttings from the Koh-I-Noor —Israel Zangwill Picking his word like a man making his way through a minefield —Donald Seaman Progressed like a man tracing and following a chalk line —Frank Swinnerton A prudent man is like a pin; his head prevents him from going too far —Anon Should be used with discretion, like cayenne pepper —Anon So wary that he sleeps like a hare, with his eyes open —Thomas Fuller Timid as hares —Anton Chekov
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THE SIMILES
Certainty
To take all you want is never as good as to stop when you should —Lao Tzu
The simile, from a poem, continues with “The orange is a part of the living animal.”
(We must) treat him like Dresden china —Nikolai V. Gogol
As certain as end-of-the season inventories —Anon
Wary as a blind horse —Thomas Fuller
As certain as June graduates scanning the want ads —Anon
Wary as a pickpocket’s confidence that the policeman on the beat will stay bought —H. L. Mencken This is slightly changed from Mencken’s original words which identified the pickpocket as an American.
As certain as leaves falling in September —Anon As certain as lines at return counters after Christmas —Anon As certain as rise of taxi meter —Anon
Watch what he said as carefully as if he were in court —John Updike
As certain as that a crooked tree will have a crooked shadow —Anon
< CELEBRITY
As certain as that bread crumbs will attract a flock of pigeons —Anon
See: FAME
< CENSORSHIP See: CONTROL, CRITICISM
< CERTAINTY Absolute as a miser’s greed —Anon An absolute, like the firmness of the earth —Tom Wolfe Almost as predictable as the arrival of solstice and equinox —Russell Baker, New York Times, September 17, 1986 Baker’s comparison referred to Chief-Justice-tobe William Rehnquist’s judicial opinions.
As certain as that leaves will fall in autumn —Anon As certain as that night succeeds the day —George Washington As certain as your shadow will follow you —Anon As certain as the morning —Thomas Wolfe As certain as the sunrise —Anon As certain as thunderclap following lightning —Anon As certain as wrinkles —Anon As certainly as day follows day —Anon
As certain as a gun —Samuel Butler
As certainly as Segovia had been born to finger a fretboard or Willy Mays to swing a bat —T. Coraghessan Boyle
As certain as beach traffic in July —Anon
As inevitable as a dog at a hydrant —Anon
As certain as bodies moved with greater impulse, progress more rapidly than those moved with less —Voltaire
As inevitable as the turning of the earth on which you stand —Harvey Swados
As certain as death and taxes —Daniel Defoe Often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, the simile continues to be popular, with many humorous twists such as “Certain as death and hay-fever” used in Philip Barry’s 1923 play “You and I.”
As sure as a goose goes barefoot —American colloquialism, attributed to the Northeast
As certain as dye penetrates cotton —Daniela Gioseffi
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
As sure as a club —Mary Hedin
As sure as a tested hypothesis —Lorrie Moore As sure as a wheel is round —American colloquialism As sure as behave and misbehave —John Ciardi
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Cessation
THE SIMILES
As sure as day —William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part III
Inevitable as the snick of a mouse-trap —Carl Sandburg
As sure as death —William Shakespeare King Henry IV, Part I The same simile was used by Ben Jonson in Every Man in His Humor. If not the first, it is certainly one of the earliest example of this simile.
Inevitable … like a stone rolling down a mountain —Mary Gordon
As sure as meat will fry —American colloquialism, attributed to Southeast
Predictable as a physical law —Charles Johnson (The man was as) predictable as rainwater seeking a low spot —William Beechcroft Predictable as the prints left by a three-legged dog —Sharon Sheehe Stark
As sure as rain —Ben Ames Williams A more specific variation of this is “Sure as rain in April.”
Predictable as the arrival of Monday morning —Harry Prince
As sure as shooting —Anon This common expression probably stems from the no longer used “Sure as a gun,” variously attributed to the poet John Dryden and the playwright William Congreve.
Predictable, like a diplomatic reception —A. Alvarez
As sure as snakes crawl —American colloquialism, attributed to the Midwest As surely as that two ends of a seesaw cannot both be elevated at the same time —Alexander Woolcott As surely as the eye tends to be long-sighted in the sailor and short-sighted in the student —Herbert Spencer As surely as the harvest comes after the seedtime —Dr. John Brown As surely as the tree becomes bulky when it stands alone and slender if one of a group —Herbert Spencer As surely as water will wet us, as surely as fire will burn —Rudyard Kipling As unpreventable as blinking your eyes when a light flashes suddenly —Anon Certain things will follow inevitably, just like a little trail of horseshit behind a fat old draught horse —George Garrett Definite as a counter-signed contract —Anon Inevitable as a comet’s return —Marge Piercy Inevitable as noon —Thomas Wolfe
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Predictable as the menu at charity dinner —Anon
Secure as an obituary in the Times —Marge Piercy So predictable … just like tuning in the same radio station every night —Lee Smith A character in Smith’s novel, The Last Day the Dog bushes Bloomed, uses this simile to describe a dull suitor. Sweet and sure annuity; it’s like taking a bath at Fort Knox —Moss Hart This line from Light Up the Sky likens a national tour for an ice show to sure-fire success.
< CESSATION See: PAUSE
< CHANGE See Also: ENTRANCES AND EXITS, PERMANENCE Anticipate change as though you had left it behind you —Rainer Maria Rilke Any essential reform must, like charity, begin at home —John Macy Changeable as a baby’s diaper —Anon Changeable as the weather —American colloquialism attributed to New England The variations this has sprouted typify the simple simile’s extension through more particularization.
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THE SIMILES Some examples: “Changeable/unpredictable as April weather or as the sky in April” and “Changeable like Midwestern weather —violent and highly volatile.” (Her expression would) change as quickly as a sky with clouds racing across the moon —Madeleine L’Engle The change came about slowly, arriving like a pale mist that slipped into every crevice —Erik Larson, In the Belly of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Hopes) changed daily like the stock market —Margaret Millar In her novel The Murder of Miranda, Millar expands the Simile as follows: “Gaining a few points here, losing a few there.” Changed his mind regularly, like shirts —Anon Changed … like the shift of key in a musical score —Lawrence Durrell Changed moods like a strobe of shifting lights —Alvin Boretz Changeful as a creature of the tropical sea lying under a reef —Saul Bellow A change, like a shift of wind, overcame the judge —Truman Capote Change of attitude … like a fish gliding with a flick of its tail, now here, now there —Jean Rhys (Life) changed like fluffy clouds —Rita Mae Brown Changes … as breath-taking as a Celtics fast break —Larry McCoy, Wall Street Journal article about changes at CBS network, December 4, 1986 The configuration of my life (of our lives) altered again, like a kaleidoscope turned with the gentle twist of a divine hand —Claire Messud, A Life Changes his mood like a wizard —Joan Chase
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Change Ever changing, like a joyless eye that finds no objects worth its constancy —Percy Bysshe Shelley Every politician knows how the public mood can change. Sometimes the change is gradual. Sometimes, like water held back by a barrier, it will suddenly break through and rush down like a flood, sweeping all before it —Edward Rutherfurd, New York Everything changed … like the rug, the one that gets pulled —Alberto Alvaor Rios Fickle as the sunlight —William Alfred Fickle as the wind —Horace Get used to [changes] … like listening to your own heart —Marguerite Duras In our changes we should move like a caterpillar, part of which is stationary in every advance, not like the toad —James A. Pike Reverend Pike’s advice was aimed at preventing anxiety. [Moving from slow to fast-paced life] it was like stepping from a gondola to an ocean steamer —Edith Wharton [Personality of a character] metamorphoses … like a butterfly bursting out of a cocoon —Frank Rich, New York Times, January 21, 1986 Mood … swinging like an erratic pendulum from being hurt to hurting —Ross Macdonald Most reformers, like a pair of trousers on a windy clothesline, go through a vast deal of vehement motion but stay in the same place —Austin O’Malley Popped out and disappeared like a heat rash —George Garrett Sailing through change as effortlessly as gulls —Gail Godwin (And all the shapes of this grand scenery) shifted like restless clouds before the steadfast sun —Percy Bysshe Shelley (Streets) shift like dunes —Lisa Ress
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Chaos The switch is like going from Star Wars to stagecoaches —David “Doc” Livingston, commenting on enforced job switch (from controlling air traffic to controlling commuter trains), as quoted in New York Times article about fired air controllers by N.R. Kleinfield, September 28, 1986 Up and down like mercury —May Sarton
THE SIMILES proportions when it follows —Alexandre de Talleyrand Some people, like modern shops, hang everything in their windows and when one goes inside nothing is to be found —Berthold Auerbach The soundness of his nature was like the pure paste under a fine glaze —Edith Wharton
(Moods may) veer as erratically as the wind —Milton R. Sapirstein
A vein of iron buried inside her moral frame, like a metal armature inside a clay statue —Carlos Baker
< CHAOS See: ORDER/DISORDER
Your moral character must be not only pure, but, like Caesar’s wife, unsuspected —Lord Chesterfield
< CHARACTER
< CHARACTERISTICS, NATIONAL
See Also: PERSONAL TRAITS, REPUTATION As the sun is best seen at its rising and setting, so men’s native dispositions are clearest seen when they are children and when they are dying —Robert Boyle
America is more a ratatouille than a melting pot —Ken Holm, New York Times Magazine, October 12, 1986 The food image is particularly appropriate to Holm’s article about mixing Eastern and Western ingredients when cooking.
A character is like an acrostic … read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing —Ralph Waldo Emerson Character is like a tree, and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing —Abraham Lincoln Character is like white paper; if once blotted, it can hardly ever be made to appear white as before —Joel Hawes A character, like a kettle, once mended always wants mending —Jean-Jacques Rousseau Character, like porcelain ware, must be painted before it is glazed. There can be no change after it is burned in —Henry Ward Beecher
America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for —E.M. Forster As American as a catcher’s mitt —George Jean Nathan As American as a Norman Rockwell painting —Max Shulman As American as a sawed-off shotgun —Dorothy Parker about Dashiell Hammett, The New Yorker, April 15, 1931 As American as cheesecake —Samuel Yellen As American as corn on the cob —Anon As American as jazz —Anon
A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds. And when the weeds begin to grow, it’s like a garden full of snow —Nursery rhyme This dates back to the eighteenth century.
As American as shopping malls —Anon
The reputation of a man is like his shadow, gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its
As British as roast beef —Anon
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As American as the dream of being a millionaire —Anon As American as the two car garage —Anon As British as tea and scones —Elyse Sommer
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THE SIMILES
Cheeks
The variations to this are virtually limitless; to cite just a few: “English as the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace,” “English as clotted cream,” “As English as Piccadilly,” “As English as Trafalgar Square.”
A quiet Irishman is about as harmless as a powder magazine built over a match factory —James Dunne
As in sex, the Japanese do not care for extended encounters: “in and out” is their motto in love and war —James Kirkup
The wheels of American foreign relations turn like the wheels of an ox cart —Clive Cussler
Bullied and ordered about, the Englishman obeys like a sheep, evades like a knave, or tries to murder his oppressor —George Bernard Shaw Countries are like fruit; the worms are always inside —Jean Giradoux
Soviet action is like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma —Winston Churchill
< CHARITY See: KINDNESS
< CHARM See: ATTRACTIVENESS
Energy in a nation is like sap in a tree, it rises from the bottom up —Woodrow Wilson, October 28, 1912 speech
< CHASTITY
Frenchmen are like grains of gunpowder, each by itself smutty and contemptible, but mass them together and they are terrible indeed —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
< CHEAPNESS
French woman dips into love like a duck into water, ’tis but a shake of the feathers and wag of the tail and all is well again but an English woman is like a heedless swan venturing into a pool who gets drowned —Washington Irving
See Also: BLUSHES, FACIAL COLOR, SKIN Cheekbones glistening as if they’d been oiled —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Friendship in France as impossible to be attained as orange-trees on the mountains of Scotland —Lady Mary Wortley Montague letter to Lady Pomfret, July 12, l744 (In America … people claim and disown ‘identities’) as easily as they slap on bumper stickers —Philip Roth Nations like individuals, have to limit their objectives, or take the consequences —James Reston
See: VIRTUE
See: COST, THRIFT
< CHEEKS
Cheekbones like bunions —Steve Stern Cheekbones, like little gossamer-covered drums —Eudora Welty Cheeks … always a bright inflamed red, as if they’d been scoured —Jean Thompson Cheeks … big as a balloon —Njabulo Ndebele Cheeks bright as a wooden doll’s —Derek Lambert Cheeks bulging like a trumpeter’s —George Garrett Cheeks glowing like one of those apples in an expensive fruit shop —Patrick White
Nations, like men, die by imperceptible disorders —Jean Giraudoux
Cheeks had turned to blotches of dull red, like some pigment which has darkened in drying —Edith Wharton
Nations, like men, have their infancy —Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke
Cheeks had risen like puffy omelettes [from weight gain] —Phyllis Bottome
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Cheerfulness
THE SIMILES
Cheeks … just tinged, like the snow apple —Helga Sandburg
Cheerful as the rising sun in May —William Wordsworth
Cheeks … like a raspberry patch —Truman Capote
(Smile.… as) as cheerful as the winter solstice —William McIlvanney
Cheeks … like caves —John Rechy Cheeks like poppies —John Galsworthy Cheeks … pale as a winter snow upon which a few drops of blood have fallen —Arthur A. Cohen Cheeks … round and ruddy as marzipan fruit —Sylvia Plath Cheeks … sweet as flowers —The Holy Bible/ Song of Solomon Cheeks the luscious pink of ripening strawberries —W. P. Kinsella Jowls … hanging like wineskins —Z. Vance Wilson Red cheeks glistened like polished apples —Anon Spots of rouge on her cheekbones like a couple of roses pressed into the pages of a book —George Garrett
< CHEERFULNESS
A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather —Benjamin Franklin Cheerfulness is like money well expended in charity; the more we dispense of it, the greater our possessions —Victor Hugo Cheerfulness opens, like spring, all the blossoms of the inward man —J.P. Richter Encouraging as a round of applause —Anon (I am) gay as morning, light as snow —Dorothy Parker Instead of flittin’, I’ll be sittin’ / Next to her I’m cheerful like a kitten —Irving Berlin, from the song “The Girl That I Marry,” from the musical Annie Get Your Gun Optimistic as a sweepstake ticket buyer —Anon Optimistic as a company spokesperson —Anon Positive as good news —G. K. Chesterton
See Also: BRIGHTNESS, GAIETY, HAPPINESS, SMILES All smiles … as if ready for a thousand little curtseys —André Malraux
Positive as the forecast in a Chinese fortune cookie —Elyse Sommer
(She was) as bubbly as a magnum of champagne —Harry Prince
(She’s always happy. She) shies away from misery like a petrified horse —Carolyn Slaughter
[A movie] as heart-warming as an approaching headache —Vincent Canby, New York Times, March 21, 1986
Sunny and open as a May morning —Willa Cather
[A young girl] Blithe and airy as a wind-swept leaf —Sylvia Berkman Blithe as a boy —Pamela Hansford Johnson [A sunlit room] bright and bouncing as a newly bathed baby —John Braine Bright as a chirping bird —Stephen Longstreet Buoyant as a bride —Thomas McGuane Cheerful as a grove in Spring —William Wordsworth
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Radiant like a work of art, full of strange rays —Iris Murdoch
< CHILDISHNESS See: YOUTHFULNESS
< CHILDREN See Also: PARENTHOOD A baby is like a beast, it does not think —Aeschylus Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it —Samuel Smiles
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THE SIMILES
Chin
Childhood … like so many oatmeal cookies —Frank O’Hara
Life without children is like a tree without leaves —Milan Kundera
Childhood shows the man, as the morning shows the day —John Milton
A little girl without a doll is almost as unfortunate and quite as impossible as a woman without children —Victor Hugo
Children are like beggars; often coming without being called —Proverb Children are like leaves on a tree —Marcus Aurelius Children are like puppies: you have to keep them near you and look after them if you want to have their affection —Anna Magnani Children are like pancakes: You should always throw out the first one —Peter Benchley Children [in families] are like rival pretenders to a throne and their main object in life is to eliminate their competitors —Milton R. Sapirstein Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there’s always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires —Marcelene Cox Children like apples … good enough to eat —Donald Culross Children … like robins, pink-cheeked and rosy —Lawrence Durrell Children … they string our joys, like jewels bright, upon the thread of years —Edward A. Guest The faces of the kids … suddenly deprived by fear of their childhood, looked like ancient agonized adults —Herbert Gold
Maternal testimony not withstanding, babies are like biscuits in a pan —Ellery Sedgewick My childhood clings to me like wet paint —Daphne Merkin In Enchantment, a novel about a young woman’s search for self-discovery, the simile concludes: “Blotching the picture of who I am in the present.” With children as with plants … future character is indicated by their early disposition —Demophilus
< CHIN See Also: CHEEKS, FACE(S), MOUTH A chin like an infant’s elbow —Penelope Gilliatt Chin like the butt end of a ham —Ross Macdonald (A small) chin like half a rubber ball —Robert Campbell Chin line … shaped like a persimmon —Susan Minot Her chin rising and falling upon her heaving bosom like the figurehead of a vessel upon a heavy harbor swell —Arthur Train Chin stood out like the knuckles in a clenched hand —Max Apple
A happy childhood can’t be cured. Mine’ll hang around my neck like a rainbow —Hortense Calisher This is the opening for the novel Queenie, in which the author is much sparer with her similes than she is in her short stories
Chin was blue as if it had been shot full of gunpowder —Joyce Cary
Ladies touch babies like bankers touch gold —James Ferry One of two similes from a little rhyme within a short story entitled Dancing Ducks.
Jaw like the head of an ax slipped through at the last second like a curl of smoke —R. Wright Campbell
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Jaw as rigid as a shovel —John Yount A jaw like a park bench —Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
A jaw like the share of a plow —Sterling Hayden
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Choices
THE SIMILES
Jawline like granite —William Diehl
< CITIES/STREETSCAPES
Jaw set like a rock —Donald Seaman
See Also: PLACES
(He popped a mint into his mouth and) snapped his jaws shut like a shark —Harvey Swados
Alleys open and fall around me like footsteps of a newly shod horse —Frank O’Hara
Their shaven jowls looked like the hide of a freshscalded, fresh-scraped hog —William Humphrey
The ancient oaks … marched over the avenue like a canopy —John Kennedy Toole
< CHOICES
Bars were strung along the street like bright beads —Margaret Millar In her novel Experiment in Springtime, Millar strings the names of the bars to this simile.
Alternatives faced one like knives —Hortense Calisher Feel like a piece of flux caught between two magnets —William Diehl In Diehl’s novel Hooligans, the two magnets represent the choice between two lifestyles. Indecisive as a young boy in an ice cream parlor —Ira Berkow discussing George Steinbrenner’s choices of field leaders for the Yankees, New York Times/Sports of the Times, September 20, 1986 I would sooner smarm like a fart-licking spaniel than starve in a world of fat poems —Dylan Thomas It [making a choice] seems like a choice between lunacy and idiocy, death by fire or by water —Henry James, letter to Thomas Sergeant Perry, November 1, 1863 Like a kid jumping off the barn … once they decide to go, they go —John D. MacDonald Sudden resolutions, like the sudden rise of the mercury in the barometer, indicate little else than the changeableness of the weather —Julius Charles Hare Took all things of life for hers to choose from and apportion, as though she were continually picking presents for herself from an inexhaustible counter —F. Scott Fitzgerald
< CHURCHES See: HOUSES
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The asphalt shines like a silk hat —Derek Walcott
A big limestone church hangs like a gray curtain under the street lamp —John Updike The black night falls like a shroud over the whole town —Lu Hsun A brutally ugly, utilitarian place, like a mill town without the mill —Jonathan Valin The city seems to uncurl like some hibernating animal dug out of its winter earth —Lawrence Durrell The city unwrinkles like an old tortoise —Lawrence Durrell Far below and around lay the city like a ragged purple dream —O. Henry In the distance, the city rose like a cluster of warts on the side of the mountain —Flannery O’Connor Men and women, streaming forth from all directions like giant lines of ants moving fast and earnestly —Alaa Al Aswany, Chicago The noon sun put a glaze on them [the sidewalks], so that the cement burned and glittered like glass —Carson McCullers The passing scene spread outside the windows like a plentiful, prim English tea —Dorothea Straus People [on a crowded sidewalk] … jostling along like sheep in a pen that has no end —Maeve Brennan
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THE SIMILES
Clarity
The public streets, like built canals of air —David Denby
Wide, smooth, empty sidewalks looked like long canals of grey eyes —Ayn Rand
Raw grass sprouted from the cobbles like hair from a deafened ear —Philip Levine
< CIVILIZATION
The shadows of the palms lay like splash marks of dark liquid on the pavement —Ross Macdonald
See: SOCIETY
The shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen —Robert Louis Stevenson
(The scents of the garden descended upon him, their contours) as precise and clear as the colored bands of a rainbow —Patrick Suskind
A steep lane, like a staircase —Émile Zola The street lay still as a photograph —Jack Finney
As sharp as the last daybreak —Joy Williamson From a book jacket blurb about Tess Gallagher’s ability to portray aging people’s vision of irremediable loss in the novel The Lovers of Horses.
The street shone … like a fire in a forest —Robert Louis Stevenson
As unreadable as a piece of modern sculpture —Frank Swinnerton
The streets looked as if they were made of silver they were so bright and glistening —Oscar Wilde
(The image) blurred … like something familiar seen beneath disturbed though clear water —William Faulkner
The streets (of Bethany, Massachusetts) sparkled like high-gloss picture postcards sold in drugstores of small New England Villages —Susan Richards Shreve
(The consonants) blur together like ink on a wet page —Sue Grafton
The street as gray as newspapers —Marge Piercy
Streets tangled like old string —W. H. Auden Street … that neither stank or sparkled but merely had a look of having been turned, like the collar on an old shirt —Hortense Calisher That’s how quickly New York City comes about— like a weather vane—or the head of a cobra. Time tells —Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World
< CLARITY
Clear and diminished like a scene cut in cameo —Edna St. Vincent Millay Clear as a bell —John Ray’s Proverbs One could compile a small book of just “Clear as” similes. The bell comparison along with “Clear as a whistle” and “Clear as crystal” are probably most frequently used and familiar. [A theory synthetized from suppositions] as clear as a case history written in a book —Jean Stafford
The town, like an upturned sky, swollen with human lights —Albert Camus
Clear as a cloudless hour —Algernon Charles Swinburne
The town [seen from a distance] looked small and clean and perfect, as if it were one of those miniature plastic towns sitting beside a child’s electric railroad —Ann Tyler
Clear as a cube of solid sunshine —Anon
A view (of Brewer) spread out below like a carpet —John Updike
Clear as a lake —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Village … jumbled and colorful like a postcard —George Garrett
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
[Eyes] clear as a fountain —Walter Savage Landor Clear as a graph —Anon Clear as a legal confession of murder —John Cheever Clear as an oboe solo —Diane Ackerman
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Cleanliness Clear as A on the piano in the middle of all the tuning instruments of an orchestra —Sylvia Plath Clear as a tear —Sylvia Plath Clear as cold water —Mark Helprin
THE SIMILES (The air is) lucid and lonely as wind chimes —Sharon Sheehe Stark (The poet’s work was about as) lucid as a polygraph —Joseph Wambaugh
(The morning was) clear as glass —Mark Helprin
Lucidity is positively flowing over me like the sweet oils of Persia —Lorraine Hansberry
Clear as infant’s eyes —John Keats
Precise as a portrait photo —Natascha Wodin
(The creek flashed) clear as quartz —Ella Leffland
To read [Descartes] was like swimming in a lake so clear that you could see the bottom —W. Somerset Maugham
Clear as righteousness —Algernon Charles Swinburne Clear as the A, B, C —George Washington Clear as the day —Miles Coverdale “Clear as” comparisons linked with the day, time of day, and the sun at different times of the day include: “Clear as noon” (shortened from the once popular “Clear as noon-day”) and “Clear as the sun” (both attributed to Roger North); “Clear as is the summer’s sun” (from William Shakespeare’s The Life of King Henry the Fifth); “Clear as the mid-day sunshine” (Nathaniel Hawthorne); “Clear as day-light” (Arnold Bennett).
(Lake) transparent as liquid chrysolite —T. H. White Transparent as a white cloud in the moonshine —Hans Christian Andersen (Lake) transparent as liquid chrysolite —T. H. White Transparent like some holy thing —Thomas Moore
< CLEANLINESS
Clear as the figures at the bottom of a profit and loss statement —Anon
See Also: ORDER/DISORDER Clean and smooth as a peeled onion —O. Henry
Clear as the lines in a wet leaf —Charles Johnson
Clean and well-kept as a cemetery —Karl Shapiro
Clear as the note of doom —Lord De Tabley
(Her face) clean and white as a handkerchief —John Ashberry
(The men were naked and) clear as the point of a sword in the sun —George Garrett (The sky is as) clear as the song of a boy —Beryl Markham
[a kitchen] clean and white as heaven —Amor Towles, Rules of Civility Clean as a Band-Aid —Max Apple
Clear as the twanging of a harp —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Clean as a bleached bone —Wallace Stegner
Clear as wind —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Clean as a hound’s tooth —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
Clear, like accusation —Paul Horgan
Clean as a convent cell —Vita Sackville-West
[Voice in the “silent dead of night”] distinct as a passing footstep’s fall —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(His heart felt) clean as a new green leaf —Stephen Vincent Benét
Distinctly as white lace on velvet —Thomas Hardy
Clean as a newly laundered sheet —Rosamund Pilcher Pilcher uses the “Clean as a sheet” simile to describe the smoothness and cleanliness of sand
(Shouldn’t the soul of a man be as) limpid and cutting as a diamond —John Cheever
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Clean as a New England kitchen —Anon
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THE SIMILES when the tide is out in a story entitled “The White Birds.” Clean as a new pin of every penny of debt —Sir Walter Scott Clean as a penny —William Robertson A much used simile for anyone that is neatly and cleanly dressed.
Cleverness Adroit as a rhinoceros —Franklin P. Adams Brain as nimble as an aircraft —David Nicholls, One Day Brains like the frogs, dispersed all over his body —Charles Dickens Clever as a bird-dog —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
Clean as a pig’s whistle —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Just plain “Clean as a whistle,” is said to stem from the fact that it takes a clean dry whistle to produce a good sound.
Clever as sin —Rudyard Kipling
Clean as a piglet bathed in milk —Mary Gordon
Crafty as the sea —W. B. Yeats
Clean as a rose is after rain —James Whitcom Riley
Cunning as a dead pig, but not half so honest —Jonathan Swift
Clean as a toilet bowl —Lincoln Kirstein
Cunning is a sort of short-sightedness —Joseph Addison
(The woman was as) clean as a white rose in the morning gauze of dew —Carl Sandburg Clean as driftwood —Robert Hass (Legs) clean as marble —Beryl Markham Clean as new grass when the old grass burns —Carl Sandburg Clean as water pouring from a silver tap —Tennessee Williams
Crafty as a new religious convert pledged to win over a sinner —Gloria Norris Crafty as an exorcist —Miles Gibson
Has as many tricks as a bear —John Ray’s Proverbs Hinted with the delicacy of a lilac bud —Sinclair Lewis Ingenious as magicians —Delmore Schwartz Like rats, his wits were beginning to busy themselves again —Walter de la Mare
Dirty as a glass roof in a train station —Leonard Cohen
Little clevernesses are like half-ripened plums, only good eating on the side that has had a glimpse of the sun —Henry James
Dust balls sail like galleons [on a carpet] on the dry sea —Robert Irwin
Played on his misfortune as on a cello —Marguerite Yourcenar
Feathers of dust clung like frightened children to the table legs —Loren D. Estleman, Sugartown: An Amos Walker Mystery
Sharp and bright as a blade of sunlight —Alice Walker
Fingernails … like watch crystals —Walker Percy Immaculate as a laboratory —Ben Ames Williams Spotless as naked innocence —John Smith The water’s (of the swimming pool) like bouillabaisse. It’s got more things in it than Macy’s window —Noel Coward
< CLEVERNESS See Also: Alertness
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Sharp as a cut-throat razor —Donald Seaman Sharp as a knife —American colloquialism, attributed to New England An equally popular variation, also attributed to New England folklore: “Sharp as a razor.” Sharp as a needle —Anon Common usage has made this interchangeable with “Sharp as a pin.” A variation of more recent vintage, “Sharp as a tack,” has become a cliché in its own right.
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Cliché Sharp as mustard —Ogden Nash In Nash’s poem, “The Tale of the Custard Dragon,” the descriptive frame of reference is a little dog. Shrewd as a barrel-load of monkeys —Robin Sheiner
THE SIMILES of movie The Iron Lady, New York Times, December 29, 2011. The film’s title is, of course, a metaphor. Clinging … like lichen to a rock —Ross Macdonald
Shrewd as a sparrow —Janet Flanner
Clinging like a limpet in the heaviest sea —William H. Hallhan
Shrewdness is often annoying, like a lamp in the bedroom —Ludwig Boerne
Clinging … like a monkey-on-a-stick —Julia O’Faolain
Sly and slick as a varmint —Robert Penn Warren
Clinging … stupidly, like a mule —Joseph Conrad
(Every move had been as stealthy and as) sly as a hungry coyote —William Humphrey Smart as a whip —Anon Used to the point of abuse since the seventeenth century. A variation in keeping with the phrase’s origin which refers to the smarting pain caused by a whip: “Sharp as a whiplash.” Smart as new nails —Sharon Sheehe Stark Tricky as palmistry —Karl Shapiro Wily as a fox —John Clarke The fox continues to be a favorite link to clever, crafty behavior. Often ‘cunning’ is substituted for ‘wily,’ and the fox is not just any fox but an old one.
< CLICHÉ See: ORIGINALITY; MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS
< CLINGING See Also: PERSISTANCE; PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS Adhere like lint —Anon Adhere like ticks to a sheep’s back —Maurice Hewlett Adhering … like shipwrecked mariners on a rock —J.M. Barrie Between flashbacks that trace her journey from modest beginnings the phrase “grocer’s daughter from Grantham” is attached to her like a Homeric epithet —A. O. Scott, review
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Clinging to her like chewing gum to a boot sole —Julian Gloag Cling … like a wart —Tony Ardizzone The simile, as used in The Heart of the Order, describes the way a cowboy clings to the back of a bull. Cling like chewing gum to a shoe sole —Anon Cling like ivy —Robert Burton Clings fiercely to all his titles, like an old soldier to his medals —Robert Traver Clings to as a baby clings to its pacifier —Anon Clings to me like a bed-bug —Maxim Gorky Cling to (another person) as an exhausted man does to a rock —Brooks Bakeland Cling to … like a drowning person to a piece of timber —Isak Dinesen Cling to like a leech —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Cling to like a vine —American colloquialism, attributed to New England A variation is to “Cling like ivy.” Cling to … like tenacious barnacles upon rocks —Mary Ellen Chase Clung like a basket enfolding a tithe offering —Arthur A. Cohen Clung [to an idea] like a shipwrecked sailor hanging on to the only solid part of his sinking universe —Marguerite Yourcenar
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THE SIMILES
Clinging
(The baby) clung like a sloth —Louise Erdrich
Hang over like a layer of smog —Anon
Clung … like a tarantula —Terry Southern
Hang over like crepe —Anon
(Rancor) clung like curses on them —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hang over like murder on a guilty soul —Sciller
Clung … like magnet to steel —T. Buchanan Read
Hung like bees on mountain-flowers —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Clung the way a tree animal clings to a branch —Rachel Ingalls
(The thought … ) hung like incense around Francis —Dorothy Canfield
Clung to each other like double sweet peas —A Broken-Hearted Gardener, anonymous nineteenth-century verse
It [something that had been said] stuck up in the girl’s consciousness like a fallen meteor —John Cheever
Clung together hand in hand like men overboard —George Garrett
(A scar of horror, if not of guilt) lay consciously on his breast, like the scarlet letter —George Santayana
Clung to her like a man on a swaying subway car whose grip on the overhead rail keeps him from tumbling to the floor —Paul Reidinger Clung to his consciousness like a membrane —John Updike Clutched [at her blanket] as a faller clutches at the turf on the edge of a cliff —Virginia Woolf Clutching hold of … with the grasp of a drowning man —Charles Dickens
Hang together like burrs —John Ray’s Proverbs
Clinging … like starving children to a teat —Margaret Millar (Beyond Like swarming bees they clung —Lord Byron Remained like a black cloud —Frank Swinnerton She clings to me like a fly to honey —Anton Chekov She clung to him like a shadow —Margaret Mitchell
Clutching is the surest way to murder love, as if it were a kitten, not to be squeezed so hard, or a flower to fade in a tight hand —May Sarton
She’s coiled around her family and her house like a python —Jane Bowles
(There she sat) glued to the tube like a postage stamp —A. Alvarez
She was like a sea-anemone —had only to be touched to adhere to what touched her —John Fowles
Gummed together like wet leaves —Lawrence Durrell
Sticking to [another person’s side] like a melting snowbank —Marge Piercy
[A term to describe a problem] had stuck with him like day-old oatmeal —T. Glen Coughlin
Stick like a wet leaf —Anton Chekov
Hang on like a summer cold —Anon
Sticks like a burr to a cow’s tail —Edward Noyes Westcott
Hang on … like a tick —Rita Mae Brown Hang on to … [some small, unimportant point] … like a dog to a bone —Barbara Greene, on her cousin Graham Greene Some people like to get more specific; for example, “Hang on to … like a terrier” is found in Iris Murdoch’s novel The Good Apprentice. Hang over like a heavy curtain —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Sticks like crazy glue —Anon (My touch) sticks like mud —Marge Piercy Stick together like overcooked pasta —Elyse Sommer Stick together like peanut butter and jelly —Ed McBain Sticky as fire —Terry Bisson
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THE SIMILES
Sticky as rubber cement —Anon
Close as the gum on a postage stamp —Anon
Stuck … like a barnacle to a ship’s keel, or a snail to a door, or a little bunch of toadstools to the stem of a tree —Charles Dickens
Close as two peas in a pod —H. I. Phillips Common usage has created twists such as “Close as two peas on a plate.”
Stuck to [him or her] like shit to a blanket —American colloquialism
Close like exiles from a remote and forgotten land —A.R. Guerney Jr.
Stuck to my side like a lung infected with pleurisy —Patrick White
Close together as the two shells of an oyster —Leonard McNally
Stuck with … like gas on water —Will Weaver Tenacious as a Boston bull —Anon They [people who cling to outmoded political concepts] are like degenerates who are color blind, except that they see something which is NOT there, instead of failing to see something which is —Janet Flanner They [narrator’s daughters] cling together like Hansel and Gretel —Ogden Nash Tied to each other back to back [long-married people] … like dogs unable to disengage after coupling —Lawrence Durrell
< CLOSENESS See Also: COMPATIBILITY, FRIENDSHIP Always together … like Siamese twins —Nina Bawden [Cid and his wife Juena] are like the nail [finger nail] and the flesh —The Lay of the Cid, epic poem According to a grad student at SUNY, Stony Brook, NY, this is the only simile in this 3500 verse epic poem dating back to 1140 C.E.
Get as close as an Eskimo does to a fire in his igloo in the tundra —Anon, from a radio broadcast His face was so close to hers that it was out of focus, like a cloud passing in front of the sun —Michael Korda Inseparable as a baseball fan and a bag of peanuts —Anon Inseparable as finger and thumb —George Farquhar Inseparable as a shadow to a body —Robert Burton Inseparable as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza —Anon Inseparable like ivy, which grows beautifully so long as it twines around a tree, but is of no use when it is separated —J. P. Molière The original wording has been transcribed from “A woman is like ivy” for a less gender-oriented interpretation. Intimate as two sardines in a can —Anon Near as the end of one’s nose —Anon
As close to him as sticking plaster —Cornell Woolrich
Near as twilight is to darkness —Thomas Paine
Close as an uncracked nut —Anon
Strayed as close to that woman as a pimple —Charles Johnson
Close as a dead heat —Anon Close as fingers inside a pair of mittens —Anon Close as flies in a bottle —Shana Alexander Close as the bark to a tree —Sir Charles Sedley This simile is also used to describe stinginess. Close as the cu in cucumbers —Anon
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They’re as thick as three in a bed —Scottish saying They were all standing around him thick as bees —Cornell Woolrich (It is proper that families remain) thick like good soup —J. P. Donleavy
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THE SIMILES Though you think he’s far away / He’s near to you, so near to you / As near as April is to May! —Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, “Near to You,” Damn Yankees We were like two kernels in one almond —Sadi Wrapped tight an as eggroll —Donald McCaig
Clothing In his novel, In La-La Land We Trust, Campbell expands upon this simile for several sentences, detailing the outfit. Dressed up like a dog’s dinner —American colloquialism This means to be overdressed, and badly dressed at that.
< CLOTHING
Dresses conservatively as a corpse —Harvey Swados
See Also: CLOTHING ACCESSORIES; CLOTHING, ITS FIT
(The Queen) dresses like a whistle-stop town librarian —Stephen Longstreet
A little-girl-type sundress that was about as sexy as a paper bag —Dan Wakefield
Dresses like he’s got a charge at Woolworth’s —Robert B. Parker With names of stores and companies and products constantly changing, Woolworth’s may not always be synonymous with cheap. However, the simile could live on with an appropriate substitution.
All dressed up like Christmas trees —Rosamund Pilcher A baggy blue flowered housedress that looked like old slipcovers —Louise Erdrich A bikini is like a barbed-wire fence. It protects the property without obstructing the view —Joey Adams Blouses thin as the film of tears in your eyes —Bin Ramke Clothes, pressed stiff as cardboard —Jay Parini Coat like a discarded doormat —T. Coraghessan Boyle A dark blue suit so rigidly correct that it looked like a uniform —Harvey Swados Draped in a muumuu that covered her like a Christo curtain shrouding a California mountain —Paul Kuttner Dressed all in brown, like a rabbit —Anon Dressed as if she were going to a coronation —Shelby Hearon Dressed in black jersey, without ornament, like a widow —Ross Macdonald
Dress … gone limp in the heat, like a wilted plant —Louise Erdrich A dress like ice-water —F. Scott Fitzgerald Dress that was as small as a scarf —Laurie Colwin Fancy as a rooster up for the fair —Linda Hogan Garments as weathered as an old sail —George Eliot A girl who dressed like an Arabian bazaar —T. Coraghessan Boyle Her white silk robe flowed over her like a milk shower —Harold Adams He was dressed for this death-watch job [hotel desk clerk] as if for a lively party —Christopher Isherwood In her orange fringed poncho she looked like a large teepee —Michael Malone
Dressed like a bookie —Gavin Lyall
Ladies wrapped like mummies in shawls with bright flowers on them —Virginia Woolf
Dressed like a Hollywood bit player hoping to be discovered leaning on a bar —Robert Campbell
Like her husband she carried clothes, carried them as a train carries passengers —Henry James
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Clothing Accessories
THE SIMILES
Looks like she’s wearing her entire wardrobe all at once—and all of it hand-me-downs from someone bigger than she is —Julie Salamon A description of the appearance of a character played by Debra Winger in the movie Black Widow, Wall Street Journal, February 6, 1987.
You wear your clothes as if you want to be helped out of them —W. P. Kinsella
A party frock sticking out all around her [a little girl’s] legs like a lampshade —Joyce Cary
< CLOTHING ACCESSORIES
Peeled off his trousers like shucking corn —Rita Mae Brown Ragged as a scarecrow —Thomas Heywood
Zipped and buttoned into a polyester pantsuit, she was like a Christmas stocking half-filled with fruit —Mary Ward Brown
See Also: JEWELRY Boots that shone like a well-rubbed table —Stephen Vincent Benét
Shirt [heavily patched] lays on his body like a ratty dishtowel —Carolyn Chute
A collar that looked like a pancake flapping around my head and it made me look like a pregnant penguin —Elizabeth Taylor
Skirts swirling like a child’s pennant caught in a stiff breeze —Tony Ardizzone
Glasses as thick as the bottom of a pop bottle —George Garrett
Slickers [worn by cops] that shone like gun barrels —Raymond Chandler Raymond Chandler used this simile in his early days as a pulp magazine writer, (Killer In the Rain, Black Mask Magazine, 1935) and again in his novel The Big Sleep.
Handkerchief hoisted like a brave little flag from his breast pocket —Vicki Baum
Starched clothes sat in the grass like white enameled teapots —Isaac Babel [Formal attire] Suited them the way an apron suits a grizzly bear —William McIlvanney Sweater as sopped as wet sheep —Susan Minot Tailored and bejeweled like a pampered gigolo —James Mills Tightly wrapped in a red skirt like a Christmas present —Helen Hudson Trousers pressed as sleek as a show dog’s flank —R. V. Cassill A wedding gown like a silver cloud —Mazo de la Roche A white robe, flowing, like spilled milk —Paige Mitchell Wide sleeves fluttering like wings —Marcel Proust Wore his clothes as if they were an official uniform —Vernon Scannell
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Hat big as an Easter cake —Joyce Cary A hat … perched right on top of her head, like a mushroom —Roald Dahl Impenetrably black sunglasses like Batman’s mask —John Rechy Shoes gleaming like beer bottles —Loren D. Estleman Shoes … shined up like patent leather —George Garrett Shoes sticking out like tongues beneath the long black robe —Helen Hudson Silk, like wrinkled skins on scalded milk —Oliver Wendell Socks which fell like a couple of woolen concertinas over his dusty shoes —John Mortimer Straw hat with a bow on it like the sails of a windmill —L. P. Hartley A ten-gallon hat like a walking mushroom —Truman Capote Tie … loose and awry like a long lazy tongue wore a costume as distinctive as a ballet dancer’s tutu —Van Wyck Mason
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THE SIMILES
Clothing, Its Fit
Ties pulled loose from their collars, like weary gamblers —Graham Swift
Her slip was stretched over her breast, as firmly and simply as linen over an embroidery frame —Boris Pasternak
< CLOTHING, ITS FIT
Her stockings hung about her ankles like Hamlet’s when he exposed himself to Ophelia and called her a whore —Leonard Michaels
See Also: CLOTHING Bathing suit so tight that it seemed any moment she would burst out of it like a cooked frankfurter —George Garrett
His [shirt] collar was so tight it felt like a string cutting his neck —Dan Wakefield
A blanket wrapped around her body as tight as a cigar —Scott Spencer
His jacket hung on him like a scarecrow —Ross Macdonald
(Clothes which) clung like refractory cobwebs —Patrick White
His pants hung as full as an Arab tent from his global stomach —William Diehl
A coat which seems to fit her as her life fits, barely, inadvertently, not at all —Herbert Morris
His shirt fit him like a sail at the back —Philip Gerard
Everything she wears fits like a saddle on a sow —Harold Adams (Her bathing suit that) fit her like a sack —Flannery O’Connor Fit like a saddle fits a sow —Anon A alliterative putdown for the way a person is dressed. It dates back to sixteenth-century England and became an American colloquialism shortly after it crossed the ocean. [A dress] fits like the skin of a grape —Charles Raddock Raddok’s scathing review of the play Between the Covers describes Jacqueline Susann's outfit by referring to the lines of the dress as its only good lines. Fits you like flannel washed in hot suds —O. Henry Fitted her like a duck’s foot in the mud —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Her coat fit her like a cheese box —Mary Gordon Her garments seeming to flutter round her like draperies —Barbara Pym Her halter top that cradled her breasts like a hammock —Phyllis Naylor Her sleeves dropped like a sigh —Anais Nin
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
His short-sleeved shirt and short pants fit him like a dirty sack —James Crumley (The uniform) hung slack like a castoff on a scarecrow —Paige Mitchell Jeans fit like a rubber glove —W. P. Kinsella The jeans fitted like hand-me-ups from a younger, thinner sister —Margaret Millar (A healthy blonde with) jeans so tight her hipbones looked like towel hooks —Erma Bombeck [Pants] tight … like elastic bandages —Ann Petry Jeans that made his legs look like tree trunks. The bright green fishnet shirt he wore made him look even more like a tree —Ann Beattie Legs … hung straight and rigid as if she had iron shinbones and ankles —William Faulkner She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on her with a pitchfork —Jonathan Swift Snugger than the bark to a dead maple —Anon (A yellow) tee shirt that clings to her arms, breast and round belly like the skin of a sausage —Russell Banks They [too-large trousers] make you look like an elephant that has lost weight —Penelope Gilliatt
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Cloud(s)
THE SIMILES
Tight blue jeans that grip her behind like two hands —Charles Bukowski
Clouds piling up like a bubble bath —Sue Grafton
Tight … like a lobster shell —W. S. Gilbert
Clouds, plump and heavy as dumplings —Anthony E. Stockanes
Trousers and jacket droop like a tailor’s nightmare —T. Coraghessan Boyle
The clouds were asses’ ears —Dylan Thomas
Trousers … as wrinkled at the crotch as if he’d had them pressed that way —Harvey Swados
The clouds were huddled on the horizon like dirty sheep from the steppes —Joyce Renwick
The trousers fitted her legs closely, but she could come out of them as though she were peeling a banana —MacDonald Harris
The clouds were like an alabaster palace —Johnny Mercer, from his 1954 lyrics for “Midnight Sun.”
< CLOUD(S)
The clouds were like old fiddles —Joyce Cary
See Also: CLOUD MOVEMENTS, SKY A cloud like a torn shirt —Katherine Mansfield Clouds are like Holy Writ, in which theologians cause the faithful or the crazy to see anything they please —Voltaire Clouds … as white as leghorn feathers —Saul Bellow The cloud showed motion within, like an old transport truck piled high with crate on crate of sleepy white chickens —Eudora Welty The clouds hung above the mountains like puffs of white smoke left in the wake of a giant oldfashioned choo-choo train —Sue Grafton The clouds lie over the chiming sky … like the dustsheets over a piano —Dylan Thomas Clouds like a marble frieze across the sky —Helen Hudson Clouds like cruisers in the heaven —Edna O’Brien Clouds like dark bruises were massing and swelling [on the horizon] —George Garrett Clouds … like drowsy lambs around a tree —Romain Gary (The sky turned sooty with) clouds like enormous thumbprints —Helen Hudson Clouds like lights among great tombs —Wallace Stevens Clouds like tattered fur —Jean Thompson
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A few clouds were drawn against the light like streaks of lead pencils —John Cheever Fluffy white clouds, like flecks of lather, were floating across the sky —Alexander Solzhenitsyn Clouds … wild and black and rolling like locomotives —W. P. Kinsella Frail clouds like milkweed floss —John Dos Passos Gleaming, white fluffy clouds peeped over the hills … like kittens —Stella Benson High fat clouds like globs of whipped cream —William Faulkner Like a grave face, lit by some last, sad thought, a cloud, tinged by the fading glow of sunset —John Hall Wheelock Like blurred lenses, winter clouds cast a shade over the sun —Truman Capote (Above the falling sun,) like visible winds the clouds are streaked and spun —Roy Fuller Little white clouds … like a row of ballet-girls, dressed in white, waiting at the back of the stage, alert and merry, for the curtain to go up —W. Somerset Maugham Little white clouds like flags were whipped out in the scented wind —Paul Horgan Little white puffs of cloud … like a cat steeped in milk —W. P. Kinsella
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THE SIMILES A long thin cloud crossed it [the moon] slowly, drawing itself out like a name being called —Eudora Welty Low clouds, drooping at the edges like felt, sailed over the woods —Boris Pasternak Low on the horizon hung a fugitive wisp of cloud, spiraled and upthrust like a genie emerging from a bottle —Robert Traver A massive cloud like dirty cotton —William Faulkner One cloud intruded [into the blue of the sky], puffy, precise, as if piped from a pastry bag —Margaret Sutherland Parcels of clouds lying against the mountainside like ghosts of dead mackerel —Paul Theroux
Cloud Movements Clouds hastening like messengers through heaven —John Hall Wheelock Clouds rising like a tide of ink just beneath the moon —John Farris Clouds rose up from the meadows like soft creamy wings seeking the bodies of gigantic birds —Rita Mae Brown Clouds sailing … like a flock of birds taking flight to distant lands —Hans Christian Andersen Clouds that hung, like banners —Edgar Allen Poe Clouds that swam like lonely white fish in the sky —Robie Macauley Clouds would part like windows, as though to air the sky —Boris Pasternak
A single puff of cloud so still, it seems as if it had been painted there —Delmore Schwartz
Gray clouds ballooned down like the dirty underside of a great circus tent —Brian Moore
Small thin clouds like puffs of frosty breath —Joyce Cary
Inky clouds, like funeral shrouds sail over the midnight skies —W S. Gilbert Gilbert contributed many a simile to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, like this one from Ruddigore.
Some small clouds, like rosy petals, seemed to his eyes to be dancing, gently and carefully, against the blue —Hugh Walpole They [the clouds] peel the morning like a fruit —Lawrence Durrell When clouds appear like rocks and towers, the earth’s refreshed by frequent showers —English weather rhyme White and fluffy clouds … one looked like a fish and one looked like a movie star, all curvy, and another looked like Santa Claus gone wrong —Lee Smith
< CLOUD MOVEMENTS See Also: RAIN Black clouds lumbered off westward like ghosts of buffalo —W. P. Kinsella Clouds floating around [in the sky] … like suds in a pan —Helen Hudson Clouds … gathered like great boneless birds —Hugh Walpole
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Rain clouds scudded past like big ships sailing out of harbor —Brian Moore Lonely clouds were floating above, like guests strolling above the sky —Yehuda Yaari Over my head the clouds thicken, then crack and split like a roar of cannonballs tumbling down a marble staircase —Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness A rolling cloud boiled onto the horizon like black liquid —Dorothy Francis The sailing clouds went by, like ships upon the sea —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There’s a feathery little cloud floatin’ by like a lonely leaf on a big blue stream —Oscar Hammerstein II, lyrics for “Two Little People” from Carousel Troops of small feathery white clouds ranged over the sky, like grazing herds of the gods —Thomas Mann
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Clumsiness
< CLUMSINESS See: AWKWARDNESS
< COLDNESS See Also: REMOTENESS, RESERVE (There was) a certain coldness, like that of a spinster about her —Boris Pasternak Behave exactly like a block of ice —Noel Coward, lyrics for “I’m So In Love” The chill in the air was like a constant infinitely small shudder —M. J. Farrell (Some laughs are as) cold and meaningless as yesterday’s buckwheat pancake —Josh Billings Billings often used a phonetic dialect writing the “as” and “az.” Cold as a dead man’s nose —William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale Cold as a fish —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Cold as a fish caught through the ice —F. van Wyck Mason Cold as a hole in the ice —Bertolt Brecht (It grew as) cold as a key —Thomas Heywood Cold as a lizard —Walter Savage Landor In one of Landor’s Conversation pieces, he has Fra Filippo Lippi commenting to Pope Eugenius IV that while an ordinary person could use an expression like “Cold as ice,” a true poet would reach for more originality. The above is one suggestion; “cold as a lobster” is another.
THE SIMILES Cold as charity —Anon An English phrase in use since the seventeenth century. Cold as coldest hell —Sylvia Berkman In a short story entitled “Who Killed Cock Robin,” Beckman uses this simile to describe a character’s personality and continues as follows: “cruel to every fingernail, and invariably polite.” Cold as dew to dropping leaves —Percy Bysshe Shelley Cold as fears —Algernon Charles Swinburne [I felt] as cold as Finnegan’s feet (the day they buried him) —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely As cold as if I had swallowed snowballs —William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor A variation of this snowball simile from The Merry Wives of Windsor is found in another Shakespeare play, Pericles: “She sent him away as cold as a snowball.” (Your heart would be as heavy and) cold as iron shackles —George Garrett Cold as Monday morning’s barrenness —F. D. Reeve Cold as moonlight —Yvor Winters (Face) cold as newsprint —Philip Levine (Eyes) cold as river ice —Davis Grubb As cold as snakes —American colloquialism, attributed to the Northeast
Cold as a miser’s heart —Donald Seaman
(Men) cold as spring water —Julia O’Faolain
[A smile] cold as a moan —Marge Piercy Cold as a murderer’s heart —Richard Ford
(The wet air was as) cold as the ashes of love —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Cold as an igloo —Reynolds Price
Cold as the cold between the stars —Terry Bisson
As cold as any stone —William Shakespeare, Henry V
Cold as the north side of a gravestone in Winter —Proverb
Cold … as a pane of glass —Reynolds Price
Cold as the snow —Lewis J. Bates
Cold as a snowman’s dick —William H. Gass
Cold as the tomb of Christ —Maxwell Anderson
(A kiss) cold as bacon —Joyce Cary
Colder than a banker’s heart —William Diehl
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THE SIMILES
Collapse
Colder than a dead lamb’s tail —Anon
A heart as cold as English toast —Harry Prince
Colder than a lawyer’s heart —George V. Higgins
It [TV show] was hard as fiberglass —Norman Mailer
Colder than a witch’s tits —American colloquialism, attributed to the South Like many regional expressions that gained national currency during World War II, this one is often referred to as an Army expression. (It was) colder than ice —Hans Christian Andersen Whether used as a pure simile “Cold as ice” or as cited above, the linking of snow and ice to cold has become as “Common as snowflakes in winter.” A story in the January 23, 1987 edition of the New York Times about a planned freedom march in Atlanta was highlighted with a blurb stating “We are going to march if it’s cold as ice … ” proving once again that even without a new twist, a simile usually wins the spotlight. Cold like a sea mist and as ungraspable —Sylvia Townsend Cold [in manner] like Christmas morning —Grace Paley
My flesh was frozen for an inch below my skin, it was as if I were wearing icy armour —Rebecca West Unresponding … like a wall —D. H. Lawrence
< COLLAPSE See Also: DISINTEGRATION Caved in like a sinkhole —Jonathan Valin Caving in like a mud dam —Kurt Rheinheimer (Periods in one’s life that once seem important until you look back on them) collapsed as flat as packing cartons —Jonathan Penner In a short story entitled “Emotion Recollected in Tranquility,” the author tied the image of collapsed packing cartons to the collapse of part of one’s life.
The cold was like a sleep —Wallace Stevens
Collapsed like an elephant pierced by a bullet in some vital spot —Kingsley Amis
The cold was like a thick vast sleep —Davis Grubb
Collapsed like a rotten tree —Erich Maria Remarque
Cool and smooth, like the breath of an air conditioner —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Collapsed like a rump-shot dog —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Cool as a snowbank —Louisa May Alcott
(Half a dozen career daydreams) collapsed like a telescope —Thomas McGuane
(Her bare arms and shoulders felt as) cool as marble —Leo Tolstoy (Skin) cool as steel —Elizabeth Hardwick (Voice) cool as water on shaded rocks —Beryl Markham Could feel the cold climbing up his ankles like ships’ rats —Penelope Gilliatt Hardened her heart, like God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart against the Jews —Daphne Merkin The simile was particularly appropriate in Enchantment, a novel about an orthodox Jewish family.
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Collapsed like a wounded soldier in the mud —Z. Vance Wilson Collapsed to the floor like a tent that has had all the guy ropes and poles removed at the same time —Jimmy Sangster Collapsed upon the sea as if his body had telescoped into itself, like a picnic beaker —Joyce Cary (His body) collapsed vertically like a punctured concertina —Frank Ross An older variation of this by Irving Cobb is “Fold up like a concertina.”
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Collapse
THE SIMILES
(One day would) collapse like a peony —Jilly Cooper
(She) crumpled like paper crushed in a fist and began to cry —Harold Adams
Collapse like a sack of meal —Anon The sack of meal as a comparison linked to falling, collapsing or toppling has seeded so much use and extension that one can only list some of its in-print appearances: “Went over like a sack of meal” (Frank O’Connor); “Fall heavily, like a sack of meal” (S.J. Perelman); “Went down … like an empty sack” (John M. Synge); “Dropped, like a flour sack falling from a loft”(Gerald Kersh). Most commonly overheard in everyday conversation is “Collapse like an empty paper bag.”
Crumpled up as if he were a paper flower —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Collapse like a snowman in the sun —Anon
Drops like a piece of flotsam —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Collapse like a tent when the pole is kicked out from under it —Loren D. Estleman Collapse … like empty garments —Joyce Cary Collapse like sandcastles against the ocean tide —Anon Collapse like a punctured blister —Mike Sommer
Crumples like a used-up piece of paper —Daphne Merkin [Gulls] Downed … like a tumbled kite —John Hall Wheelcock (The bird) dropped like an arrow —Leo Tolstoy Dropped like an elephant’s trunk —Eudora Welty Dropped like one hit in the head by a stone from a sling —Eudora Welty
Falling as gently and slowly as a kite —Elizabeth Hardwick Fall over like a frozen board —William H. Gass Fall to the floor like misfired cannon balls —John Updike
Collapse like the cheeks of a starved man —Charles Dickens
(She’s welcome to climb with man if she wishes … and) fall with a crash like a trayful of dishes —Amy Lowell
Collapsing like a cardboard carton thrown on a bonfire —Margaret Atwood
Fell as low as a toad —American colloquialism, attributed to the Midwest
Comes apart [no longer able to control laughter] like a slow-ripping seam —Sharon Sheehe Stark
(Accents of peace and pity) fell like dew (upon my heart) —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Crashed on the leather sofa, going down like a B52 with a bellyful of shrapnel —Jonathan Kellerman [Souvenirs of a romance] Crumble like flowers pressed in dictionaries —Judith Martin Crumble like tinder —Anon (A small white house that was) crumbling at the corners like stale cake left out on a plate —Jonathan Valin
Fell … like insects knocked off by a gardener’s spray —Derek Lambert Fell like one who is seized with sleep —Dante Alighieri Fell slowly forward like a toppling wall —Stephen Crane Fell to her knees like a nun seeking sudden forgiveness —James Crumley Flopped like the ears of a dog —Edgar Allan Poe
Crumbling like one of those dry sponge cakes —Francis King
Folded up like a pocket camera —George Ade
Crumpled like caterpillars on mulberry leaves —James Purdy
[First baseman] Goes down slow as a toppling tree —W. P. Kinsella
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Fold up like a cheap camera —Anon
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THE SIMILES
Colors
Going under [dying] like shipwrecked sailors —Thomas Keneally
Tumbling dumb as a ninepin —Sharon Sheehe Stark
(Let life face him with a new demand on his understanding and then watch him) go soggy, like a wet meringue —D. H. Lawrence
We fell to the carpet like leaves circling in a light wind —James Crumley
He dropped like a bullock—he lay like a block —Rudyard Kipling (When I tell him he must go, he suddenly) hits the floor like a toppled statue —Louise Erdrich Hit the floor like an anvil —Joseph Wambaugh
Went down like a ninepin —Edith Wharton This still popular simile to describe falling with a thud was probably in use before its appearance in Wharton’s story, The Pelican. Went down like a plumb line —Lawrence Durrell Went down like a pole-axed steer —Donald Seaman
(Slumped to the floor and) lay there like a punctured balloon —Myron Brinig Some variations on the balloon comparison: “I was going down … like a child’s balloon as it gradually lets out air” (Eugene Ionesco’s play, The Stroller in the Air); “Ripples to the pavement like a deflated balloon” from T. Coraghessan Boyle’s novel Water Music, Little.
Went over [after being hit] like a paper cut-out and lay just as flat as one —Cornell Woolrich
Like an emptying tube, after a couple of minutes he collapses —Erich Maria Remarque
An amber mixture like autumn leaves —François Maspero
Over she went … like a little puff of milkweed —Eudora Welty
[Go to the woods and bring me back / One: the cow] as white as milk Stephen Sondheim, “Epilogue,” Into the Woods The lyric continues with witch’s additional items, all similes linked to colors, “Two: the cape as red as blood, Three: the hair as yellow as corn, Four: the slipper as pure as gold.”
Pitched forward like a felled tree —Oakley Hall (His heaving bulk suddenly) sagged, like a sail bereft of wind —Jan Kubicki [Old man] Scrunched like an old gray fetus —Grace Paley
< COLORS See Also: BLACK, BLUE, BRIGHTNESS, BROWN, GREEN, PALLOR, PINK, RED, WHITE
Bright gold like a diadem —Angela Carter
Thudded like a bird against the glass wall —Ross Macdonald
(Sky damp and) colorless as a cough —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Topple over like a doll with a round base —Wilfrid Sheed
Colorless as a desert —Alice McDermott
Tumble down like a house of cards —George Du Maurier The many twists on tumbling, falling or collapsing cards as comparisons include Robert Browning’s “Fell like piled-up cards” and Edith Wharton’s “Collapsed like a playing card.” Tumbled down like the Tower of Babel —Bernard Malamud
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Colorless like the white paper streamer a Chinaman pulls out of his mouth —editor, Dragonfly magazine, 1880 The simile appeared in a rejection letter to Anton Chekhov when he was still a fledgling writer. Colors are as soft as a Mediterranean dawn —Bryan Miller, New York Times, July 3, 1987 Miller’s simile pertained to the colors of a restaurant.
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Comedy Colors as clear as notes perfectly played —A. E. Maxwell Colors [of Christmas candy] … as piercing as the joys and sufferings of the poor … red like the love that was celebrated in doorways … yellow like the flames in a drunk man’s brain —Heinrich Böll Colors clear as fresh-cut flowers —Joan Chase Deep colored as old rugs —Eudora Welty As full of color as blood —John Logan Gold as the seeds of a melon —Dame Edith Sitwell A good soldier, like a good horse, cannot be of a bad color —Oliver Wendell Holmes
THE SIMILES Comfortable as matrimony —Nathan Bailey Comfortable … like sleeping on a cloud —Slogan, Sealy Inc. Comforting as a long soak in a hot tub after a short walk in a freezing rainstorm —Elyse Sommer Comforting as the Surgeon General’s statement on a pack of Lucky Strikes —Harry Prince Comfort [memory of a lover] like a rosary —Sumner Locke Elliott Cozy and dark as a dreary day —Sharon Sheehe Stark Cozy as a cup of tea —Anon
Orange as the sunset —Dashiell Hammett
Cozy as a nest —Émile Zola
Orange bright like golden lamps in a green light —Andrew Marvell
Cozy as visiting your grandmother —Mary Lee Settle
[A taxi] Painted in an arabesque of colors, like a psychedelic dream gone wild —Andrew Kaplan
Easy as an old shoe —English proverb New Englanders brought this from the old country as “Comfortable as an old shoe,” an expression still very much in use. There’s also a Ukrainian proverb which incorporates a somewhat different form of this simile.
(His split lip is as) purple as a nightcrawler stuck on a hook —Robert Flanagan This simile begins Flanagan’s short story “Naked to Naked Goes.” [Cabbage] purply as cheap stained glass —Babette Deutsch The reds and browns and golds of the trees seem ready to drip from their branches like wet dye —Alice McDermott Silvery as sleighbells —Diane Ackerman
Feels comfortable like in a cloud —François Maspero Reassured … like a sheltering wing over a motherless bird —Louisa May Alcott Restful as one’s favorite armchair —Frank Swinnerton
Two-toned like a layer cake —Donald McCaig
(Here Skugg lies) snug as a bug in a rug —Benjamin Franklin, letter to Georgiana Shipley, September, 1772
< COMEDY
Snug as the yolk in an egg —Henrik Ibsen
Comedy is rather like a dessert; a bit like meringue —Woody Allen
Soothing as mother’s milk —Anon
< COMFORT (Feel as) comfortable as a Cossack in Kiev —Richard Ford (Eugene was) comfortable as a saggy armchair —Donald McCaig
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[Conversation] Soothing, like the quiet, washing sound of an ocean —Donald Justice Supported [by attentive performance] as a bold swimmer by the waves —Ivan Turgenev [Prospect of someone’s being there] sustained him like a snug life jacket —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
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THE SIMILES Sustain like a stream does a trout —Andre Dubus Warm and cozy and private as a nursery —John Braine Warm and old-fashioned as a potbellied stove Anon, capsule movie review, Newsday, January, 1986
Compatibility Another up-and-coming one from our fast food age: “Common as microwave dinners.” Common as get out —William Hazlitt This has become known and used as “Common as all get-out.” Common as graduation parties in June —Anon
(Walls look as) warm and sturdy as a fisherman’s hand-knitted sweater —Sheila Radley
Common as hot spells in July and snowflakes in winter —Elyse Sommer
(The whole room was as equally and agreeably) warm as a bath full of water —Anon
Common as pig’s tracks —H. W. Thompson American folklore has simplified this to “Common as dirt.”
Warm as piss —American colloquialism Warm as sunshine, light as floating clouds —Slogan, Torefeaco bedding,
Common … as potatoes —Hugh Walpole
Warm like love —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Common as the New York cockroach —Erik Sandberg-Diment, writing about the increased use and availability of personal computer clones of the original IBM model, New York Times, December 12, 1986 New Yorkers might well argue that they have no exclusiveness when it comes to cockroaches.
< COMMONPLACE See Also: FAMILIARITY As corny as Kansas in August … as normal as blueberry pie —Oscar Hammerstein II, “A Wonderful Guy,” South Pacific This joyous declaration of love keeps piling on the similes: such as “I’m as trite and as gay as a daisy in May” and “I’m bromidic and bright/As a moon-happy night/Pourin’ light on the dew!” Another famous simile from the same score: “High as a flag on the Fourth of July.” As daily as bread —Thomas Lux Common as adultery, and hardly less reprehensible —Lord Altringham Societal changes have seeded “Common as divorce” and “Common as sex before marriage.”
Common as the highway —John Ray’s Proverbs
(Charles’s conversation was) commonplace as a street pavement —Gustave Flaubert Commonplace as birth —Anon Commonplace as slumber —Phyllis McGinley Ordinary as walking a straight line —Lee K. Abbott Taken for granted like a nose bob —Alistair Cooke, New York Times interview, referring to the television teleprompter, January 1, 1985 Traditional as a seven-layer wedding cake —Jonathan Valin
Common as bag ladies on city streets —Anon (Angels were as) common as birds or butterflies —Donald Justice Common as dentists who molest female patients —Loren D. Estleman Common as dirt —American colloquialism attributed to New England A popular variation: “Common as mud.” Common as frozen dinners —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< COMPASSION See Also: KINDNESS, PITY
< COMPATIBILITY See Also: BELONGING Companionable as a cat and a goldfish —Anon Companionable [a mother and son] as a pair of collusive old whores —David Leitch
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Competence
THE SIMILES
Compatible as the stars and stripes on the American flag —Elyse Sommer
Competition is like sugar sprinkled on cobbler pie —Elmer Kelton
Get on like a house on fire —Ngaio Marsh
A non-competitive businessman is like an honest crook —Elyse Sommer
Get on like salt and iron —Loren D. Estleman Good taste and humor are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore —Malcom Muggeridge quoted in Time, September 14, 1953
Playing tennis without keeping score is like apple pie sans la mode —Anon
Got along like Siamese twins —George Garrett
< COMPLACENCY
Go together like a computer and an abacus —Anon
See: CONTENTMENT
Go together like apples and pie crust —Elyse Sommer These “go-togethers” provide endless opportunity for additional twists.
< COMPLAINTS See: ANGER, CRITICISM
Go together like bagels and cream cheese —Anon
< COMPLETENESS
Go together like blueberries and cream —Anon
Fragmentary, like the text of a corrupt manuscript whose words have been effaced in the wind and rain —Arthur A. Cohen
Go together like coffee and danish —Anon Go together like ice cream and salt —Anon Go together like meatballs and spaghetti —Anon Go together like paper and pencil —Anon Go together like tea and lemon —Anon Got on like twin souls —Edward Marsh Irreconcilable as a jazz band and a symphony orchestra —Paul Mourand No more affinity for each other than a robin for a goldfish —Eleanor Kirk Struck [Flanner and Mike Wallace] it off together like a pair of lighted pinwheels —Janet Flanner
< COMPETENCE See: ABILITY, ACCOMPLISHMENT
< COMPETITION See Also: BUSINESS, SPORTS As competitive as two dogs after a bitch in heat —Anon Asking him to compete fairly is like asking a hungry lion to leave the lambs alone —Mike Sommer
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Completely as hydrogen mixes with oxygen to become water … the orange is part of the living animal —Daniela Gioseffi Incomplete as a circus without clowns —Elyse Sommer Incomplete … like cabbage with all the flavor boiled out —Richard Brookhiser, Wall Street Journal book review, April 1, 1987 The simile refers to an author’s effort to serve up election information without politics. Playing cards without money is like a meal without salt —Bertolt Brecht A store without customers is like a library without books —Anon (The antismoking zealots never tell you these things … colds, weight gain can happen to you after kicking the habit.) They [people giving incomplete information] are like Karl Malden, who is always telling you how happy American Express will be to replace your stolen traveler’s checks but never bothers to tell you that if their serial numbers are stolen too, you’re out of luck —Russell Baker, New York Times Magazine, September 21, 1986
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THE SIMILES
< COMPLEXION See Also: SKIN, WRINKLES A blotchy complexion like salami —Jilly Cooper The cluster of red veins, like Rorschach patterns, sticking out on his cheeks —Henry Van Dyke Complexion … as red as a boiled shrimp —Kenzaburo Oe Complexion … as smooth as white mushrooms —Bobbie Ann Mason Complexion dark as cholera —Cynthia Ozick Complexion like a choir boy’s —Robert Campbell A complexion like the blossoms of apples —W. B. Yeats A complexion like the moon at short range —Harry Prince Complexion … like the skin on porridge —Frank Swinnerton Complexion like twelve-year-old Scotch going down —Loren D. Estleman Complexion the colour of porridge —Christopher Isherwood Complexion, which had become pale in the dimness of the house, … shone as if it had been varnished —Guy de Maupassant Face glistened as if it were covered with scar tissue from a newly healed burn —Kenzaburo Oe Face … pock-marked like a wall against which men had stood to take the bullets of a firing squad —Penelope Gilliatt Her complexion in its pallor showed clear as a lily petal —Ethel Cook Eliot His face had an unnatural smoothness as though it were massaged and nourished with cold creams —W. Somerset Maugham Suntan that looks like it was done on a rotisserie —Tom Wolfe describing actor Cary Grant The thin veins on his massive cheeks were like the engraving on gilt-edged securities —Ludwig Bemelmans
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Composition A tracery of red veins, distinct as mapped rivers and tributaries, showed on his cheeks —Anne Tyler
< COMPLEXITY See Also: DIFFICULTY (He was) as complex as the double helix and sometimes as simple as a paramecium —Mike Sommer As complicated and unavailing as a cut-out paper snowflake —Eudora Welty As complicated as a full-bore, rollicking infidelity right in their own homes —Richard Ford As complicated as the flush valve on a water closet —Anon [A family’s history] convoluted as a Greek Drama —Gail Godwin (Character is) as detailed, as intricately woven as the intricate Oriental carpets and brocades in Freud’s office —Vincent Canby, New York Times, September 24, 1986 The Oriental carpet and brocade comparison was particularly apt for Canby’s review of NineteenNineteen, a movie about two Freud patients, with many scenes in Freud’s heavily carpeted Vienna office. The detail was astonishing, like the circuits on a computer chip —James Morrow (By marriage she had to assume a whole new family of blood kin) elaborate as a graph —George Garrett (Their relationship seems as) intricate as a DNA blueprint —Joseph Wambaugh To say Freud was complex is like saying Tolstoy could write —Anon
< COMPLIMENTS See: FLATTERY, WORDS OF PRAISE
< COMPOSITION See: MUSIC
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Comprehensibleness
< COMPREHENSIBLENESS See: UNDERSTANDABILITY
< CONCEIT See: VANITY
< CONCENTRATION See: ATTENTION, SCRUTINY
< CONCISENESS
THE SIMILES The comparison as used in the mystery novel, Beyond This Point Are Monsters, is applied to cities which are different in sight and sound but bound together by geography and economics. (Different professional groups in an organization) bundled together, as carrots or sticks of asparagus are bundled together —Frank Swinnerton Closely connected … as a mother with her baby’s belly button —Bertolt Brecht
See: BREVITY
Connect like a recurring musical leitmotif —Anon
< CONDEMNATION
Drawn together and held like snowflakes in a glass glove —Arthur A. Cohen
See: CRITICISM
< CONFIDENCE See: SELF-CONFIDENCE, TRUST
< CONFIDENTIALITY
(Lives and limbs) entwined like the roots of trees —John Logan Held together as backbone holds together the ribs and limbs and head to a body —H. G. Wells Holds together like a quilt —James Dickey
See: SECRECY
Joined together as in a wedding of rivers —George Garrett
< CONFUSION
Linked [together] like mountain climbers —Frank Swinnerton
See: BEWILDERMENT
< CONNECTIONS See Also: CLINGING Attached [to an idea] like a slug to its shell —Paige Mitchell Bonds (of family) as immutable as a tribal code —Anon
Linked together by bonds as deep and mysterious as those which tie the mother to her young —Harvey Swados Lives crossing like swords —Paige Mitchell Mixes like alphabet soup —Diane Ackerman Roped together like climbers on a rockface —Lawrence Durrell
Bonds frail as spider webs —George Garrett The bonds which I had thought bound me … turned out to be as flimsy and insubstantial as a kindergartner’s paper chain —Harvey Swados
< CONSCIENCE
Bound as the sun to the world’s wheel —Algernon Charles Swinburne
A bad conscience is a kind of illness, in the sense that pregnancy is an illness —Freidrich Nietzsche
Bound together as two trees with interwoven roots —Edith Wharton Bound together … like stepsisters with completely different backgrounds forced to live together under the same roof —Margaret Millar
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See Also: REGRET
A clear conscience is like a wall of brass —Latin proverb Conscience as big as the Alps —Walter Goodman, New York Times, May 27, 1987
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THE SIMILES
Contentment
Conscience … a terrifying little sprite, that batlike winks by day and wakes by night —John Wolcott
< CONTAGION
Conscience is God’s presence in man —Anon
< CONTEMPT
Conscience is like a sun-dial; if you let truth shine upon it, it will put you right —Hamilton Bower The author expanded upon the simile as follows: “But you may cover it over so that no truth can fall upon it, or you may let false light gleam upon it and then it will lead you astray.” (His) conscience rose like a shining light —Honoré de Balzac Conscience wide as hell —William Shakespeare, Henry V Gets little attacks of conscience, like hot flashes —Jonathan Valin Going through life with a conscience is like driving your car with the brakes on —Budd Schulberg
See: SPREADING
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible —William Blake Contempt is kind of gangrene, which if it seizes one part of a character corrupts all the rest by degrees —Samuel Johnson (His voice had turned idle) contemptuous, uncaring, like a king throwing a handful of coppers at the feet of children —Borden Deal Disdain as a gourmet disdains TV dinners —Anon Disdain as a lover of literature disdains a potboiler —Anon (He started) handling my exam paper like it was a turd —J. D. Salinger (A waiter who) looked as if he had been cornstarched in arrogance —Pat Conroy
A healthy conscience is like a wall of bronze —Erasmus
More haughty than the devil —William Shakespeare, Henry VI
He that has a scrupulous conscience, is like a horse that is not well wayed [well-taught]; he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge —John Selden The word ‘hath’ from the original simile has been modernized to ‘has.’
Scorn will curl suddenly round silent corners like bell-less bicycles —W. R. Rodgers Sneered, like a waiter in a French restaurant who has just taken an order for a Chardonnay that he disdains —Ira Berkow, New York Times September 29, 1986
The sting of conscience, like the gnawing of a dog at a bone, is mere foolishness —Freidrich Nietzsche
(They) treat me like a snakebit cowpoke just in from the range —Thomas Zigal
Weather-beaten conscience … as elastic as his heart —Arthur Train
Watch … distastefully, as though she were a cigar being smoked in the presence of a lady without permission —Penelope Gilliatt
< CONSIDERATION See: THOUGHT
< CONSPICUOUSNESS Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< CONTENTMENT See Also: HAPPINESS, JOY (There she lay) as complacently feminine as a turtle-dove —Christopher Isherwood Content as a Parsee priestess who had duly paid her morning devotions to the deity —Israel Zangwill
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Continuity Content as a tick sitting quietly on a tree and living off a tiny drop of blood plundered years before —Patrick Suskind (She wanted us to be as) content as trees in a rainforest —Max Apple Contented as a baby on a schedule —Hollis Summers Contented as a cobra full of warm milk —Rubert Hughes Content … like a little white kitty in a basket —Eudora Welty Feel rewarded, like a gardener who’s cutting roots —Margaret Sutherland Hummed … like a cook with things coming out right —William Beechcroft Like jellyfish that lie beneath the warm ocean waters here [Hilton Head], there is discontent beneath the surface bonhomie (of the governors’ annual conference) —David Shieman, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 1986 (She prospered, and could expect to prosper more … but) like someone in exile, uncertain of deliverance, she was restless and dissatisfied —Robert Henson Looked about as satisfied as a millionaire’s mistress —William Beechcroft Mood of complacency … like a man who, having been under dire threat of burglary, suddenly increases his insurance and changes all the locks on his house and is convinced that these emergencies will make him for ever immune —H .E. Bates Pleased as a cat with two tails —American colloquialism, attributed to New England A common variation: “Proud as a dog with two tails.” Psyche … topped up like the tanks of the automobiles —Frank Conroy The simile from Conroy’s novel, Stop-Time, refers to more than one automobile because the scene is in a gas station. Removed from this con-
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THE SIMILES text, “topped up like the tank of an automobile” would have the same meaning. Satisfying as getting a refund on your income tax —Anon Sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes against him —James Thurber Take it (killing and bloodshed) in like the sun shines and the rain falls —Eileen O’Casey Wears contentment like a wreath —Barbara Howes
< CONTINUITY See Also: PERMANENCE As never ending as a brook —Anon Bottomless as Hell —Ben Jonson Bottomless as the foundation of the Universe —Thomas Carlyle [My bounty is as] Boundless as the sea —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Boundless as the wind —Jonathan Swift (Restaurants) come and go steadily as Bedouin tribesmen —Ed McBain A constant figure in her life, like a white knight or a black mammy —Julia Whedon Continued as on an endless escalator —Eleanor Clark Continuous as an endless circle —Anon Continuous as the beat of death —Amy Lowell Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way —William Wordsworth A variation: “infinite as the stars.” Endless as prairies —Margaret Atwood Endless as the line around a circle —Anon (She was, for him,) eternal like the seasons —Dorothea Straus Eternal as mediocrity —James G. Huneker Go on like an eternal flame —Lyn Lifshin Had gone on like a bad sleep —Jean Stafford
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THE SIMILES Keeps rolling along like the Big River —John Gross Lived on like names in a legend —John Hall Wheelcock Numberless as the sands of the desert —American colloquialism An equally popular variation is “numberless as the fish in the sea.” Steadily as a shell secretes its beating leagues of monotone —Hart Crane Timeless as a churchyard —Sharon Sheehe Stark
< CONTROL Abstinent as a reformed sinner —Anon Censorship is like an appendix. When it is inert it is useless; when active it is extremely dangerous —Maurice Edelman Censorship, like charity, should begin at home —Clare Booth Luce The combinations for this comparison are virtually limitless. Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains —Baltasar Gracian Censorious … as a superannuated sinner —William Wycherly Circumscribed like a dog chained to a tree —Beth Nugent
Conversation Imprison like a stone girdle —Anon Irrepressible, like flame catching kindling —George Garrett I wear my chains [of sexual and social roles] like ornaments, convinced they make a charming jingle —Phyllis McGinley Manageable as chess pieces —George Meredith [My wife’s society] oppressed me like a spell —Edgar Allen Poe In another version of the tale Morelia, Poe kept the comparison but changed the frame of reference to the mystery of the wife’s manner instead of her company. Suffocating as the interior of a sepulcher —Anon The restriction is like saying to an avid reader he can’t see a book for nine months —Kent Hannon on ruling restricting basketball practice for players who don’t have C average, New York Times, July 21, 1986 To be with her was like living in a room with shuttered windows —Edith Wharton Uncontrollable as a swift tide with a strong undertow —Anon Uncontrollable as the wind —Robert Traver
< CONVERSATION
(Always trying to) confine things into the shape of a phrase, like pouring water into a ewer —Vita Sackville-West
The American’s conversation is much like his courtship … he gives in and watches for a reaction; if the weather looks fair, he inkles a little —Donald Lloyd, Harper’s Magazine, September 19, 1963
(Ordered lives) contained like climbers huddled to a rock ledge —W. D. Snodgrass
Chattering as foolishly as two slightly mad squirrels —James Crumley
Feel like a dog on a short leash —Joanne Kates, New York Times, September 18, 1986
Conversation … as edifying as listening to a leak dropping in a tin dish-pan at the head of the bed when you want to go to sleep —O. Henry
He kept it [emotional feeling] rigidly at the back of his mind, like a fruit not ripe enough to eat —H. E. Bates He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city without walls —The Holy Bible/Proverbs “Hath” has been modernized to “has.”
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A conversation between the two of you must be like listening to two pecans in a bowl —Geoffrey Wolff The character who utters this simile in Wolff’s novel Providence follows it up as follows: “Why
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Conversation don’t you let him shoot 500 cc of Thorazine right in your heart and get it over.” Conversation … crisp and varied as a freshly tossed salad —Anon Conversation … it was like talk at a party, leapfrogging, sparring, showing-off —Nina Bawden Conversation, like lettuce, requires a good deal of oil to avoid friction, and keep the company smooth —Charles Dudley Warner Conversation … like dialogue from a play that had run too long and the acting had gone stale —John McGahern Conversation … rapid and guttural as gunfire —Harvey Swados The conversations … behaved like green logs, they fumed but would not fire —Truman Capote Conversation should be like a salad, composed of various ingredients, and well stirred with salt, oil, and vinegar —Joaquin Setanti Conversation … should flow, like waters after summer showers, not as if raised by mere mechanic powers —William Cowper Conversation … sweet as clover —Ogden Nash The conversation was just like clockwork. It recurred regularly, except that there was no need to wind anything up —Walter de la Mare Conversation … was like trying to communicate with a ship sinking in mid-Atlantic when you’re on shore —William McIlvanney Conversationally, she’d been put into a grey zone, a lot like a bus station waiting room: cold air, silences, topics limited to states of health and the weather —Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder Conversed in whispers … like doctors consulting on a difficult case —Jean Stafford Conversed like tennis players, back and forth, stroke for stroke —Jessamyn West
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THE SIMILES Converse with himself, like a prisoner alone in his cell or like a wayfarer lost in a wilderness —Joseph Conrad Cutting off the small talk with an opening question like a serve —Elizabeth Spencer Discourses on subjects above our comprehension … it’s like listening to an unknown language —Henry Fielding Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely A false and most unnatural kind of chatting, like fighters meeting at a weigh-in —Norman Mailer Mailer was describing the beginning of an interview with Mike Wallace. From time to time … talk becomes effective, conquering like war, widening the boundaries of knowledge like an exploration —Robert Louis Stevenson Gabbing like college girls with the handsomest boys on campus waiting at the curb in big convertibles —Richard Ford Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after —Anne Morrow Lindberg Good conversation, like any game, calls for equals in strength —Jacques Barzun Good conversation unrolls itself like the spring or like the dawn —W. B. Yeats A good talk is like a good dinner: one assimilates it —Jerome K. Jerome Good talk is … like an impromptu piece of acting where each should represent himself to greatest advantage —Robert Louis Stevenson Good talk is like good scenery—continuous, yet constantly varying, and full of the charm of novelty and surprise —Randolph S. Bourne He [the inveterate punster] followed conversation as a shark follows a ship, or, to shift the metaphor, he was like Jack Horner and stuck
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THE SIMILES in his thumb to pull out a pun —Stephen Leacock (She) hit on the commonplace like a hammer driving a nail into the wall. She plunged into the obvious like a clown in a circus jumping through a hoop —W. Somerset Maugham Maugham’s biting similes describe a dull conversationalist in his story “Winter Cruise.”
Conversation Quips flew back and forth (between L and him) like balls between two long-experienced jugglers in a circus ring —Natascha Wodin The room seethes with talk. Always a minimum of three conversations, like crosswinds —Rosellen Brown Small talk is like the air that shatters the stalactites into dust again —Anais Nin
In conversation … like playing on the harp; there is much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibration as in twanging them to bring out the music —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The talk came like the spilling of grain from a sack, in bursts of fullness that were shut off in mid-sentence as if someone had closed the sack abruptly and there was more talk inside —Shirley W. Schoonover
In married conversation as in surgery, the knife must be used with care —André Maurois, February, 1955
Talked … like old friends in mourning —Nadine Gordimer
The joke went on and on … scaring away any other kind of conversation like a schoolyard bully —William Gass Like the alternating patches of sun and shade that fell on the windshield as the clouds skidded overhead, the conversation inside the pickup went by fits and starts —Phyllis Naylor (Their habit was to engage in this) mock banter, where they slipped truths into their jokes … like filling cream puffs —David R. Slavitt Natural talk, like plowing, should turn up a large surface of life, rather than dig mines —Robert Louis Stevenson Stevenson elaborated on his simile as follows: “Masses of experience, anecdote, incident, crosslights, quotation, historical instances, the whole flotsam and jetsam of two minds forced in and in upon the matter in hand from every point of the compass, and from every degree of mental elevation and abasement, these are the materials with which talk is fortified, the food on which the talkers thrive.” (He had) practiced his portion of the conversation so many times … that he felt like an actor in a stock company —Herbert Gold
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Talking to Bill is like opening a new bottle of ketchup; you gotta wait a while before anything comes out —Jonathan Valin In his novel, Life’s Work, Valin expands on this as follows: “Sometimes you wait and nothing happens.” Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow —Oscar Wilde Talking to them is like trying to get a zeppelin off the ground —Penelope Gilliatt Talking to you is like addressing the Berlin Wall —Colin Forbes Talking to you is like sending out your laundry. You never know what the hell is coming back —Neil Simon Talking to you is like talking to my forearm —Geoffrey Wolff Talking with him [George McGovern] is like eating a Chinese meal. An hour after its over, you wonder whether you really ate anything —Eugene McCarthy Talking with you is more like boxing than talking —Larry McMurtry The simile from Somebody’s Darling continues as follows: “You’re always hitting me with a jab.”
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Conviction Talk that warms like wine —Babette Deutsch Their remarks and responses were like a PingPong game with each volley clearing the net and flying back to the opposition —Maya Angelou They bounced the conversation along like an India rubber ball —Claire Messud, The Last Life Trading talk like blows —Anne Sexton
< CONVICTION See: BELIEFS
< COOKERY See: FOOD, DRINK
< COOLNESS See: CALMNESS
< COOPERATION See: AGREEMENT
< CORPORATIONS See: BUSINESS
< CORPULANCE See: FATNESS
< CORRECTNESS See Also: TRUENESS/FALSENESS, MANNERS, REPUTATION Accurate as a hole in one —Anon Accurately as a geometrician —V.S. Pritchett As scrupulous as a well-trained tailor —Robert Penn Warren Exact as a blueprint —Anon Exact as the technical jargon of a trade —Aldous Huxley More exacting than a pasha with thirty wives —Guy de Maupassant
THE SIMILES Right as a well-done sum —Sylvia Plath
< CORRESPONDENCE See Also: WRITERS/WRITING Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up —Sydney Smith Letters are like bodies, and their meaning like souls —Abraham Ibn Mezra A letter that was like a poem. It was … like listening to French it was so beautiful —Philip Roth A lifelong sustained correspondence, like a lifelong unbroken friendship or happy marriage, requires explaining: all the cards are stacked against it —Max Lerner Little letters cozy and innocent as a baby’s layette —Truman Capote A mess of a letter … it dribbles and mouths all over the place like Maurice Chevalier [the famous French performer] —Dylan Thomas Printed [condolence] cards should be abolished; they’re like canned music —Gwen SchwartzBorden, director Bereavement Center, Family Service Association of Nassau County, quoted in New York Times article on bereavement notes November 24, 1986 The time is coming when letter writing with pen and ink and sent as a personal message from one person to another will be as much of a rarity as the gold pocket watch carried on a chain —Andy Rooney A woman’s love letters are like her child. They belong to her more than to anybody else —Edith Wharton Writing to you is like corresponding with an aching void —Groucho Marx Your letters … they’re like telegrams —Dorothy Parker
Proper as a butler —Charles Simmons
< COST
Respectable as Jane Austen —Marge Piercy
See Also: ADVANTAGEOUSNESS, THRIFT
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THE SIMILES As cheap as pearls are costly —Robert Browning
Courage
Charge like a brain surgeon —Saul Bellow
Bold as Paul in the presence of Agrippa —William Cowper
Cheap as dirt —F.E. Smedley
Brave as a barrel full of bears —Ogden Nash
Cheap as excuses —Anon
Brave as a tiger in a rage —Ogden Nash
Cheap as lies —Anon
Brave as winds that brave the sea —Algernon Charles Swinburne
Cheap as old clothes —Horace Walpole Cheap as old clothes used to be —Elyse Sommer An update Horace Walpole’s simile above, inspired by a change in both economic conditions and the status of old clothes. Expensive as building an atomic reactor —Robert Traver Expensive as Manhattan real estate —Anon Expensive as sin —Anon
< COUNSEL
Courage is like a disobedient dog, once it starts running away it flies all the faster for your attempts to recall it —Katherine Mansfield Courage is like love; it must have hope to nourish it —Napoleon Bonaparte Courage, like cowardice, is undoubtedly contagious, but some persons are not liable to catch it —Archibald Prentice Courage, on nearly all occasions, inflicts as much of evil as it imparts of good —Walter Savage Landor
See: ADVICE
Courageous as a poker player with a royal flush —Mike Sommer
< COURAGE Adventurous as a bee —William Wordsworth
Courageous like firemen. The bell rings and they jump into their boots and go down the pole —Anon
As brave as hell —Petronius
Daring as tickling a tiger —Anon
As much backbone as an eel —American colloquialism As much backbone as cooked spaghetti —Harry Prince (There was) a tragic daring about her, like a moth dancing around a flame —Paige Mitchell
Fend off pressure like a sharkhunter feeds off danger —Anon Gallant as a warrior —Beryl Markham Grew bold, like a general who is about to order an assault —Guy de Maupassant
(He died) bold as brass —George Parker Common usage has seeded modern-day modifications such as “bold as brass balls.”
Have the gall of a shoplifter returning an item for a refund —W.I.E. Gates
Bold as a dying saint —Elkanah Settle
A man without courage is like a knife without edge —Anon
Bold as a lion —The Holy Bible/Proverbs
Indomitable as a lioness —Aharon Appelfeld
Bold as an unhunted fawn —Percy Bysshe Shelley
More guts than a gladiator —William Diehl
(He died) bold as brass —George Parker Common usage has seeded modern day modifications such as “bold as brass balls.”
Nothing so bold as a blind horse —Greek proverb
Bold as love —Edmond Gosse
Show nerve of a burglar —Anon
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Over-daring is as great a vice as over-fearing —Ben Jonson
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Courtesy Stand my ground brave as a bear —American country ballad “If You Want to Go A-Courting” Valiant as a lion —William Shakespeare This simile from Henry the Fourth has made lion comparisons part of our everyday language. Another lion simile by the bard is “walked like one of the lions” from The Two Gentlemen of Verona. With all the courage of an escaped convict —Honoré de Balzac Valiant as Hercules —William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing (I’ve seen plenty of great big tough guys that was as) yellow and soft as a stick of butter —George Garrett
< COURTESY See: BEHAVIOR, MANNERS
THE SIMILES
< CREDIT Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately … the hangover comes the day after —Dr. Joyce Brothers Credit is like a looking glass.… once cracked [it] can never be repaired again —Sir Walter Scott An anonymous rhymed version of this is: “Credit, like a lookin-glass, broken once, is gone, alas!” And, from John Ray’s Proverbs there is: “Credit lost is like Venice glass broken.” Credit is like chastity, they can both stand temptation better than suspicion —Josh Billings Creditors buzz like locusts —Anais Nin Debts are like children: the smaller they are the more noise they make —Spanish proverb The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood, involving the necessity of going on in the same course, debt following debt, as lie follows lie —Samuel S. Smiles
See: MEN AND WOMEN
It’s [borrowing] like anticipating one’s income, and making the future bear the expenses of the past —John Russell Bartlett
< COVERTNESS
Lending to the feckless is like pelting a stray dog with dumplings —Arab proverb
< COURTSHIP
See: SECRET
< COWARDICE
No man’s credit is as good as his money —Edward Watson Howe
See: FEAR
< CRIME
< COZINESS
See Also: DISHONESTY, EVIL Crime, like virtue, has its degrees —Jean Racine
See: COMFORT
Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards —George Farquhar
< CRAFTINESS
Murder, like a snowball rolling down a slope gathers momentum as it goes —Cornell Woolrich
See: CLEVERNESS
< CRAVING See: DESIRE
< CRAZINESS See: MADNESS
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Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families —G. H. Lewes Outlaws, like lovers, poets and tubercular composers who cough blood onto piano keys, do their finest work in the slippery rays of the moon —Tom Robbins
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THE SIMILES Passing statutes creating new crimes is like printing paper money without anything back of it; in the one case there isn’t really any more money than there was before and in the other there isn’t really any more crime either —Arthur Train Trying to find out what ultimately drove a criminal to murder is as fruitful as trying to determine what drove fate to choose its victims —Lucinda Franks, reviewing two books about a murder case, New York Times Book Review March 1, 1987
< CRISPNESS See: SHARPNESS
< CRITICISM See Also: CRITICISM, DRAMATIC AND LITERARY (They were) as critical as a fan-club —William McIlvanney Blaming X [one group of an industry] for the decline of business is like blaming the iceberg for the demise of the Titanic —Bill Soutar, Publishers Weekly, 1985 Soutar was speaking specifically about poor business in his field of softcover book distribution. Criticism is like champagne: nothing more execrable if bad, nothing more excellent if good —Charles Caleb Colton Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots —Frank A. Clark Criticizing, like charity, should begin a home —B. C. Forbes Impersonal criticism is like an impersonal fist fight, or an impersonal marriage, and as successful —George Jean Nathan Like people rummaging in boxes for a knife, everyone searched deep in his memory for a grievance —Marguerite Yourcenar
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Criticism, Dramatic and Literary Long harangue [of complaints] … was like a threehour movie with no intermission —Elizabeth Spencer Muttering thin complaints like little children called from play —James Crumley Rattling off her woes like mea culpas —Rita Mae Brown Safe from criticism as a stutter or a squint —Henry James (Mothers) scolded in voices like amplified hens —Rumer Godden Shot grievances like beads across an abacus —Cynthia Ozick Sounded like a cranky old man who needs a stray Airedale to kick —New York Times editorial criticizing Mayor Edward Koch of NYC for a remark about his feeling for Soviet Government’s arrest of American journalist, September 17, 1986 Squeaking like little pigs coming out of the barn door —Congressman Dale Lotta (Ohio), April 9, 1987 To criticize Glass for excessive reiteration is a little like complaining that the rain is too damp. —Justin Davidson, “Had I Never Listened Closely Enough?” New York Magazine, January 29, 2012 Philip Glass’s 75th birthday prompted this article on trying to like his music.
< CRITICISM, DRAMATIC AND LITERARY See Also: POETS/POETRY, WRITERS/WRITING Aired their grievances like the wash —Daphne Merkin [Reading about Frank Sinatra’s wrong doings] as refreshing as inhaling carbon monoxide —Barbara Grizzuiti Harrison, reviewing Kitty Kelley’s unauthorized biography of Frank Sinatra, New York Times Book Review November 2, 1986
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Criticism, Dramatic and Literary [For author W. P. Kinsella] a baseball stadium is a window on the human heart, and his novel … stirs it like the refreshing crack of a bat against the ball —Miami Herald review of Shoeless Joe, a baseball novel, by W. P. Kinsella Like many comparisons, this one was pulled out of the review ad used as an attention-getting blurb on the back of the author’s next novel. The book is like a professor’s joke. It’s nothing if not erudite —Vincent Canby, review of movie of Umberto Echo’s The Name of the Rose, New York Times September 24, 1986 Book reviews … a kind of infant’s disease to which newborn books are subject —Georg C. Lichtenberg Critics are like brushers of other men’s clothiers —Benjamin Disraeli Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They see how it should be done every night. But they can’t do it themselves —Brendan Behan Even when he’s not at his best, his books still are appetizing, much like a box of popcorn —Tom Herman, book review (The Panic of ‘89 by Paul Erdman), Wall Street Journal, January 16, 1987 His [author of pamphlet] words, like cavalry horses answering the bugle, group themselves automatically into the familiar dreary pattern —George Orwell It [The House of Seven Gables] is like a great symphony, with no touch alterable without injury to the harmony —William James, letter to brother, Henry, January 19, 1869 It’s [Praying for Rain, Jerome Weidman’s autobiography] … like a raisin-laced kugel, the noodles crammed with juicy morsels about some people, obscure and famous, who have been near and dear to him —Helen Dudar New York Times Book Review, September 21, 1986 Language is as precise as “Hello!” and as simple as “Give me a glass of tea” —Vladimir Mayakovsky about Anton Chekhov
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THE SIMILES Literary criticism is an art, like the writing of tragedies or the making of love, and similarly does not pay —Clifton Fadiman Much of the text reads about as joyfully as a Volkswagen manual —George F. Will The novel [A Special Destiny by Seymour Epstein] reads like the fictionalized autobiography of a young writer exorcising frustrations and resentments —Bethamy Probst, New York Times Book Review, September 21, 1986 Novels … like literary knuckleballs —George F. Will, about Elmore Leonard’s novels One long evening of evasions, as if the playwright were taking the Fifth Amendment on advice of counsel —Frank Rich, New York Times, December 12, 1986 Drama critic Rich has the gift for perfectly suiting the comparison to what it describes … in this case a play entitled “Dream of a Blacklisted Actor.” The prose lays there like a dead corpse on the page —Anon Prose rushes out like a spring-fed torrent sweeping the reader away —Chuck Morris Reviewing an autobiography is the literary equivalent of passing judgment on someone’s life —Richard Lourie, prefacing his review of Eric Ambler’s Autobiography, New York Times Book Review August 17, 1986 Style … as strong and personal as Van Gogh’s brushstrokes —George F. Will, about Elmore Leonard’s novels (The author’s) style is as crisp as if it had been quick-frozen —Max Apple, about T. Coraghessan Boyle, New York Times Book Review, 1979 They [critics] bite like fish, at anything, especially at bookes [books] —Thomas Dekker They [Gorky’s stories] float through the air like songs —Isaac Babel, lecture, 1934
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THE SIMILES
Crowds
Thin stuff with no meat in it, like a woman, who has starved herself to get what she thinks is a good figure —Ben Ames Williams This simile is used by the novelist-hero of Leave Her to Heaven, to describe his current work.
Came crowding like the waves of ocean, one on the other —Lord Byron
To criticize Glass for excessive reiteration is a little like complaining that the rain is too damp. —Justin Davidson, “Had I Never Listened Closely Enough?” New York Magazine, January 29, 2012 Philip Glass’s 75th birthday prompted this article on trying to like Philip Glass.
Crowded [stores] like tightly woven multi-colored carpet of people —Richard J. Meislin, New York Times
To many people dramatic criticism must seem like an attempt to tattoo soap bubbles —John Mason Brown The undisputed fame enjoyed by Shakespeare as a writer … is, like every other lie, a great evil —Count Leo Tolstoy Watching the movie is like being on a cruise to nowhere aboard a ship with decent service and above-par fast food. —Vincent Canby, New York Times Book Review, October 2, 1983 [Henry James] Writes fiction as if it were a painful duty —Oscar Wilde (Tolstoy) writes like an ocean, in huge, rolling waves, and it doesn’t look like it was processed through his thinking —Mel Brook, Playboy, 1975 Writes like an angel, a fallen, hard-driving angel —A. Alvarez about Robert Stone, New York Review of Books, 1986
Clustering like a swarm of bees —Amy Lowell Crowded like a view of Venice —Frank O’Hara
The crowd in the lobby [of a hotel] was frozen in poses like the chorus at the curtain of a musical comedy —Vicki Baum The crowd scattered in all directions, like a flock of chickens among which a stone had been thrown —Aharon Megged Feel like a pressed flower —Edith Wharton Flocking … like geese —Sharon Sheehe Stark (The public was) flowing in like a river —Enid Bagnold Huddle together like birds in a storm —Robert Graves Jostled like two steers in the stock yards —A.R. Guerney Jr. Loaded up like a garbage truck —Paige Mitchell Man … still, like a hen, he likes his private run —W. H. Auden Men milled everywhere, like cattle in a lightning storm —James Crumley Mobs in their emotions are much like children, subject to the same tantrums and fits of fury —Euripides
< CROOKEDNESS
No more privacy than a traffic cop —Anon
See: BENDING/BENT
[People] Packed as closely as herring in a barrel —Sholom Aleichem
< CROWDS
Packed like a cattle pen —Paige Mitchell
See Also: CLOSENESS About as much privacy as a statue in the park —Anon
The people bunched like cattle in a storm —James Crumley
As lacking in privacy as a goldfish —Anon
People [on a train] … hanging from straps like sides of beef on a hook —Julio Cortázar
Bunched and jammed together as solidly as the bristles in a brush —Mark Twain
People [at a party] … packed tight as a rugby scrum —Nadine Gordimer
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Cruelty If Gordimer’s story, The Smell of Death and Flowers, had been set in America, it might have had a football lineup for the rugby scrum. People streaming from the plane like busy insects on the march —Sylvia Berkman Stood packed like matches in an upright box —William Faulkner Swarm like bees —Anon Swarm like summer flies —William Shakespeare, Henry VI (Apartments) tenanted tight as hen-houses —Barbara Howes When the bell rings and the school’s 3,295 students spill out of classrooms into the maze of hallways, escalators and stairs like ants in a farm —Fernanda Santos, “To Be Black at Stuyvesant High,” New York Times, February 26, 2012
THE SIMILES The ostrich reference appears both in i>Lamentations and the Book of Job. Cruelty on most occasions is like the wind, boisterous in itself, and exciting a murmur and bustle in all the things it moves among —Walter Savage Landor Evil, like good, has its own heroes —François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld Had a personality like a black hole —Jonathan Valin In his novel Natural Causes, from which this is taken, Valin expands upon the simile with “He sucked in everything around him and gave nothing back in return.” A heart like a snake —Michael V. Gazzo Her coarseness, her cruelty, was like bark rough with lichen —Virginia Woolf He’s like a cobra. No conscience —William Diehl
< CRUELTY
How could you be so cold as the winter wind when it breeze yo’ —Kanye West, “Heartless.”
See Also: COLDNESS, EVIL (He’s always been) a bigger shit than two tons of manure —William McIlvanney
Mean as a man who’d make knuckle-bones out of his aunt —Anon
Cruel and cold as the judgment of man —Lord Byron
Mean as cat shit —James Kirkwood
Cruel as death —James Thomson This is from a double simile, the second part being “Hungry as the grave.” Cruel as love or life —Algernon Charles Swinburne Cruel as old gravestones knocked down and scarred faceless —James Wright (Nothing so) cruel as panic —Robert Louis Stevenson
Mean as a snake —John D. MacDonald Mean as cat’s meat —Somerset Maugham, quoted in New York Times Magazine article by Thomas F. Brady, January 24, 1954 (That old scoundrel’s) mean as ptomaine —Richard Ford Mean as the man who tells his children that Santa Claus is dead —Anon Merciless as ambition —Joseph Joubert Merciless as bailiffs —Erich Maria Remarque
(She knew well the virtues of her singular attractiveness, as) cruel as shears —George Garrett
Ordered her about like a convict —Nicholas Monsarrat
Cruel as winter —Lewis J. Bates
Ruthless as any sea —Beryl Markham
Crueler than hell —Algernon Charles Swinburne
So mean he would steal a dead fly from a blind spider —Anon
Cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness —The Holy Bible/Lamentations
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Spiteful as a monkey —Frank Swinnerton
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THE SIMILES Spiteful as the devil —Walter Savage Landor Treat us like mud off the bottom of the Hudson River —Rebecca West Use men ruthlessly like pawns —Honoré de Balzac Walk all over [another person] like a carpet —Elyse Sommer Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline —Harriet Beecher Stowe Wickedness burns like fire —The Holy Bible/Isaiah The above has been modernized from “Wickedness burneth as the fire.” Would cut me down like a piece of grass —Jimmy Sangster
< CRYING See Also: GROANS AND WHISPERS, SCREAMS Bawling like sick monkeys —Henry Miller Cried naggingly, half-heartedly, like the grinding of a non-starting engine that has drained its battery —John Updike
Cunning Kept on crying … like persistent rain —Elizabeth Spencer Like a waterpot I weep —A Broken-Hearted Gardener, anonymous nineteenth-century verse A sad crying, like the birds going south for the steel winter to come —Ray Bradbury The shrill cry of the new-born … like the sound of the blade of a skate on ice —Angela Carter Sobbed … like an abandoned child —Maurice Hewlett A sob broke the surface like a bubble of air from the bottom of a pond —Sue Grafton Sobs … died off softly, like the intermittent drops that end a day of rain —Edith Wharton Sobs laboring like stones from her heaving breast —James Crumley Sobs rippled like convulsions through her slim body —James Crumley Thin cry [of a bluebird], like a needle piercing the ear —Theodore Roethke Wailed like an uneasy animal in pain —Kenneth Grahame Weeping like a calf —François Maspero
Cries out like an Arab, high wails like a dog or human in terrible pain. It rises and falls like sirens going by —Robert Campbell
Weeping raw as an open sausage —A. D. Winans
Cry, hopelessly and passively, like a child in a dentist’s waiting room —William Faulkner
Wept like a gutter on a rainy day —Guy de Maupassant
Cry like a rain-water spout in a shower —Charles Dickens
Wept like a woman deceived and forsaken by a lover —George Garrett
Crying … muffled, like faraway nighttime waves —Z. Vance Wilson
Whimpers like a hurt dog —Robin McCorquodale
Crying out like an abandoned infant —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Whine, as unctuous as old bacon grease —James Crumley
(Gave a) cry like a startled sea gull —Oscar Wilde
(The twangy voice was beginning to) whine like a loosening guitar string —François Camoin
Her eyes [when she wept] were like syphon bottles under pressure —Erich Maria Remarque Her sob broke like a bubble on a pink geranium —John Malcolm Brinnin
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Wept like a fountain —Erich Maria Remarque
< CUNNING See: CLEVERNESS
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Curiosity
THE SIMILES
< CURIOSITY
Cursing like a jay —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Aloof curiosity like that of sixth-formers watching a sword-swallower —Frank Swinnerton
Erupted like a volcano of profanity —Sholem Aleichem
Curious as a monkey —Anon
Felt them [curse words] at the back of his tongue like dangerous little bombs —Thomas Williams
Curious as a two-year old —Anon Curiosity … like thirst —Alice McDermott Inquisitive as a goat —Erich Maria Remarque Inquisitive as an X-ray —Anon Inquisitive as a reporter smelling a scoop —Elyse Sommer
Made curses fly up like a covey of quail —George Garrett Swear like men who were being branded —Stephen Crane Swore like a trooper —D. M. Moir
Pick and pry like a doctor or archeologist —Sylvia Plath
To hear R curse was like hearing the Almighty tear through his own heavens and blow up the stars left and rightly —Marianne Hauser
Poking his nose everywhere like a dog smelling out a trail —American colloquialism
< CUSTOM
Suppressed her curiosity as if squashing a cockroach —Marge Piercy
See: HABIT
< DAMPNESS
< CURSES
See: DISCOMFORT
See Also: WORDS The captain broke loose [with oaths] upon the dead man like a thunderclap —Jack London
< DANCING
Cried out a foreign legion of four-letter words like little prayers —George Garrett Cursed like a sailor’s parrot —Katherine Anne Porter Cursed like highwaymen —Stephen Crane Curse like a drunken tinker —George Garrett
See Also: AGILITY, INSULTS, WORDS OF PRAISE As light on your feet as a fairy —Rita Mae Brown Danced like a faun —O. Henry O. Henry was well known for perverting and extending existing sayings. This one can be traced Robert Lowell’s “Dancing like naked fauns too glad for shame.”
Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost —Robert Southey
Danced like a wave —Dame Edith Sitwell
Curses, like processions; they return to the place from which they have come —Giovanni Ruffini Probably taken from old Italian proverb.
Danced like sandflies —Margaret Atwood
Curses so dark they sounded like they were being fired all the way from a ghetto of hell —Ken Kesey Cursing and crying like some sort of fitting had busted in her mind and this whole stream of words gushed out —Hilary Masters
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Danced like a wet dream —Martin Amis Danced like something dark and slithery from the Argentine —P. G. Wodehouse (People) danced moving their bodies like thick rope —Susan Richards Shreve Dancers swaying like wet washing in a high wind —Lawrence Durrell Dances like a Mack truck —Cornell Woolrich Dances like an angel —Joseph Addison
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THE SIMILES (Sometimes I think that) dancing, like youth, is wasted on the young —Max Lerner Dancing with her must be a good deal like moving the piano or something —Ring Lardner (Helga Danzing danced just the way she looked: big, clumsy, almost impossible to lead,) dancing with her was like pushing a weight uphill —Abraham Rothberg (You’ve got) a foot movement like a baby hippopotamus trying to side-step a jab from a humming-bird … and your knees are about as limber as a couple of Yale pass-keys —O. Henry Pirouetting like a Baryshnikov —T. Coraghessan Boyle Sailed like a coquettish yacht convoyed by a stately cruiser —O. Henry You dance like there’s a stone in your shoe —John Updike
< DANGER See Also: RISK
Darkness It [the need to risk] was like statistics or gambling; you had to compute probabilities —Mary McCarthy In her novel A Charmed Life, McCarthy expands on her simile with this sentence: “And there was always the unforeseen, the little thing you overlooked that would catch you up in the end.” The menace (of insanity) is like a warder, restricting my freedom of mind —Richard Maynard (His) menaces … idle as the wind —W. S. Gilbert Menacing as a fury —Natascha Wodin Ominous and dark as the hour before a storm —Gerald Kersh Ominous, like waves in a gathering mid-Atlantic storm —Anon Rode precariously like high-wire artists —Ross Macdonald The safe earth … grew narrow as a grave —Phyllis Bottome There was a feeling like a concussion in the air —Eudora Welty
(His presence was) a foreboding, or dismal signal, like drawn blinds —Elizabeth Taylor
This faint shadow [of danger] lay upon his life … as discreetly as the shadow of cancer lies among cells —Thomas McGuane
Dangerous as a gift from an enemy —Anon A twist on the Danish proverb “Gifts from enemies are dangerous.”
Trying to maintain good relations with a Communist is like wooing a crocodile —Winston Churchill
Dangerous as cocaine —Pietro Mascagni The danger being described is modern music.
We sit here talking and leave everything to Mangan {a businessman in the mold of many modern corporate executives} and to chance and to the devil …? It’s madness: it’s like giving a torpedo to a badly brought up child to play at earthquakes with —George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House
(I feel so many) dangers gathering round —like shadows —Davis Grubb Feel as though I’m dancing on a volcano —Rita Mae Brown Felt as if they were about to dive onto a postage stamp from the top of the Eiffel Tower —Fred Taylor
< DARING See: COURAGE
(One’s life) hangs perilously in danger, like ripe fruit on a thin branch —Stephen Longstreet
< DARKNESS
Hazardous as sand traps for golfers —Anon
Dark and cool as a cave —David Huddle
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Darkness Dark and heavy like a surface stained with ink —John Ashberry (It was) dark as a closet —Niven Busch Dark as a dungeon —Anon The simile is the title of a ballad from the American South. (All was) dark as a stack of black cats —J.S. Rioss Dark as anger —Sylvia Plath Dark as a pocket —American colloquialism, attributed to Vermont Dark as a thundercloud —Steven Vincent Benet Dark as a troll —W. D. Snodgrass Dark as a wolf’s mouth —Miguel de Cervantes “Dark as” and “Black as” have been used interchangeably, since the simile’s appearance in Don Quixote. Dark as a womb —T. Coraghessan Boyle Dark as blackberries —Marge Piercy (The room was) dark as dreamless sleep —Harry Prince (Eyelashes … ) dark as night —Lord Byron
THE SIMILES This is the opening line of an Ashberry poem entitled “The Picture of Little J.A. in a Prospect of Flowers.” Darkness fell like a swift blow —James Crumley Darkness fills her like a carbohydrate —Daniela Gioseffi The darkness flew in like an unwelcome bird —Norman Garbo Darkness had begun to come in like water —Alice McDermott Darkness hanging over them like a blotter —T. Coraghessan Boyle Darkness like a black lake —Erich Maria Remarque Darkness … like a warm liquid poured from the throat of an enormous bird —John Hawkes Darkness settling down round them like a soft bird —Rose Tremain Darkness should be a private matter, like thought, like emotion —William Dieter Darkness so total it seemed and shifting, like deep water —William Boyd
Dark as the inside of a coffin —Gavin Lyall
The darkness was like a rising tide that covered the gardens and the houses, erasing everything as a still sea erased footprints on a beach —John P. Marquand
Dark as the inside of a magician’s hat —Robert Campbell
Darkness was sinking down over the region like a veil —Thomas Mann
Dark as sin —Mark Twain Dark as the devil’s mouth —Sir Walter Scott
Dark as the inside of a cow —Mark Twain Dark as the river bottom —Paige Mitchell Dark like wet coffee grounds —Ella Leffland
The darkness was thin, like some sleazy dress that has been worn and worn for many winters and always lets the cold through to the bones —Eudora Welty
The darkness ahead … looked like Alaska —Richard North Patterson
Dim as a cave of the sea —Richard Wilbur
Darkness as deep and cold as Siberian midnight —Gerald Kersh
Dim as an ill-lit railroad coach —Natascha Wodin
Darkness [in a rainstorm] came closer … like a sodden velvet curtain —Frank Swinnerton Darkness falls like a wet sponge —John Ashberry
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Dim as a cellar in midafternoon —Joyce Cary (My sun has set, I) dwell in darkness as a dead man out of sight —Christina Rossetti Light … drained out of the windows like a sink —William H. Gass
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THE SIMILES So dark and murky it [a movie, The Fugitive Kind] looked like everyone was drowning in chocolate syrup —Tennessee Williams, quoted in interview with Rex Reed
< DAY See Also: NIGHT, SLOWNESS, TIME The afternoon droops like a hot candle —Malcolm Cowley The afternoon sways like an elephant —Babette Deutsch This begins a poem entitled “July Day.” The beauty of the morning called to her like a signal bell —R. V. Cassill Dawn came like a blanket of flowers —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Day Days … arrive like crows in a field of stubble corn —Robert Hass The days dripped away like honey off a spoon —Wallace Stegner Days … followed one another in an undistinguished series, growing and then fading like the leaves on a tree —Stefan Zweig The days go by, like caterpillars do —Johnny Mercer, opening stanza from 1947 song, “Lazy Mood” The days go by like film, like a long written scroll —Maxwell Anderson The days, like the leaves, seemed to fly from the trees, as if this year was intent on its own destruction —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer The day smelled like clear water —Joan Chase
The dawn came up like a Have-a-Nice-Day emblem —Tom Robbins
The days pass by like a wayward tune —H. B. Yeats
A day as fresh as spring itself —Wallace Stegner
Days pass like papers from a press —Wallace Stevens
(The next) day dawned like a yawning hole —Robert Barnard The day drooped like a flag —Katherine Mansfield The day goes by like a shadow over the heart (with sorrow where all was delight) —Stephen Foster From Stephen Foster’s famous “My Old Kentucky Home” with “over” instead of “o’er” as in the original.
The days slipped by … like apple parings under a knife —Stephen Vincent Benét The days walking along higher and higher, like the way teachers line you up to have pictures taken —Lee Smith The days were truly endless and seemed like a single black night —Barbara Reid The day was dry, rather misty; like a day pictured in a Japanese print —Frank Swinnerton
The day is flat and intense, like a photograph of itself —Marge Piercy
The day was still like a very glazed photograph —M. J. Farrell
The day [Sunday] is like wide water, without sound —Wallace Stevens
Feel the pull of the long day, like a road he dragged behind him —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Day like a bated breath —Sharon Sheehe Stark
A fine morning makes you want to bust open like a pea pod —Joe Coomer
A day like an endless empty sea —Delmore Schwartz Days and nights were shuffling like lame and overweight cattle —Don Robertson Days are scrolls: write on them what you want to be remembered —Bahya
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
The gray winter morning descends like the huge lead-coated balloon —Jerry Bumpus The middle of the day, like the middle of certain fruits, is good for nothing —Walter Savage Landor
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Death Morning came like a stone breaking —Madison Smartt Bell The morning crept out of a dark cloud like an unbidden guest uncertain of his welcome —W. Somerset Maugham Morning … gray like a mouse —Jessamyn West Morning hours of inactivity … like a beautiful sculpture-lined bridge across which I stroll from night into day, from dream into reality —Milan Kundera
THE SIMILES (Kill him) dead as a beef —William Faulkner [Sexual feelings] Dead as a burned-out cinder —Ellen Glasgow Death arrives … sudden as a pasteboard box crushed by a foot —Marge Piercy Death falling like snow on any head it chooses —Philip Levine Death fell round me like a rain of steel —Herbert Read A simile from one of Read’s many war poems “Meditation of the Waking English Officer.”
(Night had died, and the) morning lay like a corpse. Like sadness, going from one end of the world to another, without a sound —Aharon Megged
Death has many times invited me: it was like the salt invisible in the waves —Pablo Neruda
My days are like a lengthening shadow —The Holy Bible/Psalms
Death lies on her, like an untimely frost —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
One of those days that come as a surprise in the middle of winter, like a gift sent on no anniversary, so that the pleasure takes us unaware —Jean Stafford
Death, like roulette, turning our wish to its will —George Barker
Our days run as fast away as does the sun —Robert Herrick Over the garden, day still hung like a pink flag —Elizabeth Bowen Workday is finished, dead as the calendar page that bore its number —Beryl Markham
< DEATH See Also: ADVANCING; BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS; DEATH, DEFINED; DEATH, FINALITY OF; ENTRANCES AND EXITS; SUDDENNESS; TIMELINESS As death comes on we are like trees growing in the sandy bank of a widening river —Bhartrihari The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding lies here food for worms —Benjamin Franklin Franklin’s epitaph for himself is a fine example of appropriately suiting the comparison to what’s being compared.
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Death lurking up the road like a feral dog abroad in the swirling snow —Marge Piercy Death, you can never tell where else it will crop up —John Hale Die alone like a dog in a ditch —Aldous Huxley Died in beauty, like a rose blown from its parent stem —C.D. Sillery Die like candles in a draft —Sharon Sheehe Stark In the short story, The Johnstown Polka, the simile has a literal frame of reference; specifically, a room in an old age home which is overheated because to open the windows would kill the people in it. Died like flies in a sugar bowls —Rita Mae Brown (I won’t) drown like a rat in a trap —G.B. Shaw Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast flaying cloud, a flash of lightning, a break of the wave, man passes from life to his rest in the grave —William Knox Dying is as natural as living —Thomas Fuller M. D. Dying like flies —Anon
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THE SIMILES
Death Defined
An even more frequently used variation is to “Drop like flies.”
Passed away, as a dry leaf passes into leaf mold —John Updike
(I will) encounter darkness as a bride —William Shakespeare
[In old age] The shadow of Death … like a sword of Damocles, may descend at any moment —Samuel Butler
(You couldn’t) Expect death to come rushing in like a skivvy because you’d rung the bell —Paul Barker Feel my death rushing towards me like an express train —John Updike Felt death near, like a garment she had left hanging in her closet and could not see or find though she knew it was there —Abraham Rothberg Go to their graves like flowers or creeping worms —Percy Bysshe Shelley The intimations of mortality appear so gradually as to be imperceptible, like the first graying in of twilight —Richard Selzer Like a clock worn out with eating time, the wheels of weary life at last stood still —John Dryden Like a led victim, to my death I’ll go —John Dryden Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast flaying cloud, a flash of lightning, a break of the wave, man passes from life to his rest in the grave —William Knox Like sheep they are laid in the grave —The Holy Bible/Psalms (I now) look at death, the way we look at a house we plan to move into —William Bronk Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other —Francis Bacon Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit, and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day —Ralph Waldo Emerson
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
She passed away like morning dew —Hartley Coleridge (The passionate desire to be loved by a man, that had a thousand times before) swept like a storm over her body —Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio Talking over the fact of his approaching death as though it were a piece of property for agreeable disposition in the family —Elizabeth Spencer There are no graves that grow so green as the graves of children —Oliver Wendell Holmes From a letter of condolence to W. R. Sturtevant, September 17, 1878 in which the simile continues as follows: “Their memory comes back after a time more beautiful than that of those who leave us at any other age.” We are all kept and fed for death, like a herd of swine to be slain without reason —Palladas We end our years like a sigh … for it is speedily gone, and we fly away —The Holy Bible/Psalms Wherever you go, death dogs you like a shadow —Anon
< DEATH DEFINED Death is like a fisherman who catches fish in his net and leaves them for a while in the water; the fish is still swimming but the net is around him, and the fisherman will draw him up —?when he thinks fit —Ivan Turgenev Death is like thunder in two particulars: we are alarmed at the sound of it and it is formidable only from that which preceded it —Charles Caleb Colton Death is simply a shedding of the physical body, like the butterfly coming out of a cocoon —Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross
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Death, Finality of Death, like an overflowing stream, sweeps us away —Abraham Lincoln Death, like birth, is a secret of nature —Marcus Aurelius Death, like life, is an affair of being more frightened than hurt —Samuel Butler Dying is an art, like everything else —Sylvia Plath Dying is something ghastly, as being born is something ridiculous —George Santayana If a person has reached the “age of strength” [eighty years old], a sudden death is like dying from a kiss —Babylonian Talmud Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, you are gone, and for ever —Sir Walter Scott The above, taken from Scott’s famous The Lady of the Lake, substitutes “You are gone” for the old English “Thou art gone.” The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts, and is desir’d —William Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (I) think of death as a sort of deleterious fermentation, like that which goes on in a bottle of Chateau Margaux when it becomes corked —H. L. Mencken
THE SIMILES ond, in response to Falstaff asks “What, is the old king dead?” and Pistol answers, “As a nail in door.” Dead as a fried oyster —S. J. Perelman This is one of four different twists on the familiar “Dead as a doornail” from Perelman’s spoof on cliché Somewhere a Roscoe. The others used are “Dead an iced catfish,” “Dead as a stuffed mongoose,” and “Dead as vaudeville.” Dead as a hammer —Scotch Saying Dead as a herring —Samuel Butler Dead as a turd —Stephen King Deader than a roast turkey on Thanksgiving —Joan Hess Dead as the last year’s leaves —W. S. Gilbert
< DEBT See: CREDIT
< DECEPTION See: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< DECISIONS See: CHOICES
< DEATH, FINALITY OF
< DECORATIVENESS
As the cloud is consumed and vanished away: so he that goes down to the grave comes up no more —The Holy Bible/Job ’Goes’ is a modernization of the biblical ‘goeth.’
See: ATTRACTIVENESS
Dead and as far away as yesterday —W. S. Gilbert Dead as a dead mackerel —C. W. Grafton Dead as a dodo bird —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Dead as a doornail —English phrase Many people attribute this much used simile to Shakespeare who used it in Henry VI and Henry IV. In the first play the simile appears as follows: “If I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more. In the sec-
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< DECREASE Contract, like the pupil of an eye that confronts the sun —John Hall Wheelcock (My avarice) Cooled like lust in the chill of the grave —Ralph Waldo Emerson Decrease like a cigar —the harder you puff on it, the shorter it gets —Anon The cigar has also been likened to an actor, e.g., “An actor decreases like a cigar; the more you puff him, the smaller he gets.” Decrease like a lemon drop; the more you lick it the less it becomes —Anon
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THE SIMILES Decrease like hair after each decade —Mike Sommer Devour [information] like baseball addicts devour box scores —David E. Sanger, New York Times, December 14, 1985
Dejection
< DEDICATION See: ATTENTION
< DEEDS
Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery —Sylvia Plath
See: ACTIONS
(All my efforts) diminish like froth —Erich Maria Remarque
< DEJECTION
Drain (as a day’s happenings) like water running out of a tub —Andre Dubus
(There was about him) an air of defeat … as though all the rules he’d learned in life were, one by one, being reversed —Margaret Millar
Energy … draining out like sand —May Sarton Gobble up cash the way electronic equipment gobbles up batteries —Anon Goes down like an ebbing tide —Henry James James let the hero of his play Guy Domville, use the ebbing tide comparison to explain the nature of his ignorance. Go through [as bottle of pills] like a bull breaks a fence —Anon Pared like a carrot —John Russell This is often used to mean cut down, humiliated. (The conversation was already) petering out like a smoldering cigarette-end —Stefan Zweig Receding like a threatened headache which hasn’t materialized —William McIlvanney
See Also: EMOTIONS, GLOOM
Dampened my mood (as automatically) as would the news of an earthquake in Cincinnati or the outbreak of the Third World War —T. Coraghessan Boyle Dejection seemed to transfix him, to reach down out of the sky and crash like a spike through his small rigid body —Niven Busch Dejection settled over her like a cloud —Louis Bromfield Depression crept like a fog into her mind —Ellen Glasgow Depression … is like a light turned into a room—only a light of blackness —Rudyard Kipling
Shrinking as violets do in summer —Thomas Moore The original ended with “As violets do in summer’s rays.”
Depressions … like thick cloud covers: not a ray of light gets through —Larry McMurtry
Shrinking like aches —Charles Wright
Despair is like forward children, who when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire for madness —Pierre Charron
Shrivel up like the tendrils of a creeper when thrown on a bonfire —Francis King Shrunken as a beggar’s heart —Stephen Vincent Benét Use up as fast as a ten dollar bill in the supermarket —Anon Use up, like a cake of soap —Elyse Sommer Wore off [feeling of self-confidence] quicker than champagne —Edith Wharton
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Despair howled round his inside like a wind —Elizabeth Bowen
Despair, like that of a man carrying through choice a bomb which, at a certain hour each day, may or may not explode —William Faulkner Despair passed over him like cold winds and hot winds coming from places he had never visited —Margaret Millar
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Dejection Despondency … lurking like a ghoul —Richard Maynard Emptied, like a collapsed balloon, all the life gone out of him —Ben Ames Williams Feeling of desperation … as if caught by a chain that was slowly winding up —Victor Hugo Feel like a picnicker who has forgotten his lunch —Frank O’Hara (I’m not feeling very good right now. I) feel like I’ve been sucking on a lot of raw eggs —Dexter Manley, of the Washington Redskins after his team lost important game, quoted New York Times December 8, 1986 Feels his heart sink as if into a frozen lake —John Rechy Felt depression settle on his head like a sick crow —Bernard Malamud (He often) felt [suicidal] like a deep sea diver whose hose got cut on an unexpected rock —Diane Wakoski Felt like Willie Loman at the end of the road —T. Coraghessan Boyle
THE SIMILES It was like having a part of me amputated —W. P. Kinsella The character in the novel Shoeless Joe, the comparison is a character’s response to being suspended from his baseball team. (I was) like the old lion with a thorn in his paw, surrounded by wolves and jackals and facing his snaggle-toothed death in a political jungle —T. Coraghessan Boyle Listless and wretched like a condemned man —Erich Maria Remarque (They )live under dust covers like furniture —Michael Frayn Frayn’s simile vividly portrays the despair of the characters in his adaptation of an untitled Chekhov play, first produced under the title Wild Honey in 1984. Looked suddenly disconsolate, like a scarecrow with no crows to scare —Graham Masterton Looking forlorn, stricken, like a little brother who, tagging along, is being deserted by the big fellows —Edna Ferber
Felt the future narrowing before me like a tunnel —Margaret Drabble
Crawl back [after unanticipated defeat at golf] looking like a toad under a harrow —P. G. Wodehouse
Forlorn … like Autumn waiting for the snow —John Greenleaf Whittier
Look like a dog that has lost its tail —John Ray’s Proverbs
(Her) heart dropped like a purse of coins falling through a ripped pocket —Joyce Reiser Kornblatt
Look like the picture of ill luck —John Ray’s Proverbs
His despair confronted me like a black beast —Natascha Wodin His haughty self was like a robber baron fallen into the hands of rebellious slaves, stooped under a filthy load —Sinclair Lewis His heart has withered in him and he has been left with the five senses, like pieces of broken wineglass —Lawrence Durrell Hope and confidence … shattered like the pillars of Gaza —W. Somerset Maugham Hope removed like a tree —The Holy Bible/Job
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Miserable, like dead men in a dream —George MacDonald Miserable, lonesome as a forgotten child —F. Scott Fitzgerald Misery is manifold … as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch —Edgar Allen Poe Misery rose from him like a stench —Marge Piercy A mood as gypsy-dark as his eyes —Robert Culff My life is just an empty road and people walk on me —Tony Ardizzone
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THE SIMILES Must live hideously and miserably the rest of his days, like a man doomed to live forever in a state of retching and abominable nausea of heart, brain, bowels, flesh and spirit —Thomas Wolfe Put away his hopes as if they were old love letters —Anon Relapsed into discouragement, like a votary who has watched too long for a sign from the altar —Edith Wharton Saw himself like a sparrow on the Bank-top; sitting on the wherewithal for a thousand, thousand meals and dropping dead from hunger the first day of winter —Christina Stead Seemed like a whipped dog on a leash —Ignazio Silone
Desirability
< DEMOCRACY See: FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT
< DENIAL See: BEHAVIOR
< DENSITY See: ABUNDANCE, THICKNESS
< DEPARTURE See: EXITS
< DEPENDABILITY See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
< DEPLETION
The sense of desolation and of fear became bitterer than death —William Cullen Bryant
See: DECRESAE
(I have been) so utterly and suicidally morbid that my letters would have read like an excerpt from the Undertakers’ Gazette —Dylan Thomas The simile is excerpted from a November, 1933 letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson apologizing for the delay in replying to her letter.
< DEPRESSION
(Foster’s) stomach felt like a load of wet clothes at the bottom of the dryer —Phyllis Naylor
See Also: PLEASURE Beckoning … like summer welcoming the swallows —Ariel Dorfman
There’s a state of peace following despair … like the aftermath of an accident —C. J. Koch Waves of black depression engulf one from time to time … like a rising tide —Gustave Flaubert
< DELAY See: LINGERING
< DELIBERATENESS See: PURPOSEFULNESS
< DELIGHT See: JOY
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: DEJECTION, GLOOM
< DESERTION See: ABANDONMENT
< DESIRABILITY
Cherish like a secret —D.H. Lawrence Dear as a pardon —Diane Ackerman Hates (publicity) the way Polly hates crackers —Arthur Baer Dear as remembered kisses after death —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Dear as the mother to the son —Alfred, Lord Tennyson (She was) desirable … like a dessert. Afterward you discarded the empty plate and forgot it —Derek Lambert (Enigmatic remarks, as elusive and as) eagerly gobbled up as currants in a bun —Robert Culff
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Desire (Six years ago … the idea of spending an afternoon at Shea Stadium) held about as much appeal as your basic monster traffic jam —Malcom Moran, New York Times, October 11, 1986 Like a box of chocolates … seductive and satisfying —Publishers Weekly comment on a short novel The simile expanded on the box of chocolates appeal with: “Readers will want to devour it in one sitting.”
THE SIMILES of catastrophe, but nevertheless cannot by such logic tame the impulse —Paul Reidinger Desire had run its course like a long and serious illness —Harvey Swados Desire … like the hunger for a definite but hardto-come-by food —Mary Gordon Desire overtook us like a hot, breaking wave —A. E. Maxwell Desires … hurried like the clouds —Elizabeth Bowen
Welcome as a corpse is to a coroner —Mark Twain
Desire … swept over her like a flame —Robin McCorquodale
Welcome as a dandelion in the bosom of winter —Josh Billings
Dying for … like God for a repentant sinner —Bertolt Brecht
Welcome as a free ticket to a hit show —Anon
(She is) gaping after love like a carp after water on a kitchen table —Gustave Flaubert
Welcome as a letter from home —Anon Welcome as a visit from an old friend —Anon Welcome as happy tiding after fears —Thomas Otway Welcome as sunshine after rain —Anon A possible inspiration for this is: “Love comforteth like sunshine after rain” from Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. Welcome as the best dish in the kitchen —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs Welcome as the flowers in May —John Ray’s Proverbs Welcomed it as a Bedouin in the desert welcomes the flies that are the herald of an oasis —Richard Selzer
Her needs stick out all over, like a porcupine’s needles —Emily Listfield His need for her was crippling … like a cruel blow at the back of his knees —John Cheever How passionate the mating instinct is, like a giant hippo chasing his mate through the underbrush and never stopping till he finally mounts her in the muddy waters of the mighty Amazon —Daniel Asa Rose Longing … afflicted her like a toothache —Harold Acton (Miss) like sin —Lael Wertenbaker The simile in full context from the novel Unbidden Guests: reads as follows: “I woke up missing Alex like sin.” Miss you like breath —Janet Flanner
< DESIRE See Also: SEX A brief surge of sexual desire that crested and passed like a wave breaking —Paige Mitchell Craves love like oxygen —Marge Piercy Craving [for a man] … like a cigarette smoker who knows his desire is unhealthy, knows that the next puff may set off a chain reaction
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More giddy in my desires than a monkey —William Shakespeare, As You Like It My desire for her is so wild I feel as if I’m all liquid —W. P. Kinsella My heart is yearning like the ocean that’s running dry —Selena Gomez, “A Year without Rain” A passion finer than lust, as if everything living is moist with her —Daniela Gioseffi
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THE SIMILES Worldly desires are like columns of sunshine radiating through a dusty window, nothing tangible, nothing there —Bratzlav Naham Yearning radiating from his face like heat from an electric heater —Larry McMurtry
< DESOLATION
Destruction/Destructiveness Crushed like an empty beer can —Anon Crushed … like rats in a slate fall —Davis Grubb In Grubb’s novel The Barefoot Man, the simile refers to miners who lost their lives. Crushed like rotten apples —William Shakespeare, Henry V
See: ABANDONMENT
Crushed me like a grape —Carla Lane, British television sitcom, Solo, May 19, 1987
< DESPERATION
(And I’ll be)cut up like a pie —Irish ballad
Edgar [a journalist during a difficult interview] made one more approach, like a plane in bad weather that was running out of fuel. —Lionel Shriver in The New Republic
Destructive as moths in a woolens closet —Anon
I felt my heart sinking, like a ship going under —Edward Rutherfurd, New York
(The Communists are) eating us away like an old fruit —Janet Flanner
[Time’s malevolent effect on body] Dragging him down like a bursting sack —Gerald Kersh
(Men) fade like leaves —Aristophanes
< DESTITUTION See: POVERTY
< DESTRUCTION/ DESTRUCTIVENESS See Also: DISINTEGRATION As killing as the canker to the rose —John Milton (Bones) breaking like hearts —Bin Ramke Break [a person’s spirit] like a biscuit —Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Break like a bursting heart —Percy Bysshe Shelley Break like dead leaves —Richard Howard Cracked like parchment —Sin Ai Cracked like the ice in a frozen daiquiri —Anon (Her projects of happiness) crackled in the wind like dead boughs —Gustave Flaubert Crack like walnuts —Rita Mae Brown Crack like wishbones —Diane Ackerman Cracks … like a glass in which the contents turned to ice, and shiver it —Herman Melville [Fender and hood of car] crumpled like tinfoil —T. Coraghessan Boyle
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Flattened her pitiful attempt like a locomotive running on a single track full steam ahead —Cornell Woolrich (Creditors ready to) gnaw him to bits … like maggots at work on a carcass —George Garrett The grass at Shea Stadium looked as if it had been attacked by animals that had not grazed for ages —Alex Yannis, New York Times, September 18, 1986 Yannis, in reporting on the Mets’ winning the National League Eastern Division title, used the simile to describe the fans’ destruction of the playing field. If I do [give up] … I’ll be like a bullfighter gone horn-shy —Loren D. Estleman Like a divorce … goes ripping through our lives —jacket copy describing effect of Sharon Sheehe Stark’s novel, A Wrestling Season Marked for annihilation like an orange scored for peeling —Yehuda Amichai My heroes [Chicago Cubs] had wilted like slugs —George F. Will Pollutes … like ratbite —William Alfred
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Detachment
THE SIMILES
Self-destructing like a third-rate situation comedy —Warren T. Brookes, on Republican Party, Wall Street Journal, July 15, l986
< DEW
Shattered like a walnut-shell —Charles Dickens In Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the comparison refers to a broken wine cask.
< DICTION
Shatter them like so much glass —Robert Louis Stevenson
< DICTIONARIES
Shrivel up like some old straw broom —Joyce Carol Oates Snap like dry chicken bones —David Michael Kaplan [Taut nerves] Snap like guy wires in a tornado —Nardi Reeder Campion, New York Times (Then the illusion) snapped like a nest of threads —F. Scott Fitzgerald Snapped off [due to frailness] like celery —Lawrence Durrell
See: NATURE
See: SPEECH PATTERNS
See: BOOKS
< DIETS See: EATING AND DRINKING
< DIFFERENCES Alike as the gap between Little League and Major League —Anon Alike as an oil portrait and polaroid snapshot —Anon
They [free-spending wife and daughter] ate holes in me like Swiss cheese —Clifford Odets
Alike as a cliché and a sonnet —Rod MacLeish, National Public Radio, December 29, 1986 In his obituary on mystery writer John MacDonald, MacLeish used the simile to point out the difference between MacDonald’s Travis McGee character and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.
Wear out their lives, like old clothes —John Cheever
Alike as a mom and pop grocery store and a multi-national corporation —Anon
Your destruction comes as a whirlwind —The Holy Bible/Proverbs
Alike as an abacus and computer —Anon
(Who can accept that spirit can be) snuffed as finally as a flame —Barbara Lazear Ascher, New York Times, October 30, 1986
< DETACHMENT See: REMOTENESS
< DETERIORATION See: DISINTEGRATION
< DETERMINATION See: PURPOSEFULNESS
< DEVOTION See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
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Alike as an elephant and a giraffe —Anon Alike as grains of sand —Anon Alike as human faces —Anon Alike as six pebbles on the beach —Eudora Welty Alike as the gap between doing a gig at a neighborhood wedding and being on prime-time TV —Anon And I see the same skies through brown eyes / That you see through blue / But we’re worlds apart, worlds apart / Just like the earth, just like the sun —Roger Miller, “Worlds Apart,” Big River As like as an apple is to a lobster —John Ray’s Proverbs
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THE SIMILES A variation on the same theme, also from John Ray’s Proverbs is: “as alike as an apple is to an oyster.” Other entries in this section merely hint at the endless twists possible. As like this as a crab’s like an apple —William Shakespeare, King Lear Here we have the above simile turned around, with the apple the comparison. (In this world it is rarely possible to settle matters with an“either, or,” since there are) as many gradations of emotion and conduct as there are stages between a hooked nose and one that turns up —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Different as a moonbeam from lightning, as frost from fire —Emily Brontë
Difficulty As easy as combing your hair with a broom —Anon Easy as doing one thing at a time and never putting off anything till tomorrow that could be done today —Baron Samuel von Puffendorf As easy as drawing a picture in water —Anon As easy as eating soup with a fork —Anon As easy as finding a two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s east side for $400 month —Anon This is the sort of topical and location-specific comparison that is adapted to the user’s own locale and economic conditions. As easy as getting rid of cockroaches in a New York apartment —Anon
Opposite as yea and nay —Francis Quarles
As easy as making an omelette without eggs —Anon A simile probably inspired by the proverb “one can’t expect to make an omelet without breaking eggs.”
(Two faces) different as hot and cold —Dannie Abse
As easy as passing a bull in a close —William McIlvanney
Different as three men singing the same chorus from three men playing three tunes on the same piano —G. K. Chesterton
As easy as roller skating on a collapsing sidewalk —Anon
(You and I are as) different as chalk and cheese —John Ray’s Proverbs
Different as ying from yang —Harry Prince
As easy as running with a stitch in your side —Anon
Everything has in fact another side to it, like the moon —G. K. Chesterton
As easy as trying to paint the wind —Anon
Sharply defined as salt and pepper —Anon
As easy as struggling through a waist-high layer of glue —Anon
The difference between vivacity and wit is the same as the difference between the lightningbut and lightning —Josh Billings
As easy as shaving with an axe —Anon
As easy as taking a hair out of milk —Babylonian Talmud
Various as the fancies of men in pursuit of a wife —James Ralph
As easy to scare Jack Cady [character in novel] as to scare an oak tree —Speer Morgan
< DIFFICULTY
As easy as trying to load a thermometer with beads of quicksilver —Bill Pronzini
See Also: FUTILITY, IMPOSSIBILITY About as easy to ignore as a Salvation Army drum —William McIlvanney
Easy as trying to nail a glob of mercury —Anon
As easy as buying a pair of solid leather shoes for $l0 —Anon
Easy as trying to participate in your own funeral —Anon
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Easy as trying to open an oyster without a knife —Anon
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Difficulty Easy as trying to read a book on the deck of a sinking ship —Anon Easy as trying to unscramble an egg —Anon Another proverb that has become familiar is attributed to J. P. Morgan on the dissolution of trusts in 1905: “You can’t unscramble eggs.” Easy as wading in tar —Anon Easy as walking on one leg —Anon Chasing a dream, a dream no one else can see or understand, like running after a butterfly across an endless meadow, is extremely difficult —W. P. Kinsella
THE SIMILES Difficult as making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear —Anon This can be traced to the German proverb “you cannot make a silk purse of a sow’s ear.” A less well-known French version substitutes velvet for silk. Difficult as making dreams come true —Anon Difficult as putting a bandage on an eel —Anon Difficult as to sell a ham to a kosher caterer —Elyse Sommer Difficult as sighting a rifle in the dark with rain falling —Peter Greer
Controlling the bureaucracy is like nailing Jell-O to the wall —John F. Kennedy
Difficult as trying to draw blood from a turnip —French proverb
Dealing with him is like dealing with a porcupine in heat —Anon The porcupine simile made by an anonymous White House reporter in 1986 referred to deputy chief Richard G. Darmon.
Difficult as trying to be old and young at the same time —German proverb Another proverb that has evolved into simile form, in this instance from “you cannot be old and young at the same time.”
Demanding as a Dickens novel with a cast of hundreds —Ira Wood
Difficult as trying to run and sit still at the same time —Scotch proverb
Difficult as an elephant trying to pick up a pea —H. G Wells
Difficult … like trying to play the piano with boxing gloves —William H. Hallhan
Difficult as climbing pinnacles of ice —Elinor Wylie
Difficult … like swimming upstream in Jell-O —Loren D. Estleman
Difficult as driving a Daimler at top speed on a slick road —Barry Tuckwell, quoted in an article by Barbara Jepson, Wall Street Journal, July 1, 1986
Difficult … like trying to grab a hold of Jell-O in quicksand —Philip K. Meyer, Eberstadt Fleming executive quoted in New York Times, July 25, 1986 on estimating an oilfield company’s earnings
(Getting the truth in the New York Post has been as) difficult as finding a good hamburger in Albania —Paul Newman, New York Post, October 14, 1986 The actor’s simile referred to the paper’s efforts to prove that he is only 5 foot 8 inches tall Difficult as getting a concession to put a merrygo-round on the front lawn of the White House —Kenneth L. Roberts As true and timely a simile today as when it originated in the early part of the twentieth century.
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Difficult … like walking a frisky, 220-pound dog —Henry D. Jacoby, on trying to manage crude oil prices in face of changing market conditions, New York Times, January 26, 1986 Difficult to absorb … like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose —Anon The comment was a response to Uranus probe, January 22, 1987. Difficult to get as trying to get a pearl out of a lock-jawed oyster —Robert Vinez quoted in
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THE SIMILES Wall Street Journal article on consumer campaign to get Ford to put air bags into all cars. The difficulty in this instance involved getting the air bag out of Ford. (Satiety is as) difficult to stomach as hunger —Stefan Zweig Finding a decent, affordable apartment in New York is … like trying to recover a contact lens from a subway platform at rush hour —Michael de Courcy Hinds, New York Times, January 16, 1986 Getting information from him was like squeezing a third cup from a tea bag —Christopher Buckley [Getting stubborn George ready for the hospital was] like ushering a mule into a cage. —Susan Vreeland, Clara and Mr. Tiffany Hard as building a wall of sand —Marge Piercy (It was) hard to do, but quick, like a painful inoculation —Judith Rascoe Hard to lift as a dead elephant —Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister It [to get a woman character to admit feelings for her lover] would be rather like breaking rocks —Laurie Colwin
Disagreement In his novel, Skorpion’s Death, Brierley uses the comparison to describe the difficulty of learning how to fly. A process that could be likened to trying to drain a swimming pool with a soda straw —Thomas J. Knudson, on project to reduce flooding of lake in Utah, New York Times, April 11, 1987 To get a cent out of this woman is like crossing the Red Sea dry-shod —Sholem Aleichem Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth —Alan Watts Trying to get information out of Joe was like trying to drag a cat by its tail over a rug —F. van Wyck Mason Trying to jump-start a business venture over breakfast is like working hard at going to sleep or devoting a year to falling in love —Anon participant at a business networking breakfast, New York Times, Michael Winerif, February 17, 1987 Walking [while feeling dizzy] was like a journey up the down escalator —Madison Smart Bell With effort like rising out of deep water —Elizabeth Spencer
< DIGNITY
Keeping up with her is like trying to run after a departing train —Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth
See: PRIDE
Laborious as idleness —Louis IV
See: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Life is not an easy thing to embrace, like trying to hug an elephant —Diane Wakoski
< DIPLOMACY
< DILEMMAS
(Waiting on a $175 check from the Amoco Traveler was) like trying to bail out a rowboat with an eyedropper while the cold, briny deep gushed through a hole the size of a rubber boot —Lionel Shriver, The New Republic
See: TACT
Lurching up those steep stairs was like climbing through a submarine —Scott Spencer
< DISAGREEMENT
Not like making instant coffee —David Brierley
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< DIRECTNESS See: CANDOR, STRAIGHTNESS
See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT, ARGUMENT
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Disappearence
< DISAPPEARENCE Blown away like clouds —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Blows away like a deck of cards in a hurricane —George Garrett Bobbed away like a soap-bubble —Sylvia Plath
THE SIMILES Drift away into infinity, like a child’s balloon at a circus —Robert Penn Warren Everybody peeled away like an onion —official of a New York company on reason for his firm’s bankruptcy, New York Times, December 12, 1986
(The premonition had) boiled off like a puff of bad air —Herbert Lieberman
(The vision of her early loveliness) faded from reality like dew licked up by the sun —Elinor Wylie
Borne away like a cork on a stream —Lawrence Durrell
Faded like a cloud which has outswept its rain —Percy Bysshe Shelley
(The old worlds) died away like dew —Dame Edith Sitwell
Faded … like dew upon the sea —Oliver Wendell Holmes
Disappeared as if into fairyland —Peter Najarian
(The restlessness in him) faded like fog before sunshine —Pearl S. Buck
Disappeared … effortlessly, like a star into a cloud —F. van Wyck Mason Disappeared like a sigh —Tom Wolfe [Food being served, vegetables] disappeared like leaves before locusts —Charlotte Brontë Disappeared like raindrops which fall in the ocean —John T. Morse, about the loss of many of Oliver Wendell Holmes similes and other witticisms Disappeared [huntsmen and hounds into a bewitched forest] like soap bubbles —Anne Sexton Disappeared … like sparks dropped into wet grass —James Crumley Disappearing like the fastest fairy who ever lived —Brian Donleavy Disappearing, like water poured out of a widenecked bottle —Diane Wakoski
(Light would) fade like a slow gray curtain dropping —Nelson Algren Fades like the lustre of an evening cloud —William Wordsworth [Awareness of children] Fading like old ink —Margaret Atwood (The season) fading like woodwind music —George Garrett Fading like young joy —Dame Edith Sitwell Fall away like forgiven sins —Miller Williams (All your joys start) falling like sand through a sieve —Lorenz Hart Hart’s lyric for“A Lady Must Live” from America’s Sweetheart omitted the letter ‘g’ in ‘falling’ Fell away like a wall —Dudley Clendinen New York Times March 31,1985, about a publisher’s declining advertising revenues
Disappear like a moon entering a cloud bank —Bernard Malamud
(Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow, have) fled like sweet dreams —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Disappear like quicksilver in the cracks —Booth Tarkington
(Any thought I had for such an enterprise) fled like thunder —Richard Ford
Disappear like socks in the laundry —Elyse Sommer
Flown like a thought —John Keats
Disappear like the dew on the mountain —Anon
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Fluttered away like flakes of snow —Louis Bromfield
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THE SIMILES
Disappearence
[Ceremonial occasions] Glide swift into shadow, like sails on the seas —John Greenleaf Whittier
(I am) gone like the shadow when it declines —The Holy Bible/Psalms The biblical “declineth” has been modernized.
(He was) gone again, gone like some shadow the fire had made —Davis Grubb
Go out … just like a candle —Lewis Carroll
Gone and out of sight like a thought —Richard Ford Gone as a dream is gone from a dreamer waked with a shout —Lord Dunsany Gone … as if they had evaporated —Dorothy Canfield (That moment is) gone forever, like lightning that flashed and died —like a snowflake upon the river —like a sunbeam upon the tide —Percy Bysshe Shelley Gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream —George Linley Gone like a flushed toilet —Max Apple Gone like a morning dream, or like a pile of clouds —William Wordsworth Gone like a quick wind —Ursula Le Guin (Our world was) gone like a scrap in the wind —Beryl Markham Gone like a wild bird, like a blowing flame —Euripides
(The Contessina could no longer see him;) it was as though he had slipped from her vision, and the crack had closed above him forever —Elizabeth Bowen (Maybe he wanted her to) lift up, blow away somewhere, like a kite —Margaret Atwood Like a match struck on a stove … faded and was gone —James Agee Like a passing thought she fled —Robert Burns Burns’ line has found its way into daily language as “vanish like a passing thought.” Like a shadow, glided out of view —William Wordsworth Like swallows in autumn they fled, and left the house silent —John Hall Wheelock Lost like stars beyond dark trees —Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Her patience) melted like snow before a blowtorch —Julia O’Faolain (Money) melting away like butter in the sun —Bertolt Brecht
[Smile of a loved one] Gone like dreams that we forget —William Wordsworth
Off and away like a frightened fish —Ogden Nash
(And all the students) gone, like last week’s snow —Delmore Schwartz
Pass as if it had never existed, like a fart in a gale of wind —Richard Russo
Gone like our change at the end of the week —Palmer Cox
Pass away like clouds before the wind —William Wordsworth
(Words) gone like sparks burned up in darkness —Jayne Anne Phillips
Passed like a ghost from view —John Greenleaf Whittier
[A funeral procession] Gone … like tears in the eyes —Karl Shapiro
(The wild part of her had) perished like burned grass —Ellen Glasgow
Gone, like tenants that quit without warning —Oliver Wendell Holmes
(Life was) receding … as the sea abruptly withdraws, abandoning a rock it has caressed too long —Françoise Sagan
Gone, like the life from a busted balloon —Palmer Cox
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Receding like a bad dream —Anon
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Disappearence (He felt the distress and suspicions of the previous night) receding like a tempest —George Santayana [Sounds] Receding like the image of a man between two mirrors —Frank Conroy Sank like lead into the sea —Brian Moore Sank to the bottom as a stone —The Holy Bible/ Exodus Scuttle away … like moths —W. D. Snodgrass
THE SIMILES Vanished, ghost-like, into air —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Vanished like a puff of steam —H.G. Wells A frequently used alternative is to vanish or leave “like a puff of wind.” Vanished like a sail on the sea —Oscar Hammerstein, Pipe Dream (The stray cat) vanished like a swift, invisible shadow —D. H. Lawrence
(The cares that infest the day) shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
[Food being served, dessert] vanished like a vision —Charlotte Brontë
Shrank away like an ill-treated child —W. H. Auden
(He had simply) vanished, like Gauguin —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Shrank like an anemone —Derek Lambert Slip away like water —Edna St. Vincent Millay [Thoughts] Slipped away … like bushes on the side of a sheer precipice —Edith Wharton Slipping silently away like a thief in a London fog —Jack Whittaker, ABC/TV, about the Goodyear blimp disappearing in the mist above the US golf open tournament in San Francisco, June 20, 1987 Slips away like a snake in a weed-tangle —Robert Penn Warren Slips out of my life like sand —Diane Wakoski A slow fade, like a candle or an icicle —Margaret Atwood (The nights) snapped out of sight like a lizard’s eyelid —Sylvia Plath Suddenly disappeared with a jerk, as if somebody had given her a violent pull behind —Charles Dickens (Her voice) suddenly disappeared, like a coin in a magic trick —Scott Spencer Vanish … as easily as an eel into sand —Arthur Conan Doyle Vanish as raindrops which fall in the sea —Susan Coolidge Vanish away like the ghost of breath —George Garrett
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Vanished like a wisp of vapor —Edith Wharton
Vanished like midnight ghosts —Charles Lindberg Lindbergh used the simile in 1927 to describe the flight of a French plane, L’Oiseau Blanc. Vanished like some little bird that has been flushed out of the shrubbery —Mikhail Lermontov Vanished like the last of the buffalo hunters —George Garrett Vanished [out of his mind] like the mist before the rising sun —H. G. Wells [The impression made upon people by a tragedy] vanishes as quickly as a delicious fruit melts in the mouth —Honoré de Balzac Vanishes as rapidly as a road runner in a cartoon —New Yorker, August 26, 1985 In the “Talk of The Town” column, this referred to the speed with which a book, once finished, disappears from writer’s mental picture. (Beauty) vanishing like a long sigh —George Garrett Vanish like a changing mood —John Hall Wheelock Vanish like a cocktail before dinner —Anon Vanish like a dew-drop in a rose —Gerald Massey Vanish like a ghost before the sun —P.J. Bailey
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THE SIMILES
Discomfort
Vanish like an echo or a dream —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Disappointment toppled me like a wave —Susan Vreeland
Vanish like birds in winter —George Garrett
Disappointment worked through me like a poison —Robertson Davies
Vanish like lightning —Henry Taylor Vanish like plunging stars —Don Marquis Vanish like raindrops which fall in the sea —Anon
Disillusioned … as a betrayed lover —Calder Willingham
Vanish like smoke —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Had a look of profound disappointment … like a child who sees a treat wafted away from him —Mary McCarthy
Vanish like the Witch of the North —George Garrett
< DISAPPROVAL
Vanish like white soft crowns of dandelions in the wind —George Garrett
See: CONTEMPT
Vanish like writing in the sand —Anon
< DISASTER
(My awe of Cruikback) went away like a mist in a high wind —Gerald Kersh Went away like a summer fly —W. B. Yeats Went gloriously away, like lightning from the sky —Edgar Allen Poe [Sense of peace] Went out like a shooting star —Edna O’Brien
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< DISCOMFORT See Also: PAIN Comfortable as a toothache —Mark Twain [Kiss] comfortless as frozen water to a starved snake —William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Comfortless as salt —Sylvia Plath
< DISAPPOINTMENT See Also: DESPAIR, FACIAL EXPRESSION
Damp like a vault —Maurice Hewlett
Disappointed as a dieter who can’t lose more than an ounce —Anon
Felt like a door-to-door salesman, pushing unwanted sets of nature encyclopedias complete with fake walnut case —Sue Grafton
Disappointed as a ghost without a house to haunt —Anon
Indigestible as Christmas dinner —Patricia Ferguson
Disappointed … as if he’d seen his favorite teacher drunk —Mary Gordon
I’ve a head like a concertina, I’ve a tongue like a button-stick, I’ve a mouth like an old potato —Rudyard Kipling Kipling’s triple simile to describe a hangover, continues as follows: “And I’m more than a little sick, but I’ve had my fun.”
Disappointing as discovering the charming man you met at a party is gay —Anon Disappointing, like signing up for a French gourmet cooking course and learning how to make French toast —Nina Totenberg, Public Radio Disappointment … had fallen upon him like a blow struck by some unseen hand —Sherwood Anderson
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Self-conscious as a stammer —Delmore Schwartz (Joel’s fingers are cold.) The apartment is like a football game in the rain —Margaret Atwood Uncomfortable as running a marathon in highheeled pumps —Anon
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Discontent
THE SIMILES
Uncomfortable as trying to sleep standing up —Elyse Sommer
Unhappy as a baseball player who can’t get to 3rd base —Anon
Uneasy as a dog in a vet’s waiting room —Anon
Unhappy as a character in a soap opera —Elyse Sommer
An uncomfortable feeling, like finding oneself in the same cell, and for the same crime, as a man one repudiated on every ground —John Fowles Nothing unsettles man like a bed of stinging nettles —W. S. Gilbert
< DISCORD See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT
< DISCOURAGEMENT See: DEJECTION
< DISCONTENT See Also: DEJECTION, GLOOM Disgruntled as an under-tipped taxi driver —Anon Dissatisfaction with himself had settled over him … as congruently as a second skin —François Camoin Discontent follows ambition like a shadow —Anon Discontent … had come over her like a blighting wind —George Eliot Discontent is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole fountain full of blackness —Owen Feltham Discontent like alum in the mouth —Wallace Stegner His whole wounded life choked him at the throat like a death agony —Émile Zola Looking as unhappy as an aging, wet and exhausted salesman whose luck had played out at last could possibly look —Howard Frank Mosher Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact —Bertrand Russell
< DISCRETION See: CAUTION, TACT
< DISCRIMINATION See: STYLE
< DISHONESTY See Also: BELIEVABILITY, CRIME, LIES AND LIARS All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar … always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support —Richard Whately As honest a man as any in the cards, when the kings are out —Thomas Fuller At length corruption, like a general flood … shall deluge all —Alexander Pope Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower —Marguerite Countess Blessington Corruption is like a ball of snow … once set-arolling it must increase —Charles Caleb Colton
Unhappiness inhabited me as if it were another person and it had the power to pull memories from me, as if from an open file —Scott Spencer
Crooked as a worm writhing on a hook —Herman Wouk The people who are likened to worms are characters from Wouk’s political novel, Inside, Outside.
Unhappiness … it is like climbing up a bare wall. It is like being shut up in a cellar all your life —Vicki Baum
(Pompous and braggadocian, he seemed to the children as flat and) false as his teeth —Ferrol Sams
Unhappiness burns like leaves —F. D. Reeve
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THE SIMILES Fickle and unfaithful, like false as water —William Shakespeare, Othello [I pray you, do not fall in love with me] For I am falser than vows made in wine —William Shakespeare, As You Like It Fraudulent as falsies —Helen Hudson He that builds his house with other men’s money is like one that gathers himself stones for the tomb of his burial —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha The word “builds” has been modernized from “buildeth” and “gathers” from “gathereth.” It is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent —Ralph Waldo Emerson Permit memory to paint it [a long-ago life style] falsely. Like the face of some old whore who could wish to be taken as young and innocent —George Garrett Plays you as fair as if he’d picked your pocket —John Ray’s Proverbs
Disintegration Fowles used this simile at one point to describe the eventual collapse of a political party and at another time to describe a mood. Some similes obviously transfer to different points of reference more easily than others. Broke like a sea-bubble on the sand —James Montgomery (Perhaps the hope will die stillborn,) broken up like wreckage by the tides of events —Lawrence Durrell Come apart like wet Kleenex —Anon (When I hit him he) comes apart like a perfect puzzle or an old flower —Philip Levine Comes apart like meat being carved —G. K. Chesterton (He started) coming apart like seedpod —Sharon Sheehe Stark Cracking and fading like an old photograph —George Garrett
Robbers are like rain, they fall on the just and the unjust —Josh Billings In Billings’ phonetic dialect the word “they” was “tha.”
Crumbled like crackers into alphabet soup —Dave Anderson, New York Times/Sports of the Times column, November 24, 1986 This comparison referred to disintegration of once great heavyweight champion division.
Sneaky as a rat in a hotel kitchen —William Alfred
Crumble like old cheese —Anon
There is something in corruption which, like a jaundiced eye, transfers the color of itself to the object it looks upon —Thomas Paine
(Their argument) crumbles like dry rice paper —Nicholas Proffitt
To rob a friend even of a penny is like taking his life —Johann B. Nappaha
Crumble like soda crackers —Dashiell Hammett
(The old voice) crumpled … like a fragile leaf —Lawrence Durrell Crumple … like a leaf in the fire —James Joyce
< DISILLUSIONMENT See: DISAPPOINTMENT
Crumple up like wet and falling roses —D. H. Lawrence
< DISINTEGRATION
(The house was) old and decayed like the pitted trunk of a persimmon —Yasunari Kawabata
See Also: DESTRUCTION (Shirley’s childless marriage had) become unstuck like a piece of old and grubby sticking plaster —Gillian Tindall Blown aside like thistledown —John Fowles
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Disintegrate like a bubble at a touch —Anon Disintegrate like a crumbling monument —Anon (Words came to my lips and) dissipated like the wisps of children’s breaths in the cold air outside —Kent Nelson
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Disintegration
THE SIMILES
Dissolved and grew flimsy like the world after champagne —Graham Swift
This has been used in poetry and every day language, since 200 B.C.E., and is still going strong.
[A committee] Dissolved like a summer cloud —Edith Wharton
Melts away like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dissolved like spit in the wind —Wallace Stevens Dissolve like vague promises —Elyse Sommer
(Your mind now) moldering like a wedding-cake —Adrienne Rich
(Floats on water) dissolving like a paper plate —Margaret Atwood
Rot and shred and peel away like old wallpaper —George Garrett
(The white sky) empties of its promise, like a cup —Sylvia Plath (The shadows under the trees and bushes) evaporated like puddles after a shower —Stephen King Evaporated like a drop of dew —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Evaporate … like hoar frost before the morning sun —William Somerset Maugham Maugham’s simile from The Summing Up refers to the way changing tastes affect perceptions of an artwork’s beauty. Fall apart and scatter like a smashed string of beads —Yaakov Churgin Falling into decay like a layer of mulch —Jean Thompson
[Resolutions] Thinned away like smoke, into nothingness —Aldous Huxley Rotted through like old shoe leather —Marge Piercy Rotting like autumn leaves —Marguerite Yourcenar Shredded away like leaf tobacco —Saul Bellow (The snake slides again and again until all passed is left behind to) shrivel like a ghost without substance —Daniela Gioseffi (The remembrance had been brought to mind so often that it was) tarnished and dull, like a trinket not worth looking at —Beryl Markham (Her muscles came) undone like ribbons —Sharon Sheehe Stark Wear out like a worn battery —Anon
(Furniture) falling to pieces like dry fruitcake —William H. Gass
This makes a good update for “Wears out like a run-down gramophone record.”
Goes up in smoke like so much tissue paper —Elizabeth Spencer
Went to pieces like a cheap umbrella in a gale —Anon This is updated from the original “Like a 50 cent umbrella,” which today would only be possible to obtain at a rummage sale.
Go sour [as a project] like milk abandoned in the far corner of the refrigerator —Marian Sturm Melt away like salt in water —Sholom Aleichem Melted away like a snail —Elizabeth Spencer
Will dissolve faster than an Alka-Seltzer under a waterfall —Barry Farber, WNYC radio, commenting on the endurance of communism
[Members of a social set] Melted away, like snow drops over a bonfire —Ayn Rand
Wither like the flower of the field —Miguel de Cervantes
Melted [in response to compliments] like butter on the Sahara —Tony Ardizzone
Withered like grass —The Holy Bible/Psalms
Melted like wax —The Holy Bible
Withers like the face of an aged woman —Beryl Markham
Melt away like Turkish delights —Frank O’Hara
(The day is) melting away like snow —Plautus
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Wither like a blighted tree —Barbara Howes
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THE SIMILES
< DISLOYALTY See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
< DISORDER
Dissension Scattered like dusts and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October seize them —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Scattered like foam along the wave —George Croly
See: ORDER/DISORDER
Scattered like foam on the torrent —Percy Bysshe Shelley
< DISPERSAL
Scattered like mown and withered grass —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Diffused charm around like an indispensable perfume —Jules Janin, about the woman who served as the role model for The Lady With the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, Fils (Consciousness) disperses itself like pollen on a spring day —Carlos Fuentes Dispersed like a broken family —Beryl Markham Disposed of like a branch or potato sack —Graham Swift
Scattered like rabbits to a gunshot —Lawrence Durrell Scattered like raindrops across a window —Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Spite, malice and jealousy) scattered like spent foam —Iris Murdoch Scatter like a bucket of water —Erich Maria Remarque
Like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; … the wind carried them away —The Holy Bible
Scatter like balls on a billiard table —Tom Shales, movie review, WNYC Morning Edition Public Radio March 20, 1987 In the movie Shales reviewed it was babies who were thus scattered about.
Scatter and divide like fleecy clouds self-multiplied —William Wordsworth
(The sparrows) scatter like handfuls of gravel —William H. Gass
Scattered as the seeds of wild grass —Beryl Markham
Scatter like mist before the wind —Kenzaburo Oe The descriptive reference point is a feeling of contentment.
Here and there like teeth in an old man’s mouth —Maxim Gorky
Scattered [audience across vacant seats in a theatre] as widely as out-fielders when the champion batter steps to the plate —O. Henry
Scatter like pigeons across grass —Anon
[Shadows of doubts and weaknesses] Scattered, like a cloud in morning’s breeze —John Greenleaf Whittier
Thrown away like used paper cups —Anon
(The rage that had been silent … fired and) scattered like bullets —Belva Plain Scattered (across the map of the Land) like carelessly dropped pennies —George Garrett
(His foes are) scattered like chirping sparrows —Stephen Vincent Benét
< DISPOSABILITY See: TRANSIENCE
< DISSATISFACTION
Scattered, like chaff in a high wind —Donald Seaman
See: DISCONTENT
Scatter like confetti —Derek Lambert An extension is “To scatter like confetti at a tickertape parade.”
< DISSENSION
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: AGREEMENT/DISAGREEMENT, ARGUMENT, FIGHTING
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Dissimilarity
THE SIMILES
< DISSIMILARITY
< DOCTORS
See: DIFFERENCES
See Also: PROFESSIONS As with eggs, there is no such thing as a poor doctor; doctors are either good or bad —Dr. Fuller Albright
< DISTANCE See: REMOTENESS
< DISTINCTIVENESS See: ORIGINALITY
< DIVERSENESS See Also: DIFFERENCES, PERSONAL TRAITS (We had come up to the farm for our four summer weeks, and Maine was all before us) as various and new as the flow of the heavy tides —Barry Targan As various as a Cook’s Tour —Delmore Schwartz As various as a duck-billed platypus —Jean Stafford Diverse as a smorgasbord table —Anon Diverse as weather, changeful as the wind —Robert Hillyer (She) had as many registers as a fine old organ —Vicki Baum He [Shakespeare] was as many-sided as clouds are many-formed —Robert G. Ingersoll Like a Russian doll nesting ever smaller dolls inside of it, I house an infinity of selves —Daphne Merkin
A breast or a foot is examined [by doctors lacking in empathy] like a pack of cigarettes —Hildegarde Knef, quoted in interview with Rex Reed Carrying his little black bag like a small sample cut from the shadow of death —Helen Hudson This observation from Hudson’s novel, Meyer Meyer, is made by the main character about his doctor/brother-in-law. Commonly physicians, like beer, are best when they are old; and lawyers, like bread, when they are young and new —Thomas Fuller A doctor knows the human body as a cabman knows the town; he is well acquainted with all the great thoroughfares and small turnings; he’s intimate with all the principle edifices, but he cannot tell you what is going inside of any one of them —Punch, 1856 The fame of a surgeon is like the fame of an actor; it exists only as long as they live, and their talent is no longer appreciable after they have disappeared —Honoré de Balzac Physicians are like kings —they brook no contradiction —John Webster
Multi-faceted like a crystal chandelier —Anon Varied as the expressions of the human face —George H. Ellwanger With this book as an example, one might add: “And as varied as the similes to describe those expressions.”
< DOGS
< DIVORCE
< DOUBT
See: MARRIAGE
See: TRUST/MISTRUST
< DOCILITY
< DREAM(S)
See: MEEKNESS
See Also: AMBITION, HOPE, SLEEP
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See: ANIMALS
< DOMINATION See: POWER
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Drinking
The arc of dreams is black and streaked with gray as dead hair is —John Logan
Nightmares have seasons like hurricanes —Lorrie Moore
Dreamed of unearned riches, like Aladdin —Phyllis McGinley
Old dreams still floated … like puddles of oil on the surface of a pail of water —Paige Mitchell
The dream … hovered about her still like a pleasant, warm fog —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Our dreams like clouds disperse —Alfred Noyes
A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read — Babylonian Talmud
You know a dream is like a river, ever changing as it flows —Garth Brooks, “The River”
Dream safely like any child who has said prayers and to whom a lullaby has been sung —George Garrett
< DRINKING
Dreams are like a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul —Erich Fromm Dreams are thoughts waiting to be thought —Jan de Hartog Dreams descend like cranes on gilded, forgetful wings —John Ashberry
Toss wishes like a coin —George Garrett
See Also: EATING AND DRINKING, FOOD AND DRINK Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. —Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep A case of beer lying at his feet like the family dog —Jonathan Valin Drank like a camel —Robert Graves
Dreams move my countenance as if it were earth being pelted by rain —Diane Wakoski
Drank like a fire engine —Ernest William Hornung
The dreams of idealists are like the sound of footsteps in a tornado —Melvin I. Cooperman, June 8,1987
Dreams rising from your eyes like steam —George Bradley
Drink like a fish —Anon There’s a whole laundry list of “Drink like” and “Drunk as” similes. Those linking drinking with fish predominate with “Drunk as a lord” and “Drunk as owls” or “Boiled owls” following close on the fishes’ fins. A nice twist by Mary Peterson Poole: “ It’s all right to drink like a fish, if you drink what a fish drinks.”
Dreams withered like flowers that are blighted by frost —Ellen Glasgow
(He could) drink like a suction-hose —Thomas Burke
Dreamy as puberty —Karl Shapiro
Drinks cognac like soda water —Isaac Bashevis Singer
Dreams pop out like old fillings in the teeth —Diane Wakoski
Fantasy is like jam: you have to spread it on a solid slice of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing, like jam, out of which you can’t make anything —Italo Calvino, television interview aired after his death in 1985 Kept it [private dream] locked in his heart and took it out only when he was alone, like a miser counting his gold —Margaret Millar Like a dog, he hunts in dreams —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Drunk as a cooter brown —Richard Ford Drunk as an autumn wasp —Jonathan Gash Drunk as a wheelbarrow —George Garrett Drunk as dancing pigs —James Crumley Drunk as puffed-up pigeons —Edward Hoagland Drunk like wedding guests —Charles Simic Feel the vodka melting into his bloodstream, like snow —Richard Lourie
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Drivers/Driving Got as tight as a fat lady’s girdle —Raymond Chandler, Goldfish Half as sober as a judge —Charles Lamb Lit up like a Christmas tree —Anon Similes using “Lit up” with a variety of references became part of the American language around 1902. Here are some offshoots of the above: “Lit up like a cathedral,” “Lit up like a church, “Lit up like Main Street,” “Lit up like a skyscraper,” and “Lit up like Times Square.”
THE SIMILES When drunk, his color sank to a clammy white from which it rose like a thermometer as he sobered up —Mary Ward Brown His head still felt like a sandbag full of maggots —Sterling Hayden Whiskey … went through me like a rope of fire —Louise Erdrich Whiskey … burned his stomach like hellfire —Paige Mitchell
Pissed as a skunk —Martin Cruz Smith
The spirit of the wine was rising like smoke to his head —George Garrett
Pissed as a newt —American colloquialism This means to be very drunk.
The bourbon was warm in her stomach … like a core of heat —Jayne Anne Phillips
Smell … like a tap-room —Anton Chekov Smells like a still —Cornell Woolrich
< DRIVERS/DRIVING See: VEHICLES
Some men are like musical glasses: to produce their finest tones you must keep them wet —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
< DRYNESS
Taught himself to drink as he would have taught himself Greek; like Greek it would be the gateway to a wealth of new sensations, new psychic states, new reactions in joy or misery —F. Scott Fitzgerald
(I’ll) drain him dry as hay —William Shakespeare, Macbeth
(I have been) tight as a tick —Tallulah Bankhead A hangover like a herd of elephants —Graham Masterton (He was) so knocked out with liquor that he vomited like a whale, urinated like a dog, exposed himself like a jackass, and wallowed in his muck like a pig —St. Kitts’ government newspaper The Democrat about leader of opposition, 1981 The stuff [liquor] was like insulin to a diabetic; he didn’t need much of it at a time, but if he needed little he needed it often —Howard Nemerov The simile describes the drinking habits of a character in Nemerov’s short story “Unbelievable Characters.” Woke up with his head like a big split millstone —John Dos Passos
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Arid as the sands of the Sahara —Joseph Conrad The everyday cliché is “Dry as the Sahara.”
Dries up like snakeskin —Kate Grenville (Her words were) dry as the rustle of old leaves —William Beechcroft Dry and cracking like the bindings on rare books —Diane Wakoski (His throat was) dry as a desert —Colin Forbes (Heart) dry as an autumn leaf —Nelson Algren (You’ll sweat until you’re as) dry as an old gourd —George Garrett Dry as ashes —Fisher Ames Variations of this much-used cliché include “Dry as dust” as well as frame-of-reference switches such as “White as ashes.” (His sensitive palate) as dry as a bread crust —W. S. Gilbert Dry as a spinster on a Saturday night —line from “St. Elsewhere” television drama, broadcast December 16, 1986
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THE SIMILES (I was) dry as a stick —Thomas Gray Gray used this in combination with two other similes: “I was dry as a stick, hard as a stone, and cold as a cucumber.” (Her voice was) dry as burned paper —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (My heart felt as) dry as dirt —Bernard Malamud, The Natural, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1952) (Their intellectuality is as) dry as dung that’s lain on a dusty road for weeks —Louis Adamic A shorter version seen in a poem by W. D. Snodgrass: “Parched as dung.” Dry as faded marigold —Stephen Vincent Benét Dry as last year’s crow’s nest —Anon Dry as poverty —John Ashberry Dry as wood ash —Marge Piercy [Feeling of teeth against lips] Dry as sandpaper —William Faulkner (Hair) dry as spun glass —Elizabeth Spencer (He was dry-looking, as) dry as talc —Marianne Wiggins Dry as the white dunes under sunlight —Marge Piercy Dry up faster than a pressed corsage —Reynolds Price Parched like an open mouth —Charles Simic
< DULLNESS
Dullness Bland as a Bloody Mary without Tabasco —Anon Bland as a martini without a twist of lemon —Anon Bland as hominy grits —Frederick Exley Blunt as ignorance —Samuel Rowley (The place seemed to be as …) dead as a Pharaoh —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye Dreary as an empty house —Gustave Flaubert Dreary as an old dishrag —Anon, capsule movie review in New York Times television listings Dreary as a Russian love story —William Diehl Dry as the Congressional Record —James J. Montague (Lies … ) dull and senseless as a stone —Elizabeth Barrett Browning Dull as a jail cell —Ira Wood (A day as) dull as a lead nickel —John (A brown macraméwall hanging) dull as dirt —Patricia Henley Dull as pig shit —Ethel Merman, about her friend Benay Venuta’s Jewish society friends Dull as brushing your teeth —Anon Dull as ditch-water —Charles Dickens An everyday expression modernized to “Dull as dishwater.” (When he is gone, the world will be) dull as Mars —Lorrie Moore
See Also: BOREDOM/BORING About as exciting as broccoli —Fred Barnes, “McLaughlin Group” television broadcast December 29, 1986
(The road north is … ) dull like a camel plodding through the desert —Anon
About as exciting as a ride on a stone camel —Anon
An eternal sameness, like a blank wall —Robert Silverberg
As much personality as a paper cup —Raymond Chandler about the city of Los Angeles In his essay “The Country Behind the Hill,“ critic Clive James explains that this was intended as a positive simile, reflecting Chandler’s fascination with the city’s seediness.
Flat and insipid as a pancake —Anatole France Anatole France loved proverbs, and so this extension of familiar wisdom.
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Dull … like a cookbook written by someone who doesn’t like food —Pat Conroy
[About an experience someone is relating] Flat as the telling at breakfast of an ecstatic dream —Stella Benson
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Dumbness Had the personality of a dried-out fart —Anon His Washington [D.C.] was like going to bed with a glass of warm milk and a woman in curlers —David Auburn, The Columnist
THE SIMILES (The people who surrounded him) seemed like white bread, inexcusably bland —Phillip Lopate
Interesting as watching paint dry —Dee Weber
Shadowy and uninteresting as an event in an outdated and long-unread novel —Gillian Tindall The frame of reference for the comparison is a brief, long-ago marriage.
Life as humdrum as that of a country curate —W. Somerset Maugham
There are some things so dull they hypnotize like the pendulum of a clock —Karl Shapiro
Life … devoid of incident as the longest of Trollope’s novels —O. Henry
Tiresome as virtue —Edith Wharton
Interesting as boiled potatoes —Anon Interesting as staring at a blank wall —Anon
Life here is as calm as a goldfish tank with one half-animate inmate: me —Julia O’Faolain Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale —William Shakespeare, King John Looked dreary, like a theater before anybody comes —Mark Twain
Too dull —no stir, no storm, no life about it … like being part dead and part alive, both at the same time —Mark Twain The condition thus described in Twain’s story, Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven is that of running a grocery store. Unconscious as a face of stone —H. W. Hudson
Looked like she had the IQ of a well-mannered houseplant —A. E. Maxwell
(His friends were as) uninteresting as the dead —Rumer Godden
Mind … slept and snored like a full dog by the fire —George Garrett
Void of life as a block of ice —Patricia Henley
Monotonous as a sailor’s chantey —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
< DUMBNESS
Monotonous like water dripping on sandstone —John MacDonald
See: STUPIDITY
< DUTY
My life is as flat as the table I write on —Gustave Flaubert
See: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY
A new idea made its way into her mind with much difficulty, as if it had to traverse the meshes of a choked sieve —Stefan Zweig
< EAGERNESS
Numb as a potato —Daniel Asa Rose
< EARS
Obtuse as an ocelot —Gregory McDonald
See: FACIAL DETAILS
Personality like a cup of yogurt —Pat Conroy Persons without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within —Honoré de Balzac Seemed dull … as simple as a three-headed treasure-guarding troll —Anon
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See: ENTHUSIASM
< EARTH See: NATURE
< EASE (I meet men in the city as) as easily as a finger stuck in water comes up wet —Marge Piercy
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THE SIMILES As easily as a hot knife cuts through butter —Ben Ames Williams In Williams’ novel Leave Her to Heaven the simile describes the ease with which floodwaters penetrate a barrier. The simile has also cropped up in every day language to show something slipping by or through easily —as a legal decision past a judge. [About the availability of a woman] As hard to get as a hair cut —Raymond Chandler (Returned to normality) as smoothly as a ski jumper landing —John Braine Did so without effort or exertion, like a chess champion playing a routine game —Natascha Wodin Easy as a smile —Anon Easy as a snake crawling over a stick —Joseph Conrad Easy as breathing in and breathing out —Louise Erdrich Easy as climbing a fallen tree —Danish proverb Easy as drawing a child’s first tooth —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Easy as falling out of a canoe —Anon Easy as finding fault in someone else —Anon Easy as it is for a cat to have twins —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Easy as opening a letter —Anon Easy as peeling the skin off a banana —Anon Easy as pie —Anon Easy as pointing a finger —Slogan used by Colt Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co. Easy as pouring a glass of water —Anon Easy as riding down a smoothly paved road —Anon Easy as rolling off a log —Mark Twain Easy as running up charge account bills —Anon Easy as scrambling an egg —Anon Easy as shooting down a fish in a barrel —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Eating and Drinking Easy as spitting —Anton T. Chekhov Easy as stealing pennies from a blind man’s can —Donald Seaman And that's as easy as to set dogs on sheep —William Shakespeare, Coriolanus Easy as turning on the TV set —Anon Easy as turning the page in a book —Anon Easy … like sliding into sin —Harry Prince An easy thing to do, light and easy like falling in a dream —George Garrett Go through … like so much dishwater —McKinlay Kantor Stepped into his position as easily as a pair of trousers —Anon Stepped into manhood, as one steps over a doorsill —Mark Twain Went in … as easily as paper into a vacuum cleaner —Derek Lambert Would happen as the turning of a light bulb on or off —John McGahern
< EASE, OPPOSITE MEANING See: DIFFICULTY
< EATING AND DRINKING See Also: FOOD AND DRINK, MANNERS Ate as if there were a hidden thing inside him, a creature of all jaws with an infinite trailing ribbon of gut —T. Coraghessan Boyle Ate like a cart-horse —H.E. Bates Ate like a famished wolf —Louisa May Alcott Ate like a trucker —Jonathan Kellerman Ate silently like two starving peasants —James Crumley Ate slowly, thoughtfully, as if fixing the taste of each spoonful in her mind —Paule Marshall Bit off an end of it [a candy bar], like a man biting off a chaw from a plug —Peter De Vries
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Economics
THE SIMILES
The bread slices collapsed like movie-set walls beneath her bite —Tom Robbins
Swallowed it [a small sandwich] like a communion waver —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Chewed …, in odd little spasms, as if seeking a tooth that wouldn’t hurt —Paul Horgan
< ECONOMICS
Chews his granola like a Clydesdale —Ira Wood Chomping popcorn [in a movie theatre] like their upper teeth are mad at their lower —Tonita S. Gardner Diets, like clothes, should be tailored to you —Joan Rivers Down poured the wine like oil on a blazing fire —Charles Dickens Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper —Anon Eating [voraciously] … like a blowfly on a shit pile —Steve Heller Eating like three men —Louis Adamic Eating quickly and silently, like a bunch of taxi drivers eager to get back to the job —Daphne Merkin Eating quickly and abstractedly, like a man whose habits of life have made food less an indulgence than a necessity —Elizabeth Bowen Eat like wolves —William Shakespeare, Henry V Eats like a well man, and drinks like a sick —Benjamin Franklin Gulped the tea and felt it like sleep in her body —Frank Tuohy He’s like a camel as far as serious liquid refreshment is concerned —Iris Murdoch
Balancing the budget is a little like protecting your virtue —you just have to learn to say no —Ronald Reagan Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor —Karl Marx The Dow-Jones is floating up like a hot-air balloon —François Camoin Economics is like being lost in the woods. How can you tell where you are going when you don’t even know where you are? —Anon Feeding more tax dollars to government is like feeding a stray pup. It just follows you home and sits on your doorstep asking for more —Ronald Reagan Financial statements are like a bikini. What they reveal is interesting; what they conceal is vital —William W. Priest Jr., Managing Director BEA Associates, Wall Street Week television program, January 9, 1987 Forecasting economic averages is like assuring the non-swimmer that he can safely walk across the river because its average depth is only four feet —Milton Friedman Inflation, like DC-10s, and Three Mile Islands, and Cold Wars is bad for your mental health —Ellen Goodman
Mouth moving as rapidly as the treadle on Granny’s sewing machine —William H. Gass
It [the economy] looks more resistant to shoves and shocks than it once was. Like a clown on a roly-poly base, it swings back and forth but does not topple over —Leonard Silk, New York Times/Economic Scene, September 17, 1986
Nibble … in quick little bites like a squirrel with a nut —George Garrett
A little inflation is like a little pregnancy —it keeps on growing —Leo Henderson
Sip [a drink] … as though he tasted martinis for a living —Sue Grafton
A recession is like an unfortunate love affair. It’s a lot easier to talk your way in than it is to talk your way out —Bill Vaughan, Reader’s Digest, July, 1958
Lap up the gravy just like pigs in a trough —Lewis Carroll
(He had) stuffed as full as an egg —Anon English ballad, “The Cork”
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THE SIMILES Right now being an arbitrager is kind of like being a fire hydrant at a dog show —you sure get a lot of attention —Anon arbitrager quoted in Wall Street Journal, 1987 The fire hydrants comparison was made in connection with the image problems resulting from arbitrage scandals. Signs of reviving inflation are as abundant as are skeptics who read each rise in inflationary barometers as an aberration —John C. Borland, New York Times, September 28, 1986 The stock market climbed like the horses of Apollo —Hortense Calisher Takeovers on a scale that would make nineteenthcentury pirates look like croquet players —Harry A. Jacobs (senior director of Prudential-Bache Securities), commenting on increase in company takeovers and other economic ills, as quoted in Leonard Silk’s column, New York Times, February 4, 1987 Tax loopholes are like parking spaces, they all seem to disappear by the time you get there —Joey Adams To some economists, inflation is like those trick birthday candles, the ones that are impossible to blow out —Joel Popkin, New York Times, August 17, 1986 Turning national economic policy around is like turning the Queen Mary around in a bathtub —E. Gerald Corrigan, chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at Japan Society Dinner, New York Times, April 17, 1987 The wife economy [wherein husbands assume full economic responsibility for wives] is as obsolete as the slave economy —Elizabeth Hardwick
< EDUCATION See Also: KNOWLEDGE Alumni are like the wake of a ship; they spread out and ultimately disappear, but not until they have made a few waves —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Education Colleges are like old-age homes; except for the fact that more people die in colleges —Bob Dylan Education begins, like charity, at home —Susan Ferraro, New York Times, March 26, 1987 The charity comparison has been effectively linked with other subjects. Education, like neurosis, begins at home —Milton R. Sapirstein Education, like politics, is a rough affair, and every instructor has to shut his eyes and hold his tongue as though he were a priest —Henry Adams Getting educated is like getting measles; you have to go where the measles is —Abraham Flexner He was like an empty bucket waiting to be filled [with knowledge] —William Diehl He who teaches a child is like one who writes on paper; but he who teaches old people is like one who writes on blotted paper —The Talmud Human beings, like plants, can be twisted into strange shapes if their training begins early enough and is vigilantly supervised. They will accept their deformation as the natural state of affairs and even take pride in it, as Chinese women once did in their crippled feet —Milton R. Sapirstein Sapirstein, a psychologist, used this simile to introduce a discussion of the educational impulse and its relationship to the educational process. If it [learning] lights upon the mind that is dull and heavy, like a crude and undigested mass it makes it duller and heaver, and chokes it up —Michel De Montaigne Learning in old age is like writing on sand; learning in youth is like engraving on stone —Solomon Ibn Gabirol Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back —Chinese proverb Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use —William Shenstone
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Eeriness Learning without thought is labor lost —Confucius Many a scholar is like a cashier: he has the key to much money, but the money is not his —Ludwig Boerne Modern education is a contradiction. It’s like a three-year-old kid with a computer in his hand who can multiply 10.6 per cent interest of $11,653, but doesn’t know if a dime is larger or smaller than a nickel —Erma Bombeck
THE SIMILES Teaching a fool is like gluing together a postherd [pottery fragment] —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha Their learning is like bread in a besieged town; every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal —Samuel Johnson Johnson’s simile referred to his view of Scottish education. To study and forget is like bearing children and burying them —The Talmud
The need of a teacher to believe now and again that she fosters genius is like the writer’s need to believe that he is one —Lael Wertenbaker
To transmit wisdom to the unworthy is like throwing pearls before swine —Moses Ibn Ezra
Rolling on like a great growing snowball through the vast field of medical knowledge —William James, writing to Dr. Henry P. Bowditch
Your education, like … carrots, is not a manufactured article, but just a seed which has grown up largely under nature’s friendly influence —William J. Long
A scholar is like a book written in a dead language: it is not everyone that can read in it —William Hazlitt
< EERINESS
A scholar should be like a leather bottle, which admits no wind; like a deep garden bed, which retains its moisture; like a pitch-coated vessel, which preserves its wine; and like sponge, which absorbs everything —The Talmud
See: STRANGENESS
Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run —Mark Twain
< EFFECTIVENESS
Students are like acorns and oaks, there’s a lot more bark to the oak and a lot more nuttiness in the acorn —Anon
< EFFECT See: CAUSE AND EFFECT
See: ABILITY, CAUSE AND EFFECT, SUCCESS/FAILURE, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
< EFFORTLESSNESS
Study is like the heaven’s glorious sun —William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour Lost
See: EASE
Take it a in like blotting paper —Mavis Gallant
< EGO
The teacher is like the candle which lights others in consuming itself —Giovanni Ruffini
See Also: VANITY She feeds his ego like a goose destined for pâté, —Maureen Dowd “The Great Man’s Wife” New York Times, February 2, 2012 on presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s third wife, Calista.
Teachers, like actors must drug themselves, to be at their best —Delmore Schwartz Teaching a class was in a way like making love. Sometimes he did it with great enthusiasm … sometimes he did it because it was expected of him, and he forced himself to go through the motions —Dan Wakefield
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< ELASTICITY See: FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY
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THE SIMILES
< ELATION See: JOY
< ELEGANCE See: CLOTHING, STYLE
< ELOQUENCE See: PERSUASIVENESS, SPEECH MAKING
< ELUSIVENESS See Also: DIFFICULTY As elusive as a dream —Simon Mawer, The Glass Room As slippery as an eel —Dutch proverb This has seeded numerous variations such as “Slippery as an eel dipped in butter”by F. van Wyck Mason (Love is) as slippery as greased pigskin —Delmore Schwartz Avoided [another person] like a vampire avoids sunburn —Joseph Wambaugh (He was) difficult as a serpent to see —D. H. Lawrence The elusive creature being described is a fox sliding along in deep grass. (The feeling persisted, insidious and) difficult to trace as perfume —Harvey Swados Elusive as a collar button —Jim Murray Murray, sports columnist for the Los Angeles Herald, applied this simile to football player Mike Garrett. Elusive as a dream —William Diehl “Fugitive as dreams” used by Tom MacIntyre in a short story, “Epithalamion,” illustrates the possibility for change through word substitutions. Elusive as a wet fish —Anon
Elusiveness Elusiveness, like a thought that presents itself to consciousness and vanishes before it can be captured by words —W. Somerset Maugham Evaded me, much like the myth of Tantalus —Marguerite Young Evasion, like equivocation, comes generally from a cowardly or a deceiving spirit, or from both —Honoré de Balzac Hard to hold as a flapping sail in a raging wind —Gerald Kersh The hold to which Kersh alludes is the grip of one wrestler on another in the story entitled “Ali the Terrible Turk.” Intangible as a beautiful thought —W. Somerset Maugham Intangible as love and fear —Andre Dubus (A vision swarming through the mind as sudden and) irretrievable as smoke —William Styron It [information] got away from me so easily, like the tail of a kite, when the kite’s already out of your hands —Cornell Woolrich It [trying to tie up a boxing opponent] was just like trying to hold on to a buzz-saw —Ernest Hemingway Like fish in an aquarium, they [two girls] flashed in and out of sight —Frank Tuohy Like sand from a clenched fist, he was slipping through her fingers —Ben Ames Williams (She was so marvelous that, when he tried to think of her, her description) rolled away from him like a dropped coin —Mark Helprin (She) seemed like a shadow within a shadow —D. H. Lawrence Lawrence is describing one of the two main female characters in The Fox, a woman the male character wants but can’t seem to understand.
Elusive as buried treasure —Anon
She was like a rubber ball; he couldn’t get a grip —Beryl Bainbridge
Elusive as the cure for cancer —Anon
Slipped by like a mouse —Anton Chekov
Elusive as the cure for aging —Anon
[Something said] slipped out of me like a cork from the deep —Reynolds Price
Elusive as the source of a rumor —Anon
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Embarrassment Slipped through [guards] like a fox through a barnyard —Clive Cussler Slippery as shadows in day’s foam —Delmore Schwartz They might as well be looking for a shoe in a swamp —Clive Cussler
< EMBARRASSMENT
THE SIMILES Her long thin arms came up to wind about him and inexorably, like tight thin wires, to hold him down —H. E. Bates His arm around her felt as if she’d been born with it there —William McIlvanney His arms are like a cradle in which she is warm and safe —Alvin Boretz, television program, 1986
See: SHAME, SHYNESS
Hold hands like teenagers, fingers meshed like the teeth of rusty gears —Ira Wood
< EMBRACE
Lay locked like human vines —Charles Bukowski
See Also: KISSES; MEN AND WOMEN; PEOPLE, INTERACTION; SEXUAL INTERACTION Almost completely covered by MaButhelezi’s big arms, like a blanket of flesh —Njabulo Ndebele
Let our arms clasp like Ivy —John Donne
Clasped each other like a pair of abandoned children —Natascha Wodin Clinch like lovers at the final fade out —George Garrett Curled up together like a pair of old dogs —Jean Thompson Drawing her toward him he held her and squeezed her out like a bit of old washing —Edna O’Brien Drew her to him, crushing her like a pale flower to his breast —Peter De Vries Drew the child to her as if she were a springing young tree —Elizabeth Taylor Embraced Himiko [name of a character] like a bear hugging an enemy —Kenzaburo Oe Embraced him like a hot wet towel —William H. Hallhan Embraced like bears —Madison Smartt Bell Embrace like pen pals —Ira Wood Embraces are keen like pain —Algernon Charles Swinburne Her embrace was clumsy like a bad dancer’s —John Braine
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Locked in a profound embrace … like Ahab and the whale —A.R. Guerney Jr. Guerney’s simile refers to the guests in his play “The Perfect Party.” Marg’s long tanned body entwined Fencer’s like a constricting serpent —Robert Stone Pressed herself upon me like someone pressing upon a bruise —Lawrence Durrell She vibrated in his arms like a tuning fork —Andrew Kaplan Snuggled up together like spoons in bed —Phyllis Naylor They’d lie together, like a four-armed creature fearful of amputation —Julia O’Faolain Was so huge and soft it was like embracing a cloud and sinking down —Lee Smith
< EMINENCE See: FAME
< EMOTIONS See Also: ANXIETY, CHEERFULNESS, DEJECTION, ENVY, GLOOM, GREIF, HAPPINESS, HATE, LONELINESS, LOVE, SADNESS, TENSION, WEARINESS Compulsion is a mirror in which he who looks for long will see his inner self endeavoring to commit suicide —Khalil Gibran
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THE SIMILES Emotional antagonisms that lay in us like surly dogs at the end of a chain, ready to leap up and growl at a step —Wallace Stegner Emotional … like a third-rate opera singer —Fred Mustard Steward Emotions buzzed and throbbed … like a pent-up bee —Elizabeth Bowen Emotions got cut off … like a broken string of beads —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Emotions Feel mushy and wet, like a pile of leaves after they have been rained on —Daphne Merkin Feels herself curling up like a jaundiced leaf —Alice Munro Feel the magic building like a gathering storm —W. P. Kinsella Felt as small and vulnerable as a calf on its first day of life —Linda West Eckhardt
Emotions … swarm in my head like a hive of puzzled bees —Gertrude Atherton
Felt crazy, stupid, as though, having believed a burglar was rummaging through the house, I had found only the family cat —Kent Nelson
(I would like my) emotions to be appropriate. This … may be measuring them like potatoes, but it is better than slopping them about like water from a pail —E. M. Forster
Felt … inadequate, as if I were a new understudy taking on a role that had been played before, and much more effectively —Alice McDermott
Emotion akin to a physical blow —Henrietta Weigel
Felt like a lifeline thrown out to someone —Mike Feder, New York Times September 7, 1986 Feder, a café storyteller, thus explained how he began his career by telling stories about his day’s experiences to his housebound mother.
Fear and anger boiled up in my head like liquid air —Ross Macdonald Feeling full of wonder and illusion —like a Columbus or a pilgrim seeing the continent of his dreams take shape in the dusk for the first time —Richard Ford The feelings thus described are experienced as a plane comes in for a landing.
Felt like a man in a Rembrandt, tinged brown with sorrow and wisdom —Laurie Colwin Felt like a man reprieved from the gallows —Wilfrid Sheed
Feelings bubbled in him like water from an underground spring —Paige Mitchell
Felt like a man who had had a tooth out that had been hurting him for a long time —Leo Tolstoy
Feelings … call, like a buzzing of flies in autumn air —Wallace Stevens
Felt like an emotional invalid, like a balloon without the helium —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Feelings cross our flesh along nets of nerves, like a pattern of lightning flashes —Marguerite Yourcenar
(After my husband died I) felt like one of those spiraled shells washed up on the beach … no flesh, no life —Lynn Caine
Feelings here slice right through like speed skates —Jill Robinson Robinson thus described the work of poet Amy Rothholz, building on her simile with, “Racing by with fierce, original passion.” The poet’s publisher extracted the simile from Robinson’s review to feature in an ad for the book.
Felt shut off like a turtle inside her skin —Laura Furman
Feelings … jumbled together like raveled wool —Frank Swinnerton
Guilty and elated, as though I’d successfully committed a small theft —Christopher Isherwood
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Felt worry and joy flinging her about like a snowflake —Mary Hedin A foul feeling, like looking over the edge of the world —Jean Rhys
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Emotions Half smiles, half tears, like rain in sun —John Greenleaf Whittier Heart expanded like bellows —Laurie Colwin His senses nagged at him like pampered babies —Stephen Crane Inhibitions gave way like an earth dam collapsing in front of a winter flood —Graham Masterson Isolation, frustration and sometimes fear run like a leitmotif through our lives —Philip Taubman, New York Times Magazine, September 21, 1986 It [his emotion for a woman] struck him like sickness —W. E. Bates Love and emptiness in us are like the sea’s ebb and flow —Kahil Gibran My emotions flowered in me like a divine revelation —André Gide My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels —The Holy Bible/Psalms
THE SIMILES Relieved [after things have been put right] … like they lifted a concrete block out of my belly —John Updike Rolled in self-pity and self-hatred like a hot sulfur spring —Marge Piercy Self-hatred living in him like a sick dog in a cellar —Bernard Malamud Sensations gave like snowslides in him —Larry Woiwode Sensations … whirling about him like snow flakes —Willa Cather (My feelings) snapped like a glass pipette —Diane Wakoski Stirred an emotion … like the birth of a butterfly within a cocoon —Adela Rogers St. John Sudden relief, like a rush of tears, came to her —Nadine Gordimer (Their hearts were open and) sweet sensations flowed in them like honey —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Old feelings gather fast upon me like vultures round their prey —Emily Brontë
Temperament, like liberty, is important despite how many crimes are committed in its name —Louis Kronenberger
Our feelings have edges and spines and prickles like cactus, or porcupines —Laurie Colwin Colwin is likening the cactus/porcupine edges and spines to the feelings of two lovers.
Temper like a bed of banked coals waiting to be fired into roaring flame by a spill of brandy —Davis Grubb
Our feelings penetrate us like a poison of undetectable nature —Anais Nin Pride and anger seemed like overblown spent clouds of thunder —John Greenleaf Whittier Profound feelings … swept through and racked his being like gusts of fire —George Garrett (A feeling of) relief circles us like a spring breeze —Richard Ford Relief courses through me like cool water —Marge Piercy Relief had come in like a warm and welcome flood —Carlos Baker
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They [true feelings] gathered around me like a mist, whose shape can be seen as it approaches, but not when it is on you —L. P. Hartley Too moved to even applaud … as if the air had been sucked out of the room —Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times September 7, 1986 The performer who thus moved his audience was a café storyteller. Treats his emotions … as vermin to be crushed in traps or poisoned with bait —Marge Piercy Truth and jealousy, like a team of plow horses, came crashing into the fragile barn of his illusions —Louis Auchincloss
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THE SIMILES
Emptiness
A vague uneasy stirring plagued her like some mental indigestion —Josephine Tey
Desolate as a summer resort in midwinter —Richard Harding Davis
A warm feeling like cocoa on a cold night —Jean Stafford
Emptied like a cup of coffee —John Ashberry
Wore his confidence like a tailored suit —Donald McCaig Wore sorrow and anger like a worn-out coat and would not throw it away —Belva Plain The young soldier’s heart was … like fire in his chest —D. H. Lawrence
< EMPTINESS See Also: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS (I was) as hollow and empty as the spaces between the stars —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
The emptiness inside was like an explosion —Eleanor Clark Emptiness so vast it yawned like the pit of hell —George Garrett The emptiness was intense, like the stillness in a great factory when the machinery stops running —Willa Cather Empty-armed, empty-handed as a lone winter tree —George Garrett Empty as a barn before harvest —Erich Maria Remarque Empty as a broken bowl —George Garrett Empty as a canyon —Elizabeth Spencer
Barren as a fistful of rock —A. E. Maxwell
Empty as a church on Monday morning —Anon
Barren as an iceberg of vegetation —Anon
Empty as a diary without entries —Anon
Barren as crime —Algernon Charles Swinburne
Empty as a dry shell on the beach —Daphne du Maurier
Barren as death —John Ruskin William Blake voiced the same thought, using “void” instead of “barren.”
Empty as an air balloon —Thomas G. Fessendon Empty as an egg basket —Eudora Welty
Barren as routine —G.K. Chesterton
Empty as an office building at night —Anon
Blank and bare and still as a polar wasteland —George Garrett
(He was empty … ) empty as an old bottle —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Blank as a sheet —Reynolds Price
Empty as a person without a past, only present —Anon
Blank as a vandalized clock —Lorrie Moore Blank as death —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(Lonely afternoons, days, evenings) empty as a rusty coffee can —Diane Wakoski
Blank as the eyeballs of the dead —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Empty as a waiting tomb —Louis Bromfield
Blank as the sun after the birth of night —Percy Bysshe Shelley Clean as the sheets in a convent —Rick Elice, Peter and the Starcatcher The play’s villainous Stache’s declaration at finding that the treasure chest he’s been after is empty. Deserted as a park bench after a snowstorm —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Empty as death’s head —Daniel Berrigan (Eyes) empty as knot holes in a fence —Etheridge Knight (The campus is as) empty as space —Babs H. Deal Empty as the beach after a snowstorm —Anon (The shuttle after morning rush hour is near) empty, like a littered beach after tourists have all gone home —Thomas Pynchon
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Endurance
THE SIMILES
Faceless as a masked bandit —Anon
< ENEMY
Feel as dead and empty as a skeleton on a desert —Robert Traver
See: ADVERSARY
Feel as empty as a pop bottle in the street —Marge Piercy
< ENERGY
A feeling of emptiness, as if I had cut an artery in my wrist and all the blood had drained out —Aharon Megged
See Also: ACTIVENESS, BUSYNESS, ENTHUSIASM Adrenaline bubbling in my veins like grease in a deep fryer —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Flat and empty as the palm of his hand —Helen Hudson In Hudson’s novel, Criminal Trespass, the comparison’s frame of reference is a flat and empty field.
Adrenaline flooded through me like water through a storm drain —Sue Grafton
(The street below was) hollow as a bone —Peter Matthiessen
A hollow feeling inside, big as a watermelon —Jay Parini
As brisk as a bee in a tar-pot —Thomas Fuller The condensed version of this, “Brisk as a bee,” can be traced back to Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson, where it was used to describe someone’s conversational style. A variation (Also from Fuller’s collection of aphorisms) is “As brisk as a body louse.”
I’m empty … like a sand bag —Tina Howe
Bracing as an Alpine breeze —Israel Zangwill
It’s like stepping into a church in midweek: Space abounding and no one to fill it —Helen MacInnes
(Suddenly this Spring he’s) bursting with energy, like the daffodils on the White House lawn —James Reston about Ronald Reagan New York Times
Hollow as a politician’s head —Charles Johnson Hollow as skeleton eyes —Lorrie Moore
Look as hollow as a ghost —William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John People, like houses, may be taken over by spirits and inhabited by ghosts when they feel they are deserted and empty —Gerald Kersh
Adrenalin flowing like electricity —W. P. Kinsella Alger-like energy —Hortense Calisher
The collective enthusiasm works like a dose of Viagra —Francine Prose, A Changed Man Electricity dripping from me like cream —Diane Wakoski
So empty you could fire a canon and not hit anybody —Anon
Energetic and tireless … like a shouting insect, some kind of queen aunt —J. B. Priestly
Sterile as a mule —James Morrow
Energetic … an explosion of vitality, rather like a teapot set not to boil over but to bubble and steam —Charles Johnson
Sterile as a stone —Cynthia Ozick Void as death —William Blake The weight of his emptiness dragged like a dead dog chained around his neck —Bernard Malamud
< ENDURANCE See: CONTINUITY, PERMANENCE
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(Feeling as) energetic as a licensed jester —Clarence Major Energy burned off him like a light —Pat Conroy (Quick incisive) energy like quicksilver in the veins —Joan Chase Energy … like the biblical grain of mustard-seed, will remove mountains —Hosea Ballou
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THE SIMILES Energy sings like a tea kettle —Marge Piercy Energy … thin and sharp like gravy —Diane Wakoski Full of pep as an electric fan —Anon (Little Billie was full of piss and vinegar and) full of sap as a maple tree —Robert Penn Warren In Warren’s long poem “The Ballad of Billie Potts” the maple tree comparison is followed by another simile: “And full of tricks as a lop-eared pup.” Full of vitality … like a lighted candle —Rachel Ingalls
Enthusiasm Vitality … like a hot flame that burnt him with an unendurable fury —W. Somerset Maugham (She had a) vitality that warmed you like a blazing fire —W. Somerset Maugham Warm with life as the waters of a tropic sea —Beryl Markham We were blazing through our lives like comets through the sky —William Finn, “When the Earth Stopped Turning,” Elegies: A Song Cycle
< ENJOYMENT See: PLEASURE
Had a brisk air of bristle, like a terrier bitch —Angela Carter
< ENTHUSIASM
He’s like 220 pounds worth of Duracell batteries —Mike Jameson, commenting on the untiring energy of boxer Mike Tyson, quoted in Newsday column by Paul Ballot, December 27, 1968
As full of spirit as the month of May —William Shakespeare, Henry IV
Hum with unspent power, like a machine left to run —Mary Gordon (He is) just like a blob of mercury —Alice James writing from Europe about her brother William to her father and her brother Henry in America, 1889 Like an old volcano, which has pretty nearly used up its fire and brimstone, but is still boiling and bubbling —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
See Also: ENERGY, EXCITEMENT (Parisians) applaud like pugilists —Janet Flanner
Drinking in every conceivable impression and experience like wine —George Garrett Eager as a deb waiting for the grand march —John MacDonald Eager as a horse player waiting for the 6th race —John MacDonald Eager as a hostess forcing leftovers on departing guests —Ira Wood Eager as a leashed terrier quivering to meet every challenge —Hallie Burnett
Like the grass and trees and other growing things, they were quivering and glistening with vitality —Dorothy Canfield
(Looked as) eager as a morning hawk —Carlos Baker
Refreshing, like rain at the end of a muggy day —Jay McInerney
Eager as a sprinter at the starting gate —Donald McCaig
Rings with vitality, like ax-strokes on oak —Dorothy Canfield
Eager as bears for honey —David R. Slavitt
Sparks and twinkles like a jarred lightning bug —Sharon Sheehe Stark The comparison refers to a lively four-year old girl in a story entitled The Johnstown Polka. Vigorous as a run-over cat —Marge Piercy
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Eager as an understudy —Louis Monta Bell
Eager [to buy] … like a starving man at a banquet —Aaron Goldberg Enthusiasm flows from X like light from a bulb —Anon Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation —Kahil Gibran
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Entrances and Exits
THE SIMILES
(About as) enthusiastic as a guy going to the chair —H. C. Witwer
Zeal without knowledge is like a fire without light —John Ray’s Proverbs
Enthusiastic as a sommelier rhapsodizing about wine —Amal Kumar Naj, Wall Street Journal November 25, 1986 Naj used the sommelier simile in an article about chili to describe the enthusiasm of a man who grows chilies as a pastime.
Zeal without knowledge is like fire without a grate to contain it; like a sword without a hilt to wield it by; like a high-bred horse without a bridle to guide him —Julius Bate
Fervor, whipping around … like the flags in the stiff breeze —Sumner Locke Elliott Follow [theatre’s artistic steps] with the joy of a Mets fan checking the morning box scores —Jack Viertel, New York Times, June 1, l986 Hearty as a friendly handshake —Anon Hearty … like a trombone thoroughly impregnated with cheerful views of life —Charles Reade Like a racehorse in the gate; I was mad to go —Irving Feldman Loved anatomy … as a mother her child —Dr. David W. Cheever The anatomy enthusiast described by Dr. Cheever is Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark —John Newton
< ENTRANCES AND EXITS See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DEATH, EXITS (A large man in white) appeared like a cuckoo out of a clock —Madison Smartt Bell (Children don’t) appear and disappear like toadstools in a lawn —Miles Gibson Barged in … like a Rugby forward —Frank Swinnerton Blew in like a boisterous breeze —Cole Porter, a song from “You’ve Got That Thing,” lyrics for 1929 musical Fifty Million Frenchmen Came and went, like bees after honey —Wright Morris
Stand like greyhounds in the slips straining upon the start —William Shakespeare, Henry V
Came as silent as the dew comes —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Talked about it [business prospects] the way a man dying of thirst might talk about a cold beer —Mike Fredman
Came in like a swan swimming its way —Virginia Woolf
With the avidity and determination of a housewife at a Macy’s white sale —T. Coraghessan Boyle With the fervor of castaways grasping at a smudge of smoke on the horizon —Ellery Queen Zeal without humanity is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment —Owen Feltenham
Came like swallows and like swallows went —W. B. Yeats Came like water —Edward Fitzgerald Comes and goes, like hearts —Elizabeth Bishop Coming in like a kite on a string —Clive Cussler In his novel Cyclops, Cussler used the simile to describe the entrance of a vessel.
Zeal without judgment is like gunpowder in the hands of a child —Ben Jonson
Entered like a wind —Ruth Suckow For added emphasis there’s “Come in like a high wind” as used by Aharon Megged in his novel, Living on the Dead.
Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse —W. G. Benham
Enter … tiptoeing like somebody trying to sneak in late to a funeral —George Garrett
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THE SIMILES Flitted in and out of the house like birds —Anne Tyler Hopped in, light as a bird —Harvey Swados Light upon the scene like a new-made butterfly —George Garrett
Entrapment About as much chance of escape as a log that is being drawn slowly toward a buzz saw —Arthur Train Captured like water in oil —John Updike
Like hoodlums come … with neither permits nor requests —Carl Sandburg
Caught in [as a war] like meat in a sandwich —Robert MacNeil, Public Television broadcast, December 1986
Like Santa Claus he came and went mysteriously —Frank O’Connor
Caught like a forest in a blazing fire —Delmore Schwartz
Materialize [to observe] … like a policeman presiding over an accident —Wilfrid Sheed
(What wouldn’t I give to see old Cy Lambert) caught like a monkey with his fist in the bottle —Louis Auchincloss
Plunged into it like a rabbit into its hole —Ben Ames Williams Popped up here and there like bubbles in a copperful of washing —Frank Swinnerton Rolling through the front door like a drunken bear —James Crumley
(The feeling came over her that she was) caught like a mouse in the trap of life —Ellen Glasgow (I went to the war; got) clapped down like a bedbug —Clifford Odets
Rushed into the room like a cannon-ball —Romain Gary
[Group of people] Closed in upon her, like dogs on a fox —Jean Stafford
Rush in like a gust of wind —Anon
[Four walls of room] Close in upon you like the sides of a coffin —O. Henry
Slinking in like a little ailing cat —Jean Stafford Slipped in like a cat or the wind —John J. Clayton Strode in like a conquering prince returning to his lands —Alice Walker Sweep in here like Zeus from Olympus, with his attendant nymphs and swains [main character and doctor] —Brian Clark
[Party with many people] Engulfed him like an avalanche —Robert Silverberg Feel like … a shabby blackbird baked alive in a piecrust —George Garrett Felt like a muskrat trapped in a weir —Sterling Hayden Felt like a worm on a hook —Shelby Hearon
Swept vivaciously in … like a champion iceskater —Frank Swinnerton
Gripped him like an empty belly —Cutcliffe Hyne
Was into the living-room … and out again with such speed that she might have been one of the mechanical weather-people in a child’s snow-globe or a figure on a medieval clock, who zooms across a lower balcony as the face shows the hands on the hour —Rachel Ingalls
Held fast by circumstances as by invisible wires of steel —Ellen Glasgow
< ENTRAPMENT See Also: ADVANCING
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It [emotional trap] held him as with the grip of sharp murderous steel —Henry James My heart chokes in me like a prison —Anzia Yezierska Another example of a simile used to launch a work of fiction, in this case a short story entitled Wings.
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Envy
THE SIMILES
Pinned to … like a butterfly to a cork —F. van Wyck Mason The butterfly image as used by Margaret Millar: “As easily trapped as a butterfly.”
Intense jealousy struck him like a missile —Mark Helprin
Struggling and captive like a newborn infant —Julia O’Faolain
It [jealousy] was like a taste in his mouth —Joyce Carol Oates
Stuck with them [undesirable companions], like falling into a barrel of blackstrap molasses —Elizabeth Spencer
Jealousy … descended on his spirit like a choking and pestilence-laden cloud —Thomas Wolfe
Felt a twinge of jealousy, green as a worm, wiggling deep in my center —W. P. Kinsella
Thrashed about … like a whale trying to pull free from a harpoon —William H. Hallhan
Jealousy is a kind of civil war in the south, where judgment and imagination are at perpetual jars —William Penn
Trapped like a fish between two cats —Spanish proverb
Jealousy is cruel as the grave —The Holy Bible/ Song of Solomon
Trapped like a peasant between two lawyers —Anon
Jealousy is like a bad toothache. It does not let a person do anything, not even sit still. It can only be walked off —Milan Kundera
Trapped [in traffic] like a fly in a spider’s web —Donald Seaman Felt trapped … like a man in a cage with a sick bear and his keeper —Ross Macdonald Trapped like a rabbit on a country road —Beryl Bainbridge
< ENVY As a moth gnaws a garment, so does envy consume a man —Saint John Chrysostam As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious consumed by envy —Livy Envy hit him … like lack of oxygen —William McIlvanney (Fools may our scorn, not envy raise, for) envy is a kind of praise —John Gay
Jealousy is like a polished glass held to the lips when life is in doubt; if there be breath it will catch the damp and show it —John Jealousy that surrounds me like a too-warm room —William H. Gass Jealousy whirled inside her like a racing motor —Milan Kundera Stir up jealousy like a man of war —The Holy Bible/Isaiah A wave of jealousy floats in my stomach like a cork —Ira Wood
< EPITAPHS See: DEATH, PRIDE
< ERECTNESS
Envy is like a fly that passes all a body’s sounder parts and dwells upon the sores —George Chapman
See: POSTURE
Envy, like fire, soars upwards —Livy
A flaw … would surface like an aching wisdom tooth —James Lee Burke
Envy, like the worm, never runs but to the fairest fruit; like a cunning bloodhound, it singles out the fattest deer in the flock —Francis Beaumont
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< ERRORS
The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old —François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
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THE SIMILES Delusions, errors and likes are like huge, gaudy vessels, the rafters of which are rotten and worm-eaten, and those who embark in them are fated to be shipwrecked —Buddha Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below —John Dryden Flaunt their folly, like a washline of dirty and patched clothes —George Garrett
Evil Bad as a rotten potato —Charlotte Brontë Corruption is like a ball of snow, when once set a rolling, it must increase —Charles Caleb Colton The Devil … like influenza he walks abroad —W. H. Auden Evil actions like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all —John Russell Bartlett
Gone astray like a lost sheep —The Holy Bible/ Psalms
Evil … a quality some people are born with, like a harelip —Ross Macdonald
Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers —Victor Hugo
Evil as dynamiting trout —Robert Traver
Illusion forms before us like a grove —Barbara Howes This simile is the first line and leitmotif in Howes’ poem “The Triumph of Death.” (Is somehow) impure, as sacrilegious as a CocaCola machine in a cathedral —Tony Ardizzone A mistake is like a mule, not always distinguishable from a horse in front, but known beyond doubt by acquaintance with its kicking qualities —The New York Sun, 1918 Wrong as two left shoes —Arthur Baer
< ETERNITY
Evil enters like a needle and spreads like an oak tree —Ethiopian proverb Evil, like parental punishment, is not intended for itself —Josepiz Albo Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers on the road. Both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find they are far less insurmountable than we had conceived —Caleb Colton Forbes Evils, like poisons, have their uses, and there are diseases which no other remedy can reach —Thomas Paine An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek —William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
See: CONTINUITY
He’s like a fox, grey before he’s good —Thomas Fuller
< EVASIVENESS See: ELUSIVENESS
Immorality in a house is like a worm in a plant —Babylonian Talmud
< EVENNESS
Immoral, like plying an alcoholic with liquor —Anon
See: STRAIGHTNESS
Obscene as cancer —Wilfred Owens
< EVIL See Also: ACTION, CRUELTY All sin is a kind of lying —St. Augustine
Our sins, like our shadows when day is in its glory, scarce appear; toward evening, how great and monstrous they are! —Sir John Suckling
At first the evil impulse is as fragile as the thread of a spider, but eventually it becomes as tough as cart ropes —Babylonian Talmud
He is a man of splendid abilities, but utterly corrupt. He shines and stinks like rotten mackerel by moonlight —John Randolph
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Exactness
THE SIMILES
Sin is a sort of bog; the farther you go in the more swampy it gets —Maxim Gorky
Excited and happy as a bride-to-be —Gloria Norris
Sins black as night —Robert Lowell
Excited as a cop making his first pinch —H. C. Witwer
So awful [a crime] it was like an atrocity picture or one of Foxe’s lives of the martyrs —Jonathan Valin (You’re) soft and slimy … like an octopus. Like a quagmire —Jean-Paul Sartre Vice is like a skunk that smells awfully rank, when stirred up by the pole of misfortune —Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms Vice, like virtue, grows in small steps —Jean Racine Vice repeated is like the wandering wind, blows dust in others’ eyes, to spread itself —William Shakespeare, Pericles Wrong as stealing from the poor box —Anon
< EXACTNESS See: CORRECTNESS
< EXAMINATION See: SCRUTINY
< EXCITEMENT See Also: AGITATION, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM And then I feel a change, like a fire deep inside / Something bursting me wide open, impossible to hide / And suddenly I’m flying, flying like a bird / Like electricity, electricity / Sparks inside of me, and I’m free, I’m free —Lee Hall, lyrics from the song “Electricity” in the musical Billy Elliott This is the musical’s anthem number.
Excited as a puppy at a picnic —Nicholas Proffitt Excited as a starlet, on the arm of an elderly editor —Philip Roth Excited as school children on their way to a treat —Frank Tuohy Excited … like a kid with his first dish of icecream —Louis Bromfield Excitement caused his heart to thud all over his breast like some crazy and fateful drum —Frank Swinnerton Excitement … had grown to become an exhausting presence within him, like the constant company of a sleepless troop of revelers —Joseph Whitehill Excitement rose like a hot dry wind —Marge Piercy Exhausting and exhilarating … it’s [tracking Woody Allen’s career] like mountain climbing —Vincent Canby, New York Time, February 9, 1986 Exhilarating like a swim in a rough ocean —Mary Gordon Exhilarating as love —Honoré de Balzac Exhilarating … very much like the effects of a strong dose of caffeine —Georges Simenon Felt exhilarated as a young man at a romantic assignation —Louis Auchincloss (Music that) fired her blood like wine —Katherine Mansfield
The blood burning in all his veins, like fire in all the branches and twigs of him —D. H. Lawrence
(The hate excited her … she was) fired up like a furnace in a blizzard night —Harold Adams
The blood surged through me like a sea —R. Wright Campbell
Flushed and voluble, like football fans on their way back from a match —Aharon Megged
Drunk on your own high spirits, like a salesman at a convention —Dorothea Straus
Has about as much suspense as a loaf of bread being spread through a slicer —Scott Simon,
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Flares up like a match —Sholem Aleichem
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Exits
reporting on a basketball game, All Things Considered, WYNC, January 31, 1987
Galloping out like a runaway horse —Donald Seaman
Her excitement strummed like wire —Marge Piercy
Go out like a candle, in a snuff —John Ray’s Proverbs A commonly used version found in a short story entitled “The Beldonald Holbein” by Henry James is to “Go out like a snuffed candle.”
Her excitement was deep down like a desert river under the sands —Oliver La Farge I had felt my heart like a great snare drum beneath my lace-edged T-shirt —Claire Messud, The Last Life Life at Nightline [Ted Koppel TV program] is like being in a popper of popcorn news —Marshal Frady, June 1987 Responding like an overheated spaniel —Clancy Sigal Stirring as march music —Paige Mitchell Thrilled his sleepless nerves like liquor or women on a Saturday night —John Dos Passos Titillated … like naked flesh —Paul Theroux Warmed by what he’d read as if it had been draughts of rum —John Cheever
< EXERCISE
I’m off like a dirty shirt —John Crier speaking in the movie Pretty in Pink Jumped out of that house like fleas off a dead dog —Rita Mae Brown Leave the room as a burglar might escape from the scene of a carefully planned crime —James Stern Like a rabbit that had been fired at, bolted from the room —John Galsworthy Like March, having come in like a lion, he purposed to go out (of her life) like a lamb —Charlotte Brontë Often a familiar simile gains freshness from the way it is applied, as illustrated by this example from Shirley.
See: MOVEMENT(S), SPORTS
Made like an arrow for the door —Christopher Isherwood
< EXHAUSTION
Made tracks like a jumped fawn —Thomas Zigal
See: WEARINESS
Running away like sheep —Stephen Vincent Benét
< EXITS
Scuttled away as if he’d found a maggot in his meatball —Joseph Wambaugh
See Also: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS, DISAPPEARANCE, ENTRANCES AND EXITS Bustled off … like a rolling whirlwind —Yukio Mishima Crept away, after the fashion of a whipped dog —H. E. Bates Fled from me like quicksilver —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II Fled … like damned water broken free —Z. Vance Wilson Flits like a silky bat out of the room —Rose Tremain
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Slide away like a whisper down the wind —Richard Ford Spook like cattle on a drive —Clinton A. Phillips, dean of faculty at Texas A & M. University, quoted on departure of some academics for better opportunities, New York Times, December 21, 1986 Stumping to the door … like an ancient mariner who had lost his temper —Frank Swinnerton Took off like a big-assed bird —Army expression Took off like a goosed duck —Harold Adams
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THE SIMILES
Took off like a scalded cat —May Swenson
< EYE(S)
Turned and left, like a key in a lock —Desmond O’Grady
See Also: EYES, BRIGHT; EYEBROWS; EYE COLOR; EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS, EYELASHES; EYE MOVEMENTS Behind the glasses his eyes looked look little bicycle wheels at dizzy speed —William Faulkner
< EXPANSION See: GROWTH
< EXPECTATION See: ANTICIPATION, HOPE
< EXPENSIVENESS
Dull eyes set like pebbles in a puffy, unwholesome-looking face —Eric Ambler Eye/pebble comparisons abound, with examples throughout this section.
See: COST
Eye-sockets deep as those of a death’s head —Thomas Hardy
< EXPERIENCE
Eye-sockets … like dark caves —John Wainwright
See: KNOWLEDGE Experience is … a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every airborne particle in its tissue —Henry James
Eyeballs like shelled hard-boiled eggs —Ivan Bunin Eyes as big and as soft and as transparent as ripe gooseberries —Edna O’Brien
Experience is like medicine; some persons require larger doses of it than others, and do not like to take it pure, but a little disguised and better adapted to taste —Lord Acton
Eyes … as cloudy as poisoned oysters —Miles Gibson
Experience, like a pale musician, holds a dulcimer of patience in his hand —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Eyes blackly circled like those of a raccoon —Lael Wertenbaker
Experience seems to be like the shining of a bright lantern. It suddenly makes clear in the mind what was already there, perhaps, but dim —Walter de la Mare A new element in her experience; like a chapter in a book —Henry Van Dyke The solitary and unshared experience dies of itself like the violations of love —Archibald MacLeish To most men, experience is like the stern light of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
< EXPLOSIONS See: BURST, SUDDENNESS
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Eyes … big and shiny, black as oil —Shirley Ann Grau
Eyes … carefully painted like the eyes on Egyptian frescoes —Anais Nin, Chicago Review, Winter/Spring, 1962 Eyes … deep and dark like mountain nights —Mary Hedin Eyes … deep as a well —Walter Savage Landor Eyes flat as glass —James Lee Burke Eyes … flat gold, like a lemur’s —Sue Grafton Eyes glazed and almost lightless like the little button eyes of a doll —George Garrett Eyes … large and gray, and baleful, like glass on fire —Norman Mailer Eyes large as fifty-cent pieces, but pale, like dusty stones —Ludwig Bemelmans, describing William Randolph Hearst
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THE SIMILES Eyes … large as saucers —E. N. Slocum, line from lyric of a song written in 1868 entitled “On the Beach at Cape May” Eyes like a codfish —Frank Swinnerton Eyes like a couple of wells —William Diehl
Eye(s) Eyes … like lustrous black currants —Frank Swinnerton Eyes, like marigolds, had sheath’d their light —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II In Shakespeare’s time “sheathed” was written as “sheath’d.”
Eyes … like an Arizona sunset, and they were supported on pouches as large and shapeless as badly packed duffle bags —Jimmy Sangster
Eyes like mice peeking into my pockets —Robert Campbell
Eyes like a pinwheel —Ann Beattie
Eyes like oiled black olives —Frank Tuohy
Eyes … like a spaniel’s —Ouida
Eyes … like old pictures of Rachmaninoff’s eyes —Henry Van Dyke
Eyes like a starless winter night —clear, black, bleak —A. E. Maxwell
Eyes like onions —Donald Barthelme
Eyes … like chestnuts floating on twin pools of milk —William Styron Eyes like cold cavities in his head —Natascha Wodin Eyes … like crickets in daylight —Rochelle Ratner Eyes like crosses burning on a lawn —Rochelle Ratner Eyes like currants in a half-cooked suet pudding —Robert Graves A simple variation of a simile from a short story by Katherine Mansfield: “little eyes, like currants.”
Eyes … like pale marble in a field of red —Linda West Eckhardt Eyes … like peas —T. Coraghessan Boyle Eyes … like pebbles at the bottom of a mountain trout pool, fixed and icy —Donald MacKenzie Eyes like pebbles, the kind of pebbles which kids call aggies —Ludwig Bemelmans Eyes like pebbles unwashed by the sea —Kathleen Farrell Eyes … like pools of oil —T. Coraghessan Boyle Eyes … like punctuation marks —Geoffrey Wolff Eyes … like rubber knobs, like they’d give to the touch —William Faulkner
Eyes like dark searchlights —Ross Macdonald
Eyes like searchlights —Donald McCaig
Eyes like dusty lapis lazuli —S.J. Perelman
Eyes … like shrewd marbles —Harvey Swados
Eyes like forest pools —W. Somerset Maugham Eyes … like forget-me-nots —Mazo de la Roche
Eyes like the brown waters of a woodland stream —Henry Van Dyke
Eyes … like ground owls, deep in their burrows —Harold Adams
Eyes like the deep, blue boundless heaven —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Eyes like holes burned with a cigar —William Faulkner Eyes … like holes were poked in a snowbank —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye Eyes like jelly —Hanoch Bartov
(Watery gray) eyes, like the thick edges of broken skylight glass —Willa Cather Eyes … like those of a lobster, as if they were on stalks —William James, letter from Germany to sister Alice, January 9, 1868
Eyes like licked stones —Virginia Woolf
Eyes … like tiny stone wedges hammer between the lids —Ross Macdonald
Eyes like licorice gumdrops —Robert Campbell
Eyes like tunnels —Arthur Miller
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Eye(s) Eyes like twin daisies in a bucket of blood —Leonard Washborn, Inter-Ocean, Chicago newspaper, l880s
THE SIMILES Eyes … small and nacreous like painted ornaments —Jean Stafford
Eyes … like two black seeds —Dashiell Hammett
Eyes … small and dirty like the eyes of a potato —Ross
Eyes … like two holes burned in a blanket —Borden Deal
Eyes … small and hard and shiny like dimes —Ross Macdonald
Eyes … like two obeisant satellites —Cynthia Ozick
Eyes soft as a leading lady’s, round as a doe’s —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Eyes … like two pissholes in the snow —American colloquialism
Eyes, speckled and hard as pebbles at the bottom of a stream —John Yount
Eyes … like violets by a river of pure water —Oscar Wilde
Eyes spoked and rimmed with black, like a mourner’s rosette —Edith Pearlman The simile is particularly appropriate as the writer is describing a character who is a widow
Eyes like washed pebbles stuck in cement (gave him a slightly aggressive look) —Donald MacKenzie Eyes like white clay marbles —Randall Jarrell Eyes limpid and still like pools of water —Robert Louis Stevenson Eyes … like glass marbles —Herman Wouk Eye sockets … as flat as saucers —Z. Vance Wilson Eyes peering between folds of fat like almond kernels in half-split shells —Edith Wharton Eyes pressed so deep in his head that they seemed … like billiard balls sunk in their pockets —William Styron Eyes, restless, softly brown like a monkey’s —F. van Wyck Mason Eyes … round and shiny, like the glass bead eyes of stuffed animals —Margaret Atwood Eyes, round as cherries —Ignazio Silone Eyes … round as quarters —Laurie Colwin Eyes … round, inane as the blue pebbles of the rain —Dame Edith Sitwell
Eyes that looked like imitation jewels —Henry James Eyes the size of melons —Mary Hood Her eyes were small, so that with the mascara and the shadows painted on their lids they looked like flopping black butterflies —Eudora Welty Her eyes looked awful [from too much liquor], as though they had been boiled —Christopher Isherwood Her eyes lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough —William Faulkner His eyes behind his glasses kind of all run together like broken eggs —William Faulkner His eyes stood in his head like two poached eggs —Erich Maria Remarque Large eyes like dark pools —Erich Maria Remarque Little eyes like Bukowski
cigarette-ends
—Charles
Eyes shaped like peach pits —Bobbie Ann Mason
Looked like cat’s eyes do, like a big cat against the wall, watching us —William Faulkner
Eyes … shiny and flat as mirrors —Shirley Ann Grau
Mr. York’s eyes bulged like doorknobs —Susan Vreeland, Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Eyes … small and dark and liquid, like drops of strong coffee —Margaret Millar
Our very eyes are sometimes like our judgments, blind —William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
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THE SIMILES Protruding eyes that looked like two fish straining to get out of a net of red threads —Flannery O’Connor The pupils of his eyes were like disks of blue fire —Oscar Wilde Round eyes like blue polka dots in her crimson face —Helen Hudson Sharp stains like poor coffee under her eyes —V.S. Pritchett She was wearing so much eyeliner that her eyes looked as if they had been drawn in ink —Jonathan Valin Small eyes, set like a pig’s in shallow orbits —Francis Brett Young Their eyes seemed like rings from which the gems had been dropped —Dante Alighieri
Eyes, Bright Eyes bright as the lights in a valuable stone —Norman Mailer Eyes fired up for a moment like pieces of coal. The laughter in them [eyes] was like two melting ice cubes gleaming in a dish —Alice Walker Eyes gleam like those of a popular salesman about to hear an old, familiar joke —Hilary Masters Eyes glittered like a wildcat’s —Honoré de Balzac Eyes glittered like razors —Jonathan Valin Eyes … glittering and unsteady, like a dog’s when it is looking out of a car window —Frank Tuohy (His dark) eyes glowed like brandy —Rita Mae Brown
Two little eyes like gimlet holes —Émile Zola
Eyes glowed … like fire in a cave —Nathanial Hawthorne
The veins in her eyeballs twisted like a map of jungle rivers —Arthur Miller
Eyes glowed like two tiny electric bulbs —William Faulkner
< EYES, BRIGHT (Stood there … his) black eyes burning like anthracite —Steven Vincent Benet Burning eyes like flaming wells —Anzia Yezierska
Eyes … like black marbles lying in dust, dark and gleaming and sharp, with light —Paul Horgan Eyes like burning torches —Arabian Nights Eyes like chips of broken glass that catch the light —Joyce Carol Oates Eyes, like cinders, all aglow —Lewis Carroll
Eyes as bright as sunlight on a stream —Christina Rossetti
Eyes like glow-worms —William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
Eyes blazed like molten nuggets —Robert Silverberg
Eyes like flashlights —Elizabeth Spencer
Eyes like burning torches —Arabian Nights Eyes like flashlights —Elizabeth Spencer Eyes as glowing as the summer and as tender as the skies —James Whitcomb Riley Eyes … blazed with a sudden burst of terror, like an explosion of the heart —Robert Campbell Eyes blazing like bonfires —Miles Gibson Eyes bright as dance floors —Scott Spencer Eyes bright as squirrels —John Galsworthy
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
[Animal] eyes shining like wind-whipped embers on a pitch-black night —Jesse Stuart Eyes shone brighter than the stars —Dante Alighieri Eyes sparkled as if he’d just heard a joke or told one —Jonathan Valin Eyes sparkled like rusty wet bolts —Abraham Rothberg Eyes that could snap and crackle points of fire like those which sparkle from a whirling sword —Jack London
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Eyebrows Eyes, they glow like tiger’s eyes —James Baldwin Eyes which possessed a warm, life-giving quality like the sunlight —Willa Cather Ferocious eyes, much too shiny, like something boiling in a pot —Cynthia Ozick Glittering eyes like rats hurrying this way and that —Louis Bromfield Her eyes gave the impression of being lighted from within … as if she had been endowed with her own small sun —Paule Marshall His eyes shone with certainty, like glints of shellac —Paul Theroux The light of her eye, like a star glancing out from the blue of the sky —John Greenleaf Whittier
THE SIMILES Eyebrows drawn so closely together that they seemed like a hedge blocking her view —Carolyn Slaughter Eyebrows lifted in pink crescents upturned like the dogwood’s first leaves in spring —Eudora Welty Eyebrows … like birds of prey —T. Coraghessan Boyle Eyebrows like commas —John Fowles Eyebrows like frost —James Dickey Eyebrows like hanging gardens —Max Shulman Eyebrows like peaked black thread —Jean Stafford
Lights shone in his eyes like travelers’ fires seen far out on the river —Eudora Welty
Eyebrows like unclipped hedges —Daphne Merkin
Sparks burning in them [black eyes] like fire at the end of a tunnel —Paige Mitchell
Eyebrows looking like a big iron-grey caterpillar lying along the edge of a cliff —William Faulkner
< EYEBROWS
Eyebrows overhung his eyes like moustaches —John Steinbeck
Black eyebrows going up like a pair of swallows —V. S. Pritchett A brow like a thunderclap —Peter De Vries Brows and lashes smudged like charcoal across her face —Kay Boyle Brows like bended bows —Thomas Campion Brows … like charcoal arches —Aharon Megged Brows like strung bows —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Brows were joined above the nose like the hilt of a large dagger —Saul Bellow
Eyebrows raised, like hoods on baby-carriages —Eudora Welty Eyebrows rising like fans —Martin Cruz Smith Eyebrows thick and full like fur frames —Paige Mitchell Eyebrows were thick, tough as strips of barks —Truman Capote A great deal of brow in a face is like a great deal of horizon in a view —Victor Hugo
(Raising an) eyebrow built like a wooly worm —James Crumley
His brows … brindled with grey and tufted like the pelt of a beast. They looked like structural beams, raised into a position that would support the weight of his knowledge and authority —John Cheever
Eyebrows arched like skipping ropes —Henry James
His eyebrows punctuate his speech like hands —Ira Wood
Eyebrows as big as mustaches —Jilly Cooper
His eyebrows stood up furiously, like a forest of sooty straws —Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World
Dark eyebrows like sudden brushstrokes above the deep dark eyes —Sylvia Berkman
Eyebrows curved like big rainbows above her eyes —J. P. Donleavy
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THE SIMILES Knitted his brows like sharply molded steel —D. H. Lawrence The text of Women in Love, where this appeared used the English spelling “moulded” instead of “molded” as used here. (When she was excited she liked to) raise first one thin eyebrow and then the other so that they almost leapt off her face like antennae —Molly Giles
Eye Color Eyes faded to a brittle, metallic gray, like chips of slate —James Crumley Eyes … light, blue, like colorless water reflecting a blue sky —Jessamyn West In the short story “The Calla Lily Cleaners & Dyers,” from which this is taken, the simile is extended as follows: “and his face being so suntanned they were more like vacancies in his head than eyes.”
< EYE COLOR
Eyes, like bitter chocolate —Margaret Millar A more recent example of this simile appears in Ira Wood’s novel The Kitchen Man, which is as chockfull of food imagery as a refrigerator after a weekly shopping trip.
See Also: BLACK, BLUE, BROWN, EYES, GRAY, GREEN
Eyes … like black buttons or raisins sunk in dough —Nina Bawden
Black eyes like plum pits —Bernard Malamud
Eyes … like blue cake-icing —Truman Capote
Black eyes turned shiny like the sun —Shirley Ann Grau
Eyes like blue-painted glass —Flannery O’Connor
Blue eyes like transparent agate marbles, hard and polished and just about indestructible —Sylvia Plath
Eyes like chocolate fudge still warm from the pan —Elizabeth Spencer
Thick, black eyebrows like the wings of a swallow —Maxim Gorky
Blue eyes … round and open like two lakes —Aharon Megged Blue eyes that sat in his lined face like a piece of sky —Erich Maria Remarque Brown eyes like quicksand —Diane Ackerman Eyes … black and burning as coal —Lord Byron Byron’s “black as coal” comparison from Don Juan has been much used, and with many new twists, several of which can be found here. The black as coal comparison has also been linked with many other descriptive references. Eyes … black as bullets and as fierce —Belva Plain Eyes … blue and guileless as a doll’s —David Brierley
Eyes like the sky on a misty summer morning —Piers Anthony Eyes … like those of a rabbit, not frightened, but utterly impenetrable —Graham Masterton Eyes pale as the moon —Grace Paley Eyes redder than burning coals —Gustave Flaubert Eyes so pale they were like openings on the sky —Wright Morris Eyes the color of water vapor —T. Coraghessan Boyle Eyes … they didn’t have much color … like, whoever was putting the color into them got a phone call in the middle and just quit —Lee Smith
Eyes … brown and irisless, like those of an old dog —William Faulkner
Eyes … warmly blue as the glint of summer sunshine on an iceberg drifting in Southern seas —O. Henry
Eyes … deepened to the color of caramel, like sugar coming to a boil —Louise Erdrich
Grey eyes … watery like the winter sky —Frank Tuohy
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Eye Expressions, Miscellaneous Large, brown eyes like mushroom caps —Helen Hudson In her novel Meyer Meyer, Helen Hudson returns to this simile with another: “Her dull mushroom eyes seemed to have grown smaller, as though they had been sautéd too long.” Light-blue eyes … like bits of glass —Jean Rhys Pale eyes like pools of phlegm —Richard S. Prather Sharp blue eyes, each like a pin —Robert Browning
THE SIMILES Eyes, bland and sad as a dog’s —George Garrett Eyes … blank, clouded with anger or grief, like the sky before a snowstorm —James Crumley Eyes blind as woodknots —Daniel Berrigan Eyes clear and cool as rainwater —George Garrett Eyes clear and candid as a winter sky at dawn —Harvey Swados Eyes clear as water —John Steinbeck Eyes clear as window glass —Ward Just
Small green eyes, like grapes about to burst —Mary McCarthy
Eyes … cloudless as a sky in spring —George Garrett
Soft brown eyes, like those of a mild-tempered dog —Frank Swinnerton
Eyes … cold as a crocodile’s —Peter Benchley
Toffee-colored eyes like a spaniel’s —T. H. White
Eyes cool as coins —Margaret Millar
Wet blue eyes, like eyes in a clear aspic —Jonathan Valin
Eyes … dark and cold … like water under ice —Mary Hedin
< EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLA-
Eyes … dark and empty, like open graves —Donald Seaman
NEOUS Excitement widened her eyes like periods at the end of billboard sentences —Tom Robbins Expressionless blue eyes … like a pair of glass marbles —Frank Swinnerton Eyes … alive, like blue tigers —Cynthia Ozick Eyes … as cold and lacking in interest as the eyes of a tortoise —Nadine Gordimer
Eyes cold as grey agate —Margaret Mitchell
Eyes … dead and cold, like marbles swimming in glass —Paige Mitchell Eyes … expressionless as ice cubes —Clive Cussler Eyes, fishy and staring like headlights —Harvey Swados
Eyes as deep and storyless as the sea —Terry Bisson
(When he is excited or amused … his) eyes flare like two cigarette lighters —Bryan Miller, New York Times story about Yves Montand, June 24, 1987
Eyes as doleful and red-rimmed as an old hound’s —Robert Traver
Eyes flat and vicious like the eyes of a mean dog crouched over a bone —George Garrett
Eyes as hard as oysters —Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Eyes frightened as if she expected any moment the stunning blow of a fist —George Garrett
Eyes, as hard and cold as a frozen lake —Ellen Glasgow
His eyes glaze over like eggs up —Ira Wood
Eyes … as innocent as if they had entered their sockets a half-hour ago —Ben Hecht
Eyes … grow blank as a dropped blind —Edith Wharton
Eyes … as opaque as jelly beans —Joan Hess
Eyes … hard as almond shells with a kernel of light —Rumer Godden
Eyes … as shy as a wild stag’s —Mary Lee Settle
Eyes hard as buttons —Louise Erdrich
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THE SIMILES
Eyelashes
(Her inky) eyes have the look of someone who has been in prison a long time and knows they can send her back —Sharon Olds
Eyes widened with fear, like a cat facing headlights in the night —Z. Vance Wilson
Eyes in which intelligence and comprehension burned like two fixed stars —Edith Wharton
Fury flashing from her eyes like New Year’s Eve sparklers —Dorothea Straus
Eyes keen as talons —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Hard eyes … like little metal studs (pinned into the white faces of young men) —John Updike
Eyes, like a stern judge’s, seemed to pierce the heart of all questions —Honoré de Balzac Eyes like flint-stones —Donald Seaman Eyes like glacier lakes —Donald McCaig Eyes like marbles, hard and glazed —Borden Deal Eyes like needles —Lord Byron
Eyes … wide open like a deer’s —Colette
His eyes [Mike Wallace’s] grew flat as the eyes of a movie Apache who has just taken a rifle bullet to the stomach —Norman Mailer The Apache comparison underscores Mailer’s repeated references to Mike Wallace as resembling a Native American.
Eyes like smoking tragedies —Edna O’Brien
Little eyes lit up like a cat’s in a room full of yarn —Thomas Zigal
Eyes … like the eyes in the statues blank and unseeing and serene —William Faulkner
Look in his eyes like a glutted steer in a feedlot —Mary Hood
Eyes … like the eyes of a dying man who looks everywhere for healing —James Baldwin
Mischief crackling like static electricity in her eyes —W. P. Kinsella
Eyes … like the eyes of the dead that none has closed with love’s last kiss —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Tired, kindly eyes, like the eyes of a monkey —Elizabeth Bowen
(Looked back at him, his black) eyes like two drill bits —Nicholas Proffitt Eyes like two steel spikes —Flannery O’Connor Eyes observant and curious like those of a man caught in a great catastrophe which it is his duty to record —Graham Greene (Lying motionless on his back) eyes staring up at the ceiling like a doll’s —Joseph Heller Eyes … steely as a bird’s —Jean Garrigue Eyes swollen with rage they look like hardcooked eggs —T. Coraghessan Boyle Eyes that looked as if they might warm up at the right time and in the right place —Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake Eyes that looked as if they were trying to see beyond the horizon —William McIlvanney Eyes went flat with terror, like a rabbit caught by a car’s headlights —Andrew Kaplan
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Wide amazed eyes like an expensive china doll —George Garrett Wide penetrating eyes, like black raisins —Rex Reed The eyes Reed is comparing to black raisins belong to Sophia Loren.
< EYELASHES (She was an artist of the face) drawing her long lashes out like licorice —Jay Parini Eyelashes like the wicks of many extinguished candles —Frank Swinnerton Eyelashes long as shish kebab —Rex Reed The owner of the long lashes is Carol Channing Eyelashes … long, like flies’ legs —Aharon Megged Eyelashes stiff as bird-tails —Eudora Welty Eyelashes … thick and furry as tarantula legs —James Crumley [Eyes] lash-fringed like Spanish lace —Davis Grubb
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Eyelids
THE SIMILES
Lashes as thick and dark as raven feathers —Jonathan Kellerman
Lower lids as straight as ruler-edges —Dashiell Hammett
Lashes bunched together like star points —Jill Ciment
The thick red-lined lids hung over the eyeballs like blinds of which the cords are broken —Edith Wharton
Lashes thick and black as if painted with a black tarlike material —Joyce Carol Oates Long lashes fluttered like the feelers of a beetle on its back —Truman Capote The lashes thus described belong to Mae West. Thick lashes, soft as paintbrushes —Louise Erdrich
< EYE MOVEMENTS Blinked … as if chasing a fly away —Aharon Megged Blinking like a frightened cat —Dan Wakefield Blinking like a mechanical toy —Peter Benchley Eyeballs bulged like a lizard’s —Paige Mitchell
< EYELIDS Eyelids drooped as though the lashes weighed intolerably —Truman Capote Eyelids flutter like butterflies that children have impaled alive on pins —Erich Maria Remarque Eyelids fluttering, as if assailed by gnats —Leonard Michaels Eyelids heavy as if from too much dreaming. His dreaming lay like the edges of a deep slumber on the rim of his eyelids —Anais Nin
Eyes … beginning to bob like fishing corks on the sea —William Diehl Eyes bounce like marbles —Norman Mailer Eyes closed, almost as if he was silently praying —John Fowles Eyes darting like astonished fish —Brian Glanville Eyes dart like a shoplifter’s —Hilma Wolitzer Eyes dart like swallows —Marge Piercy Eyes did a dance like two flies looking for a place to light —Robert Campbell
Eyelids … hung askew over her cloudy gray eyes [too weak to be raised or lowered], like broken blinds in the windows of a condemned house —Gerald Kersh
(He nodded his head, but his) eyes didn’t move, as if they were weighted in their sockets like the eyes of a doll —Jonathan Valin
Eyelids like thin gray leather —Ken Kesey
Eyes dilated like an animal’s caught in a trap —V.S. Pritchett
Eyelids pale like a chicken’s —V.S. Pritchett
Eyelids which looked like walnut shells —Julia O’Faolain
Eyes dilate like targets on a rifle range, and each word and gesture is emphasized by a blast of cigarette smoke that makes her look like she’s walking in a cumulous cloud —Rex Reed The actress thus profiled by Reed is Bette Davis.
Eyes … double-lidded like the eyes of the black bull snake —Will Weaver
Eyes flashed and twinkled … like the lamps of a lighthouse —Anthony Powell
Heavy eyelids … like small, brown, wrinkled eggshells —Brian Glanville
Eyes flashing like magnifying glasses —H. E. Bates
Lids … like furrows in deeply plowed soil —Anon
Eyes flickered like uncertain lights —Ann Rice
Eyelids translucent as crepe —Jayne Anne Phillips
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Eyes flicker like leaves —Marge Piercy
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Eyes fluttered around the room like moths —Donald McCaig
Rapidly blinking eyes, as though he were caught in a constant sandstorm —Daphne Merkin
Eyes hovered about like mosquitoes —C. J. Koch
Rolled his eyes like a pair of gambler’s dice —Paige Mitchell
(Yonatan’s) eyes narrowed like gunslits —Amos Oz (Schwend’s hurt) eyes opened like blooming peonies —Herbert Lieberman
Tightly shutting her eyes like a shot pheasant falling out of the sky —Kenzaburo Oe
Eyes opened like windows —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Wide-spaced eyes floating like sea-slivers above his cheek bones —Julia O’Faolain
Eyes … opened wide like a clairvoyant’s —Anais Nin
< FACE(S)
Eyes roamed about like jellyfish —H. E. Bates Eyes rolled in their sockets like loose marbles —Truman Capote Eyes seemed to be clambering frantically, like a pair of blatant prisoners behind her heavy glasses —V.S. Pritchett (His little) eyes snapped like two sparks. Like two sparks they glowed in the smolder of his bearded face —Katherine Mansfield In this example from her short story, “Ole Underwood,” Katherine Mansfield demonstrates the effectiveness of repeating a simile. Eyes that kept winking and twinkling at each side of his inquisitive nose, as if they were playing a perpetual game of peep-bo with that feature —Charles Dickens Eyes … twirling around like fruit-flies —Jane Wagner Eyes were closed like a man in violent prayer —William Styron Furtive little eyes kept darting around in his head like rodents —Thomas Wolfe Languidly half closes his eyes, like a cat on a sofa —Anton Chekov Lowered her eyes like a nun beholding a statue —Honoré de Balzac Mr. York’s eyes bulged like doorknobs —Susan Vreelanc, Clara and Mr. Tiffany Narrowing his eyes like someone who knows there’s a mouse in the soup —Peter Meinke
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See Also: BLUSHES; CHEEKS; EYE(S); EYEBROWS; EYELASHES; EYELIDS; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MICELLANEOUS; FACIAL DETAILS; HAIR; LIPS; MOUTH; MUSTACES; PHYSICAL APPEARANCE; SKIN; WRINKLES A beautiful face … cut as clear and sharp as a cameo —Jack London Angular face, sharp as the face of the Knave in a deck —George Garrett A bulky white face like that of a Mother Superior —Frank Swinnerton The countenance is the title page which heralds the contents of the human volume, but like other title pages it sometimes puzzles, often misleads, and often says nothing to the purpose —William Matthews A desolate, cratered face, sooty with care like an abandoned mining town —Joseph Heller A dry energetic face which seemed to press forward with the spring of his prominent features, as though it were the weapon with which he cleared his way through the world —Edith Wharton Face … as broad and plain as a tin pie pan —Jean Thompson A face as creased and limited as her conversation —Hortense Calisher Face … as creased and brown as a walnut —Marmaret Millar Face … bunched up like a fist —Jonathan Valin
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Face(s) Face … changeable as an autumn sky —John O’Connor
THE SIMILES
Face clear as a cloud —Arthur A. Cohen
Face … like a fiddle and everyone who sees him must love him —Anon Irish saying Carl Sandburg, who had a penchant for incorporating familiar similes into his work, quoted this in his poem “New Hampshire Again.”
Face crumpled as if it had been left out in the rain —Lael Wertenbaker
(A pale flat woman with a) face like a fillet of flounder —Helen Hudson
Face … clean as a china plate —Dorothy Canfield
Face … doughy, like a fresh baking of bread just put out to rise —Paul J. Wellman Face … dry and immobile, like a mummy’s —Ignazio Silone Face … has the compressed appearance, as though someone had squeezed his head in a vise —Woolcot Gibbs, about Thomas Dewey during his 1940 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Face … heavy as a sack —Honoré de Balzac Face … heavy, as if little bags of sand had been painlessly sewn into various parts of it, dragging the features away from the bones —Kingsley Amis A face in many planes, as if the carver had whittled and modeled and indented to see how far he could go —Willa Cather (Her) face is like the Milky Way i’ the sky —Sir John Suckling Face … its beauty fortuitous like that of a Puritan woman leaning over the washtub —Walker Percy Face lean as a hatchet —William Beechcroft Face like a pie … out of the oven too soon —William Faulkner A face like a 16-ounze boxing glove —Harry Prince Face … like a badly packed suitcase —Jimmy Sangster
Face like a knotty whorl in the bark of a hoary olive tree —Amos Oz Face … like a mail-order ax —William H. Gass A face like a Mediterranean Lolita —Carol Ascher Face like an anemic cat’s —Colette Face like an old purse —Mary Hedin (A little brown monkey of a man with) a face like a nut —Ruth Rendell Face like a peeled beet —Hanoch Bartov Face like a picture of a knight, like one of that Round Table bunch —O. Henry Face … like a piece of the out-of-doors come indoors: as holly-berries do —D. H. Lawrence Face … like a pillow that has been much but badly slept on —Romain Gary Face … like a predatory bird, beaked, grim-lipped —Wallace Stegner Face like a raisin cookie. Eyes set wide apart and shallow —Donald McCaig A face like a rock —Thomas Carlyle Carlyle thus described his publisher, Frederic Henry Hedge Face like a sack of flour —T. Coraghessan Boyle Face like a sallow bust on a bracket in a university library —Edith Wharton Face like a shell —Ellen Gilchrist
Face like a bad orange —Joyce Cary
Face like a slab of corned beef —Oakley Hall
Face … like a beaked bird —James Joyce
Face like a small pale mask —William Faulkner
Face like a benediction —Miguel de Cervantes
Face like a sodden pie —Edgar Lee Masters
Face like a butcher’s block —Frank O’Connor
A face like a very expensive cat —Josephine Tey
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Face like a very ripe peach —Christopher Isherwood
A face like stretched leather —Helen Simonson Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Face like lean old glove leather —Richard Ford
(Young neat unscratched boys with) faces like the bottoms of new saucers —Charles Bukowski
Face … like the cement in an old cellar, rough irregular lines lying thick and lumpy along a hard white surface —Charles Johnson
Face like flint —The Holy Bible/Isaiah
Face like the Soul’s Awakening —P.G. Wodehouse
Face smooth and intent like a man listening to music —Ross Macdonald
Her big powdered face was set like an egg in a cup in the frilly high-necked blouse —John Dos Passos
Face smooth and timeless as a portrait in a darkened gallery —T. Coraghessan Boyle
(He had) a face like the statue of some Victorian industrialist, heavy and firm and deeply lined, giving an impression of stern willingness —John Braine
Face … smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive baby doll —Ken Kesey Face … smooth like a balmy sky where there’s peace —Helga Sandburg
A face like Walt Disney’s idea of a grandfather —William McIlvanney
Face … soft and withered as an apple doll —Sue Grafton
Face like warm baked clay —C. J. Koch
Face so grimed with dirt it looked like a brown leather mask —John Dos Passos
Face looked like a white blown-out paper bag —V.S. Pritchett Face … massive as a piece of sculpture —Harvey Swados Face ravaged as the dimmest memories of the past … creased and flabby, like an old bag —Kingsley Amis
Face … so old that it looked as if the flesh had been polished away —Ellen Glasgow Face sparkles like a diamond (at mention of favorite topic, collecting) —Honoré de Balzac Faces ruddy and wrinkled like old apples —Margaret Bhatty
Face red, swollen, like an overripe fruit —Graham Swift
Faces shimmered like they were coming out of water —Jayne Anne Phillips
Face sagged, as if its fleshy sub-structure had dried up —McKinlay Kantor
Face … strong, like Greek statuary —Sue Grafton
Faces bunched like fists —Irving Feldman
(Their) faces were like the faces of lions —The Holy Bible/Kings
Faces harder than a rock —The Holy Bible/Jeremiah
A face that looked as if it had been left out on the fire escape for over half a century —Rex Stout
Face shimmering and flat as the moon —Diane Wakoski
A face that resembled a diseased cauliflower —Miles Gibson
Face … shines in the darkness like a thin moon —Erich Maria Remarque Face short and blunt as a cat’s —M. J. Farrell Faces like dark boxes of secrets and desires … locked safely, like old-fashioned caskets for the safe conduct of jewels on a voyage —Eudora Welty
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A face that seemed sometimes as intimidating as a clenched fist —Frank Tuohy Face thin as a desert saint’s —Z. Vance Wilson Face thrust forward like a hatchet —Oakley Hall Face twitched like a snapping rubber band —James Lee Burke
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(The old woman’s) face was like a worn rock at which all the waves of life had smashed and beaten —Thomas Wolfe
Intense aquiline profile, like the prow of a boat straining forward from too close a fastening —Ruth Suckow
Face was very like a crow —Lewis Carroll
Looked like a miniature beside a portrait in oils —Honoré de Balzac
Face … wizened as an old potato —Ignazio Silone (One day his)face would collapse, like that of a beautiful woman who suddenly abandons the pretense and admits defeat —Harvey Swados Face … wound up like a spring —Alan Sillitoe Features … a little like a Roman emperor sideface —A. A. Milne Features … dark and indistinct, as if they’d been rubbed with a dirty eraser —Alice McDermott A flat face like an imprint in some thick, warm tar —Robie Macauley
Old slightly wizened face, like minor characters in novels of whom one is told that “they might have been any age from 20 to 50” —Edward Marsh A profile like a bread knife —Harvey Swados A profile like a set of keys and a nose like a bicycle seat —Joey Adams Profile … like the blade of a knife, cold and sharp —Honoré de Balzac
Flat white face, like a pillow with eyes —Richard Connell
A round coarse face like a pomegranate —Frank Swinnerton
Front face she was shapeless like poorly impressed sealing-wax —Julia O’Faolain
Round red face shone like freshly washed china —Katherine Mansfield
Her face had filled out into two little puffs of vanity on either side of her mouth, as if she were eating or were containing a yawn —V.S. Pritchett
She’s a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she’s washed her hair since Coolidge’s second term, I’ll eat my spare tire, rim and all —Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Her face had rounded with flesh that closed in about her eyes like a dough doll’s —Will Weaver Her face, pinched from the cold, made her look like a young girl in the Depression of the thirties —Penelope Gilliatt Her face was like an old brown bowl —Thomas Wolfe His countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible —The Holy Bible/ Judges His face was as … the sun —The Holy Bible/Revelation His face, with its thick crude lines … and large mouth, gave him the appearance of a slightly refined monkey —H. E. Bates His unkempt face hung like a bad smell over his dirty clothes —James Crumley
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A sly, pointed face with something vixen in it, the look of a child evacuee who had lost his parents and grown up too fast —Penelope Gilliatt They had long tired faces. Their yawns, snapping and unsnapping their jaws, made them look like horses —Boris Pasternak A thin face, pointed as a paper knife —Helen Hudson The man thus described in Hudson’s story, “The Tenant,” is trying to pry information out of a troubled woman. She extended the paper knife comparison as follows: “ready to slit her open.” Weather-beaten face, like it was smoked and cured —George Garrett Wild faces like men hopped up on dope —George Garrett
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THE SIMILES
Facial Color
< FACIAL COLOR
Face like a raw side of beef —Robert Campbell
See Also: BLUSHES, COLOR, PALLOR, RED, WHITE A face like a raw steak —John Dos Passos
Face … like a strawberry —Mary Hedin In Hedin’s short story, The Secret, the woman with the strawberry-like face had been bending over a stove.
An extremely florid face, as if his blood pressure was about to pop —Peter Meinke A bluish pallor had spread like a shadow over his face —Walter de la Mare
(Passion has made his) face like pale ivory —Oscar Wilde Face pale and lined like a map —Hugh Walpole
Carried a ruddy stain on either cheek, like a ripe apple —Robert Louis Stevenson
Face … pale as death and far more ghastly —Nathanial Hawthorne
Cheeks and bunchy lips as red as they would have been if she had fallen into a pot of jam —Frank Swinnerton
A face … puffy and sallow, the color of old piano keys —William Boyd In the novel, An Ice-Cream War, the author continues as follows: “as if he were just recovering from an illness or about to be seriously afflicted by one.”
Cheeks became pink like the delicate petals of sweet peas. —Susan Vreeland, Clara and Mr. Tiffany Coloring as natural as a bird’s egg or a leaf —Frank Tuohy Coloring … so like the bloom of a ripe fruit, that nature in her seemed to have rivaled art —Italo Svevo
Face … red as a parrot’s —Dame Edith Sitwell Face … ruddy, flushed with blood, like a slaughterer’s —Isaac Bashevis Singer Face shone red as a cock’s comb —Rita Mae Brown
The color spread across his face like a bush fire —Mike Fredman
Faces red as steak —Sharon Olds
Face … a curious, flat color, like the inside of a raw potato —Susan Hill
Faces stained by the cool night like wine —Dame Edith Sitwell
A face as white and almost as smooth as a bar of soap —Scott Spencer
Faces white like paste —Hugh Walpole
Face dark with furious blood, dark as a plum —Guy Vanderhaeghe A variation by Gloria Norris: “face … turned purple as a plum.” Face … dull red, as if baked by the heat of blazing towns —Stephen French Whitman Face glows, spotty, like there’s a tiny pink bulb burning behind each cheek —Sharon Sheehe Stark (Marley’s) face … had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar —Charles Dickens Face like a lobster —Robert Louis Stevenson
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Face the color and texture of kangaroo hide —Frank Ross Face … the color of cat’s meat —James Thurber Face turned to a dull white, like bread dough —Anon Face went gray, like the mortar in the trough —Henry Van Dyke Face yellow like ancient paper —Arthur A. Cohen Great blushing face, like a Dutch cheese —Jilly Cooper Her color had been pared away, like you pare an apple —Donald McCaig
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THE SIMILES
Her face was … white-powdered like a marshmallow —Frank Tuohy
Ears … pendulous scarlet ears that showed up like blobs of sealing wax on the pallor of his cheeks and were framed in wisps of silky white hair —Albert Camus
Her face went just as red as the side of a fire truck —Stephen King, Carrie
Ears sticking out like tabs he might be picked up and shaken by —Eudora Welty
A medium dark face, like antique gold under a black light —Loren D. Estleman
(Large) ears … stuck out like wings —Leo Tolstoy
Pale as a miner —Amor Towles, Rules of Civility
The features of his face were indistinct and unimpressive, as if begun in clay but never fired —Erik Larson, In the Belly of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
Her color was high, as though she had been sitting near a fire —Geoffrey Wolff
Red as a radish —Amor Towles, Rules of Civility A tan like a basted turkey —David Nicholls, One Day Tanned as a hound’s tooth —Robert Traver Two spots of rouge like paper discs pasted on her cheekbones —William Faulkner Unnaturally red cheeks like varnished apples —Edith Wharton
Freckled, as if she’d been sprinkled with nutmeg —Eudora Welty (A mask of) freckles laid like a veil across his nose —Ben Ames Williams Freckles like rust spots —Willa Cather
< FACIAL DETAILS
Freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks —Sharon Olds
A blemish on the ridge of his nose stood out like a connecting point between his eyebrows, like a town on a map —Bobbie Ann Mason
(Nose bridged with) freckles like splotches of huge summer rain on the sidewalk —William Faulkner
Blues under his eyes like chain links —Saul Bellow
Freckles lingered just below the skin, like a thin wash of gold —Elizabeth Spencer
The bones on his face stuck out like knobs under his skin —Gloria Norris
A gash as thick as a cigarette —T. Glen Coughlin
Busted blood vessels in the nose and across his cheeks look like a precinct map of the city —Robert Campbell The dimple in her chin is like a tiny keyhole —Joan Chase Dimples that looked as if they had been poked into her cheeks by a mischievous finger —Rex Beach Ears as sharp as a fox —MacDonald Harris A commonly used variation: “ears like a fox.” Ears like bat’s wings —Aharon Megged Ears like jug handles —Borden Deal Ears like pointed spears —David Ignatow
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His nose was very short, just like a baby’s, and he had a long blue upper lip, like a priest —Joyce Cary A mole like a tiny cameo —Eudora Welty (She brushed at the) mole that spotted her cheek like a tea —Truman Capote Pale brown freckles scattered across her nose like sesame seeds —Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge Pimples big as candy corn —Ira Wood Pimple … shone like the sun trying to come out —Sharon Sheehe Stark Red pimples spread across her forehead like strawberry jam —Alice McDermott
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THE SIMILES Scars … like claw marks —Louise Erdrich A scar … that twained his face from forehead to chin, like a portrait sliced in half —Davis Grubb
Facial Expressions, Miscellaneous Face had all the warmth, personality and individualism of an amoeba —Robert J. Serling Face like a marble mask in which the lips were too rigid for speech —Edith Wharton
Scratches on his face like a cat had fought him hard for every one of its lives —O. Henry
Face like one of those Easter Island stone carvings —Len Deighton
The shadows under my eyes were like a pair of leathery wings —Jean Thompson
Face … locked like a vault —T. Coraghessan Boyle
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, BLANK
Face set in a fixed expression of friendly interest like a mask pulled over her skull —Frank Conroy
See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS
Face set into a stiff mask, like that of an acroterion —John Fowles
Anonymous, like the faces one sees in a football crowd —Robert Traver
Faces that were as closed, as mysterious, and as mute as the faces of the dead who are possessed of a knowledge beyond the comprehension of the living —Joseph Conrad
(Her face went as) blank as a chalkboard —Jonathan Valin (The child’s expression was) blank, as if her hair was drawn back and fastened so tightly that her facial muscles couldn’t function —Margaret Millar Countenance … like a still, dark day, equally beamless and breezeless —Charlotte Brontë Empty look … like an actor without a part —John le Carré Expressionless as a smoked herring —Anon Expressionless … like a portrait of a great beauty by a not very great painter who had caught all the listed features, but not the living stir of loveliness —Elizabeth Taylor Face … cold and motionless, as of a man who is asleep —Mikhail P. Arzybashev Face … as blank as a target after a militia shooting-match —Mark Twain Face … as inanimate as a mask —Ellen Glasgow Face as inscrutable as that of a snapping turtle —Arthur Train A face as vacant as an untenanted house —Marcel Proust Face, empty like that of a doll —Franz Werfel
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Hardly ever smiling, with no cracks showing so no one could look in … like an empty plate —Helen Hudson Hopelessly blank, like the face of a blind man —Joseph Conrad It [her face] was blank, as though she no longer dwelt within her own skull, as though she had gone elsewhere —Margaret Laurence (His face was empty and impassive,) shut tight as a graveyard gate —Nicholas Proffitt Staring blankly ahead like a man with a fever —Mark Helprin Wooden-faced as a cigar-store Indian —Raymond Chandler, Trouble Is My Business This typifies the simile that outlives the relevancy of the comparison.
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS Always had a ready smile, so that her face with its round rosy cheeks was more like something you could eat or lick; she reminded me
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of nothing so much as an apple fritter —Edna O’Brien
Face … delicate with fear, as if it might shatter like white china —Paul Theroux
Anger on her cheeks like rouge —Truman Capote
Face had clenched like a pale wax-paper mask, into a ball of hate —Louise Erdrich
Anxiety and annoyance chasing each other like the hands of a clock around his wide, flat face —Helen Hudson Blinked … like an owl surprised in daylight and annoyed at this interruption —John Galsworthy Bright, inflamed look, as though she had just been crying or having her cheeks scrubbed by an angry nursegirl —Mary McCarthy [Face] Cold as a cameo —Barbara Howes His countenance was like lightning —The Holy Bible/Matthew Expression … like a leopard who’s just sighted a plump impala —Jilly Cooper Expression like a stork that dropped a baby and broke it and is coming to explain to the parents —Mel Brooks Face was wound up like a spring —Alan Sillitoe Face … cold, as though warmth and tenderness were dead in her —Jean Rhys Face … as calm as a mask —Ross Macdonald Face … as hard as ice —Roberta Allen Face as welcoming as an open fire —William McIlvanney Face becoming creased and flabby, like an old bag, with the strain of making it smile and show interest and speak its permitted few words —Kingsley Amis Face bobbing anxiously like a man bidding at an auction —Derek Lambert Face changed a little … as if a headlight had flashed across it —Frank Tuohy
Face had fallen like a waffle —Frank O’Hara Face harmoniously fixed, as if for a camera —Elizabeth Hardwick Face harsh and wrung and savage beneath the springing tears like sweat —William Faulkner Face is still calm, as though she had a cast made and painted to just the look she wanted —Ken Kesey Face laced tight as a shoe —Lorrie Moore (When he came … her) face lighted up as if he had been sunshine —William Makepeace Thackeray Face like a buttered scone, dripping complacency —Helen Hudson Face lit up like a sunburst —Max Shulman Face lit with a kind of radiant pain, as if she’d been bitten by a miracle —Sharon Sheehe Stark (Icy anger tucked behind his) face, locked up like a store after hours —Lorrie Moore Face looked all stiff, as if he were afraid the features would fall off —Helen Hudson Face puckered and fierce and jowly and quizzical like a Boston bulldog —George Garrett Face … rigid, like the face of a man in the grip of a barely controlled rage —Wallace Stegner (Tiny’s) face sagged like an old pillow propped against a headboard —Harold Adams Faces all knotted up like burls on oaks —William Carlos Williams
Face [of old man] crinkled into a laugh, so that it looked like a polished walnut —Lu Hsun
Faces became red and swollen as from an interior fire which flamed out from the clear holes of their eyes —Émile Zola
Face crumpled like a sheet of wadded paper —Pat M. Esslinger-Carr
Faces chipped into expressions that never change, like flint arrowheads —Ken Kesey
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(The sheriff’s) face seems to melt like a plate of butter left too close to the fire —George Garrett
The grin left his face and was replaced by the sort of amusement that rings like a coin slapped on a bar —Jonathan Valin
Face shining like a great sunflower —Aharon Megged
Had a face like a Requiem —Honoré de Balzac
Face shone with a bright glow … like the terrible glow of a fire on a dark night —Leo Tolstoy Faces … lifted up like flowers in a kind of rapt and mournful ecstasy —Thomas Wolfe Face squinched up like a withered apple —Robert B. Parker Faces with the word “no” stamped like a coat of arms on them [about London landladies] —V.S. Pritchet Face that looks as overworked as Gary Cooper trying to register an emotion —Wallace Stegner Face twisted like a man who’s accidentally swallowed a whole chili pepper —Gloria Norris
Had an expression on his face as if he were listening for something, so that one felt one couldn’t disturb him —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Her eyes were still red, but she) had the happy look of a child that has outslept its grief —Edith Wharton Had the mankind-loving look of a convert fresh from church —Harold Adams Hard, red face like a book of rules —Anthony Carson Has a haunted, jumpy look, as if invisible alarm clocks were going off throughout the day, to remind him of undone duties —Christopher Isherwood
Face, vague like a shadow —Anatole France
Her face shut up like a suitcase —Claire Messud, The Last Life
Face … vigilant as some small cat’s —Louise Erdrich
His fat face opened and smiled like a distorted, gold-toothed flower —John Dickson Carr
Face was set into an expression of intense attention, like a man listening to an important broadcast which might affect his course of action in some way —John Malcolm
His mangy little face lit up like a store window going on for the night —Jonathan Valin
Face went to pieces as if by its own weight —Ross Macdonald Fearful expression … like the fear of an animal which has been beaten and kicked for too long —Louis Bromfield Features … softening like wax too close to the flame —George Garrett Fierce and variegated countenance, appeared like war personified —Nathanial Hawthorne
The kid’s face had as much expression as a cut of round steak and was about the same color —Raymond Chandler, Red Wind Like a peddler whose wares have been turned down all day, he waited, with a look of patient expectation —Elizabeth Hardwick Lips pursed like those of a goldfish blowing bubbles in an aquarium —Michael Korda, Another Life
A gentle, cowlike expression passed over her face like a cloud —Colette
Lips went white, like a person who has received a stunning blow without warning and who, in the first moments of shock, does not realize what has happened —Margaret Mitchell
Grimaced, like a rubber Kewpie doll being squeezed in all the wrong places —Paige Mitchell
(Every time he saw Conrad he) lit up like a fairground with hilarity and self-satisfaction —A. Alvarez
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A lonely face, pulled in like rain off the wild stretches —Elizabeth Spencer
A set face, sad like a toy soldier’s, wooden and clad with honor —Z. Vance Wilson
Look as startled like a hare —Joyce Cary
(The other diners were listening with) Shocked but rather smirking expressions, like good little boys who were going to hear the bad little boy told off —Jean Rhys
Looked smug … like a messenger bringing the news of a battle won —John Rechy Looked wistful, like a kid who’d lost the magic penny —Robert Campbell Looking as miserable as sin —Penelope Gilliatt Looking puzzled and dismayed, like a baby who’s learned to pull itself up on the sides of a crib, but hasn’t figured out how to sit down again —Sue Grafton A look of intense mirth spread over Lily’s face like water released suddenly from a broken dam —Louis Bromfield A look of surprise … as if he’d just swallowed an ice cube —T. Coraghessan Boyle Looks perpetually surprised, but scared and insincere, like a play actor —Jayne Anne Phillips Looks puzzled and grieved, as if he can’t believe his bad luck —François Camoin No pity or censure in her face, it was as immovable as a fact —Margaret Millar Official faces … like death masks —Ross Macdonald Old emotions, like old scars, savaged his face —Rita Mae Brown
The compassionate look of a friendly dog —André Malraux Their faces seemed unusually open, like so many windows —John Cheever Tiredness and worry chasing one another like clouds across her face —Susan Hill A tremor, as quick and delicate as a pulse, passed over her features … so quickly it seemed a drop of rain had simply moved like a shadow across her face —Alice McDermott His face [as he breaks into laughter] unfolds like a peony —Erich Maria Remarque
< FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS See Also: EYE EXPRESSIONS, MISCELLANEOUS Face all clouds, like a man in need of physic —George Garrett A face as sad and featureless as a moon by day —George Garrett Face austere as a hermit’s —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
One could see thoughts crossing his face like caravans of camels lurching slowly across the seemingly endless Sahara —Delmore Schwartz
Face … gloomy as an El Greco —John Fowles Carlos Baker makes the El Greco comparison with “long” which expands the meaning to include mood as well as physical shape.
Open-mouthed, like a fish —Anon
Face grim as flu —Reynolds Price
Pale astonishment in his face as if at a sudden accusation —George Eliot
Face like a clenched fist —Richard Condon
Pleading look, a beg for help like a message from a powerless invaded country to the rest of the world —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Face like a vinegar bottle —Erich Maria Remarque
Sensuality had been eroded from his face, nibbled away, as the sea nibbles traces of meat from a shell —Julia O’Faolain
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A face like a stomach cramp —Loren D. Estleman
Face … somber as a churchman’s —Richard Ford Face tightened up like a charley-horse —Raymond Chandler
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THE SIMILES Face was long, like a sheep’s —W. Somerset Maugham The comparison is used to describe both sadness and a long-shaped face. To emphasize the psychological there’s Daphne du Maurier’s “long and grave … like a complaining sheep.” To combine both meanings there’s this by Margaret Atwood: “face … long and mournful, like a sheep’s, but with the large full eyes of a dog, spaniel not terrier.” Grim as an ideological bigot —Frank Swinnerton Had the face of a man suffering the awaited death of a loved one who’s terminally ill —Mario Puzo Had the look of a boy who had just lost his puppy to the county dogcatcher —Clive Cussler He [Calvin Coolidge] looks as if he’d been weaned on a pickle —Alice Roosevelt Longworth His long grim face, with the mouth running across its lower hem like a slipped thread in a linen sack, was as pitted as a battlefield —Cynthia Ozick A long sad face like a cocker spaniel —George Garrett Looked dismayed, like a child who’s been used to hearing the same story with the same happy ending, and now the ending has been changed —Margaret Millar Looked like a man being strapped into the electric chair while his wife French-kisses the D.A. in the hallway —T. Coraghessan Boyle Looking as if the dentist had told him he’d have to have all his teeth pulled —Ross Macdonald
Facial Shape Sour and gray in the face, like a man who detests the food that keeps him alive; and must yet have it —Paul Horgan Troubled face … like a gravel parking lot —Ken Follett Wore a permanently pinched look, as if he had just bitten into a piece of spoiled fish that he could neither swallow or spit out —Amos Oz Worried look, like a bird dog uncertain of the scent —Elizabeth Spencer
< FACIAL SHAPE His flat face looked as if it were pressed against a window, except there was no window —Rebbecca West Big face, broad at the bottom, narrowed upward like a Dutch cheese —Saul Bellow An enormous flat face like an unbaked pie —J. B. Priestly Face as huge as the bowl of the sky —George Garrett Face as long as his arm —Henry Van Dyke Face, as round and white and incisively marked as the face of a clock —John Updike Face … as round as a skillet —James Lee Burke Face broad and oval as a meat dish —Angela Carter Face flat as a dough pan —James Lee Burke Face, like a large tomato, was round and very red —Kenzaburo Oe Face long as a fence line in flat country —Linda West Eckhardt Face long as an El Greco —Carlos Baker Face round as a full moon —James Crumley
Looking as pensive as a monk in a spiritual crisis —Scott Spencer
Face … round as a radar dish —John Updike
Looking like a broody hen —Margaret Kennedy
Face shaped like a honeydew melon —Paige Mitchell
(You) look like you just swallowed a bone —Charles Johnson
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Faces as long as a wet week —H. E. Bates
Face shaped like a shovel —Joyce Carol Oates
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Facts Face … thin as a knife —Honoré de Balzac A long face like a shoe —Christina Stead A long narrow face cut like a tribal mask —Miles Gibson A round chubby face, like a soft beachball —John Rechy Round face like the full moon —W. Somerset Maugham Sharp-pointed face like a cat —Honoré de Balzac A sparkling, triangular face like a cat —Pamela Frankau A thin face shaped like the hatchet Lizzie Borden chopped up her mama with —Davis Dresser
< FACTS See Also: TRUTH A fact is like a sack which won’t stand up when it is empty —Luigi Pirandello In his play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello expands upon the simile as follows: “In order that it may stand up, one has to put into it the reason and sentiment which have caused it to exist. Facts apart from their relationships are like labels on empty bottles —Sven Halla Facts fled before her like frightened forest things —Oscar Wilde Statistics are like alienists, they will testify for either side —Fiorello H. La Guardia, Liberty Magazine, May, 1933 Use facts … the way a carpenter uses nails —R. Wright Campbell Use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts, for support rather than illumination —Andrew Lang
< FAILURE See Also: COLLAPSE, DISINTEGRATION, SUCCESS/FAILURE Our play apparently failed with a suddenness like exploding mortar. I saw the reviews.
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THE SIMILES —Martha Gellhorn, in the preface of the 1995 publication of her first and only play, Love Goes to Press, with fellow journalist Virginia Cowles—revived in June 2012 by the Mint Theater known for giving new life to forgotten plays.
< FAITH See Also: BELIEF, RELIGION
< FAITHFULNESS/FAITHLESSNESS See Also: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
< FALL See Also: SEASONS
< FALLING See Also: COLLAPSE
< FALSENESS See Also: TRUENESS/FALSENESS
< FAME See Also: GREATNESS Celebrities … get consumed just as fast as new improved soaps, new clothing fashions and new ideas —Russell Baker Celebrities used to be found in oysters, like oysters and with much the same defensive mechanisms —Barbara Walters Celebrity is like having an extra lump of sugar in your coffee —Mikhail Baryshnikov Fame always melts like ice cream in the dish —Delmore Schwartz Fame grows like a tree with hidden life —Horace Fame is a colored patch on a ragged garment —Aleksander Pushkin Fame is like a crop of Canada thistles, very easy to sew, but hard to reap —Josh Billings In Billings’ phonetic dialect this read: “Fame is like a crop ov kanada thissels, very eazy tew sew, but hard tew reap.”
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THE SIMILES Fame isn’t a thing. It’s a feeling. Like what you get after a pill —Joyce Cary Fame … it’s like having a string of pearls given you. It’s nice, but after a while, if you think of it at all, it’s only to wonder if they’re real or cultured —W. Somerset Maugham
Familiarity Men’s fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them —George Villiers Our glories float between the earth and heaven like clouds which seem pavilions of the son —Earle Bulwer-Lytton
Fame, like a river, is narrowest at its source and broadest afar off —Proverb
Posterity is a switchboard to past, present and future —Karl Shapiro
Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy to those who woo her with too slavish knees —John Keats
The public’s appetite for famous people is big as a mountain —Robert Motherwell, New York Times, January 22, 1986
Fame, like man, will grow white as it grows old —Abraham Cowley
The way to fame is like the way to heaven, through much tribulation —Lawrence Sterne
Fame, like water, bears up the lighter things, and lets the weighty sink —Sir Samuel Tuke A slight variation by Francis Bacon: “Fame is like a river, that bears (modernized from beareth) on things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.” Fame to the ambitious, is like salt water to the thirsty, the more one gets the more he wants —Emil Ebers Glories, like glow-worms afar off, shine bright, but looked at near have neither heat nor light —John Webster Slightly modernized from “Afar off shine bright, but look’d too near have neither heat nor light.” Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceases to enlarge itself (till by broad spreading it disperse to nought) —William Shakespeare. Henry VI, Part I Shakespeare used the Old English “ceathes.”
< FAMILIARITY See Also: COMMONPLACE (The donors were as) anonymous as God —Herbert Gold (Voice) as familiar as yesterday —Wallace Stegner Everything reliable as the newly-wed suite in the Holiday Inn —Richard Ford The simile follows a description of the neverchanging, always neat apartment of a woman’s apartment in Ford’s novel, The Sportswriter. Familiar as an old mistake —Edward Arlington Robinson Familiar as a town clock —Anon (She became as snugly) familiar as his own armpit —Julia O’Faolain Familiar as light or dark —Wallace Stegner Familiar as luggage —Richard Ford
Her life had become akin to living inside a drum with the whole world beating on the outside —Barbara Seaman In her biography of Jacqueline Susann, Lovely Me, this is how Seaman describes her subject’s life after she becomes a famous author.
Familiar as one’s own front door —Anon
Like grass that autumn yellows your fame will wither away —Phyllis McGinley
Familiar as the features of the President —Dorothea Straus
Like madness is the glory of this life —William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
Familiar as the stars and stripes on American flag —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Familiar as one’s own face —Anon Familiar as one’s own spice shelf —Anon Familiar as the contents of one’s own broom closet —Anon
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Family Familiar … as the streets of our native town —W. H. Hudson Familiar as the voice of a favorite broadcaster —Anon Familiar … as things are familiar in dreams, like the dreams of falling to one who has never climbed —William Faulkner (The agony was as) familiar … as waking to life —Paul Theroux Familiar as warts or some birthmark —Derek Walcott Familiar in his mouth as household words —William Shakespeare, Henry V He knows my face. He reads it like a farmer reads the sky —Marianne Hauser Knew [her children’s natures] as accurately as a bugler knows the notes of reveille —Ouida Know him like a book —Charles F. Briggs A variation that’s become a popular daily is attributed to mystery writer Margaret Millar, who used it in her novel, The Weight of the Evidence: “I know him like I know the back of my hand.” Know it [Boston] as an old inhabitant of a Cheshire knows his cheese —Oliver Wendell Holmes Know … like a rabbit knows its warren —Frank Ross (I got men that) know (these hills) like you know your wife’s geography —Ross Macdonald (A voice as) recognizable as a train whistle —Scott Simon about sports broadcaster Harry Caray, National Public Radio, May 2,1987 Recognized (every little curve and shadow) as he would have recognized, after half a life-time, the details of a room he had played in as a child —Edith Wharton Sounds, familiar, like the roar of trees and crack of branches —Robert Frost Standardized as boilerplate paragraphs in a law office —Anon
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THE SIMILES Standardized, as if put together with interchangeable parts —Philip Langdon, The Atlantic, December, 1985 In an article entitled “Burger Shakes,” Langdon used the simile to describe cities dotted with fastfood chains. The stranger is like passing water in the drain —Margaret Laurence Stylized as the annual report message to stockholders —Anon
< FAMILY See Also: PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS
< FASCINATION See Also: ATTRACTIVENESS
< FASHION See Also: CLOTHING, STYLE
< FATE See Also: HELPLESSNESS, LIFE Chase destiny like a harpoonist —Edith Pearlman Fate … creeps like a rat —Elizabeth Bown The Fates, like an absent-minded printer, seldom allow a single line to stand perfect and unmarred —George Santayana Fate treats me mercilessly, like a storm treats a small boat —Anton Chekhov Like warp and woof all destinies are woven fast —John Greenleaf Whittier Our lives carried us in our own dimensions, like people passing on different escalators —Mary Ladd Cavell We’re like dice thrown on the plains of destiny —Rita Mae Brown
< FATIGUE See: WEARINESS
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THE SIMILES
< FATNESS See Also: BODY, INSULTS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Blew up like a poisoned dog —Rita Mae Brown The simile refers to a character in the novel, Southern Discomfort, who became fat after having a child. Body … encased in fat, like an insulated boiler —A. Alvarez Body plump as a church rat’s —Honoré de Balzac Broad as a barn door —John Heywood’s Proverbs A shorter, modern version: “broad as a door.”
Fear Fat overflowed not only from her jowl to her neck, but from her ankles to her shoes … she looked like a pudding that had risen too high and run down the sides of the dish —Nadine Gordimer (He was) fattening like a Christmas goose —Calder Willingham Grew fat as a broiler —Kate Wheeler He was fat, with a belly creased like a roll when he bent over —John Gunther His stomach swells like a big cake baking —Carolyn Chute
(At the hips … she was) broad as a sofa —Saul Bellow
I was square and looked like a refrigerator approaching —Jean Kerr Pudgy as a baby’s hand —Jonathan Valin
Corpulent as a fire plug —Samuel Shem Fine
Plump as an abbot —Robert Traver
Fat and sleek: a dumpling —D. H. Lawrence
Plump as a partridge —John Ray’s Proverbs
Fat as a balloon —Mark Twain
She was round and plump as her favorite teapot —Peter De Vries
Fat as a duck —John Adams The man Adams compared to a duck was Aaron Burr.
Stout as a stump —James Crumley (Piglets) stout as jugs —W. D. Snodgrass
Fat as a fool —John Lyly
(A short man) wide as a door —Jessamyn West
Fat as an owl —Miles Gibson
A youngish plump little body, rather like a pigeon —Katherine Mansfield
Fat as a pig —John Cotgrave This is probably the most famous and often used “Fat as” comparison. Its earliest version “Fat as a pork hog” appeared in to Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. An offshoot, “Fat as a hen in the forehead,” has been variously attributed to the playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and Jonathan Swift. (I shall grow) fat as a porpoise —Jonathan Swift Fat as a whale —Geoffrey Chaucer Fat as butter —William Shakespeare Henry IV A variation which has become an American colloquialism is “Fat as a butter-ball.”
< FEAR See Also: ANXIETY, EMOTIONS, NERVOUSNESS Afraid, as children in the dark —Dante Gabriel Rossetti An air of terrifying finality, like the clap of doom —Herbert Lieberman (A vague, uncatalogued) apprehension, as cold and disquieting as a first snowflake smudging the window of a warm and complacent room —Derek Lambert
Fat as plenty —Hugh Ward
As courage imperils life, fear protects it —Leonardo Da Vinci
The fat on her was like loose-powdered dough —Carson McCullers
As easily daunted as an elephant in the presence of a mouse —Ben Ames Williams
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Fear Brute terrors, like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic, filled the more remote chambers of his brain —Robert Louis Stevenson Cowardice, like alcoholism, is a lifelong condition —Susan Walton, New York Times, column, New York Times, June 4, 1987 The cowardice Walton is comparing to alcoholism is that which drives the person who always does what is expected and when.
THE SIMILES The fear of failure … blew like a Siberian wind on our unprotected backs —John le Carré Fear oozed out (of the woods), as out of a cracked bottle —Dorothy Canfield Fear ran through him like a sickness —Brian Moore Fears … fell from him like dreams from a man waking up in bed —G. K. Chesterton
Cowardly as the hyena —Beryl Markham
Fear … sat heavy in the center of his body like a ball of badly digested food —George Garrett
(His) cowardices … fixed him like an invisible cement, or like a nail —Cynthia Ozick
Fears came scurrying out from their hiding places like mice —Paige Mitchell
Dreaded (her) like fire —A. S. Pushkin
Fear … seized all his bones like water —Hugh Walpole
The dread in his lungs lay heavy as cold mud —Peter Matthiessen An eddy of fear swirled around her, like dust rising off the floor in some barren drafty place —Cornell Woolrich
Fear shot through me like a jolt of electricity —Sue Grafton Fear spread like a common chill —Paige Mitchell
Fear … a little like the fear of a lover who realizes that he is falling out of love —May Sarton
The fear [of death] … stood silent behind them like an inflexible and cold-eyed taskmaster —Joseph Conrad
Fear … came and went like the throb of a nerve in an open tooth —James Warner Bellah
Fear stuck in his throat like a cotton hook —Charles Johnson
Fear … clutching at his heart … as if tigers were tearing him —Willa Cather
Fear swelled like some terrible travail —Heinrich Böll
Fear … compressed me like a vise —Aharon Appelfeld
Fear tangled his legs like a barricade —Harris Downe
Fear fell [on crowd] like the shadow of a cloud —John Greenleaf Whittier Fear … gnaws like pain —Dame Edith Sitwell
Fear tastes like a rusty knife —John Cheever Fear trills like an alarm bell you cannot shut off —John Updike
Fearing them as much … as a nervous child with memory filled with ghost-stories fears a dark room —W. H. Hudson
Fear worked like yeast in my thoughts, and the fermentation brought to the surface, in great gobs of scum, the images of disaster —Evelyn Waugh
Fear is like a cloak which old men huddle about their love, as if to keep it warm —William Wordsworth
Fear wrapped itself around his chest like a wide leather strap tightened by a maniac —François Camoin
Fear … lay on me like a slab of stone —Norman Mailer
Feeling as if an ice pick had been plunged into his liver —Peter Benchley
(In my body is a) fear like metal —Marilyn Hacker
(I had) a feeling in my knees like a steering wheel with a shimmy —Rex Stout
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THE SIMILES Feel like clammy fingers were poking at my very heart —Borden Deal Feel like a tight-rope walk high over hell —Kenneth Fearing Feels fear, like a water bubble in his throat —Jessie Schell Felt a chill … like swimming into a cold pocket in a lake —Tobias Wolff Felt a driblet of fear … like a glug of water backing up the momentarily opened drain and polluting the bath with a dead spider, three lice, a rat turd, and things he couldn’t stand to name or look at —Bernard Malamud
Fear Frightening … like one of those films where ghostly hands suddenly reach in and switch off all the lights —Robert Emmet Sherwood Fright stabbed his stomach like a sliver of glass —Arthur Miller Full of dread and timidness as conscripts to a firing squad —Richard Ford Gives me the creeps … like petting snakes —Raymond Chandler, Little Sister Glances round him like a lamb at a convocation of wolves —T. Coraghessan Boyle (Mildred’s) heart leapt with relief like a bird in her breast —Noel Coward
Felt like a deer stepping out before the rifle of the hunter —Piers Anthony
A hiss of terror, like air whistling out of a punctured tire —Cornell Woolrich
Felt like a nightmare that had yet to be dreamt —Stanislaw J. Lem
Horror should rise up like a clot of blood in the throat —Dylan Thomas
Felt (the beginning of) panic, like a giant hand squeezing my heart —Frank Conroy
[A group of children] Huddled in a corner … like so many wide-eyed, trembling mice —Gregory McDonald
Felt panicky, like he was in a bad dream where he did and said all the wrong things and couldn’t stop —Dan Wakefield Felt the chill of mortality … like a toddler gifted with some scraping edge of adult comprehension —Penelope Gilliatt Felt the sick, oppressive crush of dread, like pinpoint ashes —Sylvia Berkman A foreboding, dusky and cold like the room, crept to her side —Hugh Walpole Frightened as Macbeth before the ghost of Banquo —Louis Veuillot Frightened as though he had suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice —Honoré de Balzac Frightened … like a man who is told he has a mortal illness, yet can cure it by jumping off a fifty-foot cliff into the water. “No,” he says, “I’ll stay in bed. I’d rather die.” —Norman Mailer
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I carry a scared silence with me like my smell —W. D. Snodgrass I pretend that my right foot is like a bottle. I pour my fears down into the toes and cork the whole thing at the ankle, so none of my fears can escape into the rest of me —Dorothy B. Francis It was as if he had entered the dark forest of a fairy tale —Erik Larson, In the Belly of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin My heart begins to pound like a thief’s with the police after him —Isaac Bashevis Singer My heart in my throat like a wad of sour grease —George Garrett Panic, like a rabbit in front of the dogs —Peter Meinke Panic rose as thick as honey in my throat —R. Wright Campbell
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Feelings Panic shook her … as awful as if she had been tottering on a cliff in a roaring wind —Belva Plain Panic that was like asphyxiation —Penelope Gilliatt Ran terror-stricken, as if death were pursuing me —Aharon Megged Scared as a piss ant —Anon Scared … like a rabbit that spies a dog —Shelby Hearon Shivered with fear like a thin dog in the cold —Stephen Vincent Benét Take fear for granted like a drunken uncle —George Garrett Terrifying, like a Samurai sword in motion —Robert Silverberg Terrifying … like fingers clamped upon your throat —Beryl Markham Terror ebbed. Like water from a basin —Julia O’Faolain Terror … filled me as the sound of an explosion would fill a room —Scott Spencer
THE SIMILES Barked like an old sergeant —Frank Swinnerton Fierce as a comet —John Milton Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action —Carl Sandburg Fierce as a fever —Anon Fierce as a lobster making one last lunge out of the pot —Norman Mailer Fierce as hunger —Babette Deutsch Fierce as vengeance —John Greenleaf Whittier Fiery as tiger eyes —Jessamyn West Growled … as a dog might do at a postman —Frank Swinnerton Savage as a bear with a sore head —Frederick Marryat Savage as a meat-ax —American colloquialism, attributed to the Mid-South (Hope) temptuous like a fire-cloud —Dante Gabriel Rossetti (A fly is as) untamable as a hyena —Ralph Waldo Emerson Wild as a monkey —Robert Silverberg
The terror inside him acted like radar —James Mitchell
Wild as a starved cat —Elizabeth Spencer
Terror [of some hard to accomplish task] mocked, like some distant mountain peak —John Fowles
Wild as young bulls —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I.
Wild as the vultures’ cry —Aeschylus
Terrors that brushed her like a curtain windblown against her back —Andre Dubus
(Memories do not turn to dust. They live) wild as young colts —Elizabeth Spencer
(They) trail their fear behind them like a heavy shadow —Heinrich Böll
(You’re) wild … just like a sea-bird —Clifford Odets
< FEELINGS
< FERTILITY
See: EMOTIONS, PHYSICAL FEELINGS
See: GROWTH
< FEET
< FERVOR
See: LEG(S)
See: ENTHUSIASM
< FEROCITY
< FICKLENESS
See Also: SCREAMS
See: LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
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Finger(s)
See Also: FIGHTING Clashed like stallions —Diane Ackerman
Just when the opponents seem ready to slug each other into senselessness, they clinch and go into a clumsy waltz, like boxers in a comic film —Leonard Silk, New York Times, April 22, 1987 Silk’s reference is to combatants in strained financial markets.
< FIGHTING
Like sailors fighting with a leak we fought mortality —Emily Dickinson
< FICTION See: STORIES
< FIGHT
See Also: ARGUMENTS Defend like a dog —Lopez Portillo The former Mexican president’s simile to describe how he would defend the peso gave his countrymen cause for anger and ridicule, with people sometimes barking at him in public places.
A quarrel between man and wife is like cutting water with a sword —Chinese proverb
< FIGURE See: BODY
(Self-dependent power can time) defy as rocks resist the billows and the sky —Oliver Goldsmith
< FINANCE
Fierce strife … stirs one’s old Saxon fighting blood, like the tales of “knights who fought ’gainst fearful odds” that thrilled us in our school-boy days —Jerome K. Jerome
< FINGER(S)
Fight as one weary of his life —William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part I Fight [death] … body and breath, till my life runs out like water —Stephen Vincent Benét Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as heroes —Margaret Mitchell Fighting like a wounded puma —George F. Will Wills’s wounded puma simile was used to describe Richard Nixon’s battle during the Watergate scandal.
See: ECONOMICS
See Also: HAND(S) Fingernails … long as stilettos —T. Coraghessan Boyle Fingernails that were long and curved and looked as tough as horn —Sue Grafton Fingers are thin as ice —Marge Piercy Fingers brown and hard as wood —Philip Levine Fingers cool as gemstones —R. Wright Campbell Fingers danced like midgets above a summer stream —O. Henry Fingers fluttering … like butterflies —William Goyen
Fight like devils —William Shakespeare, Henry V
Fingers fluttering like ribbons —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Fight … like lions wanting food —William Shakespeare. King Henry VI, Part I
Fingers … gnarled, like the roots of trees in an Arthur Rackham drawing —Antonia Fraser
Fights fierce as duels —Anon
Fingers … hard and inactive, like the gnarled roots of a dead tree —Frank Swinnerton
Fought like a pagan who defends his religion —Steven Crane Fought like one boxer and his punching bag … like mismatched twins —Erica Jong
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Fingers … like a bundle of broom straw, so thin and dry —Louise Erdrich Fingers like long wax candles —Cynthia Ozick
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Fire and Smoke Fingers like pliers —Donald Seaman (The woman’s) fingers rustled like branches against her face —Leigh Allison Wilson Fingers spread apart like the talons of a predatory bird —William March
THE SIMILES Snapping his fingers together like a pair of scissors —Margaret Atwood Thumb like the butt of a pistol —Sterling Hayden
Fingers spreading out like fans —Pat Conroy
< FIRE AND SMOKE
Fingers tap like a lover’s fondling a girl’s hard little breasts —Babette Deutsch
See Also: TOBACCO Blaze like a box of matches —Joseph Conrad
Fingers thick as sausages —James Crumley
(His house) burned like a candle —Sholem Aleichem
Fingers tightly clenched, as if to check an involuntary gesture —Edith Wharton Fingers … weighty as sandbags —Frank Conroy
A cloud of black soot stood in it [the room] like a fairy-tale monster in a thick wood —Boris Pasternak
Fingers were stiff as little darts —M. J. Farrell
A flame as clear as a streetlight —Cynthia Ozick
Her fingers moved over his ribs gently as a harpist’s —Ross Macdonald
The flame reared like the trunk of an animal —Steve Erickson
Knuckles … like a row of little white onion [from tight grip] —Roald Dahl
Flames fluttered like a school of fishes —Saul Bellow
(Hands crouched on the table before her, the) knuckles like miniature snow-capped mountains —Marge Piercy
(Suddenly the) flame shot up, leaping like a dancer in the air —Alix Kates Shulman
Knuckles [from gripping a table very hard] shone like white stones —Mary Hedin
Ribbons of flame slithered like orange serpents across the … floor —Paul Kuttner
Long fingers arched like grapple hooks —William Carlos Williams
The smoke ascended in a straight column, as though from a pagan altar —Isaac Bashevis Singer
Long inquisitive fingers thrown out like antennae —Edith Wharton Long thin fingers moving like knitting needles —Liam O’Flaherty Long thin nails, like splinters —Elizabeth Spencer My fingers fidget like ten idle brats —Wilfred Owen Opening and closing his fingers like folding and unfolding a fan —George Garrett
Oily flames curl like hair —Jean Thompson
Smoke flared through his nostrils like an old painting of a dragon —David Brierly Smoke in the air like fog on the New Jersey flats —Carlos Baker Smoke (from his clay pipe) lay on the air like tule fog in a marsh —Bill Pronzini Smoke puffed from her nostril like a tiny exhaust —Ross Macdonald Smoke rose … like a snake —Hugh Walpole
Pointed his finger like a revolver —Charles Johnson
(In June when earth) smokes like slag —James Wright
Put his fingertips together thoughtfully, like a man preparing to pray —Paul Theroux
Smoke … spread itself out like an infernal sort of cloud —Joseph Conrad
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THE SIMILES Smoldering embers of a fire blinked like red eyes —Ellen Glasgow [Earth and night] Smolder like the slow, curing fire of a Javanese head-shrinker —Ted Hughes Sparks flew against the [fireplace] screen like imprisoned birds —Margaret Millar
< FIRMNESS See Also: FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY (Bread … ) as hard as pumice —Mary Stewart Be like a rocky headland on which the waves break incessantly, but it stands fast and the waters sink to resort —Marcus Aurelius (Continue) firm and unmoved as a column —James Boswell Firm as alabaster —Henry James Firm as a monkey’s tail —Creole expression Before Jean Claude Duvalier’s Haitian regime toppled in 1983, he was quoted as saying “I’m in control … firm as a monkey’s tail.” [Figure] Firm as an apple —H. E. Bates (My heart is) firm as a stone —The Holy Bible/Jeremiah Firm as morality —Thom Gunn [A distant ridge] Firm as solid crystal —William Wordsworth Firm standing like a stone wall —Bernard Bee The term “To stonewall” comes from Bee’s simile about Jackson at first battle of Bull Run. Hard and dry as rustling corn —Dame Edith Sitwell [A trained gangster] Hard and solid, like a shark —John Malcolm Hard as a billiard ball —Anon (Soil) hard as a bowling alley —E. B. White Hard as a bulletproof vest —Russell Baker, New York Times, May 21, 1986 To put this in full context: “Americans like their fish, and fish roe too, fried hard as a bulletproof vest.”
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Firmness Hard as a heavy-duty canvas fire-hose —Sharon Olds In the poem from which this is taken, “Six-YearOld Boy,” the fire-hose is used to describe a small boy waking up to urinate. Hard as an egg at Easter —Michael Denham (His body thin and stringy but) hard as armor plating —Clive Cussler Hard as a stone pillow —Anon Back in the Tang Dynasty chen or ceramic pillows were used during as well as after life as a means for keeping the eyes clear and preserving sight. (The wheel of your life is … as) hard as caked clay which nothing can grow in —Amy Lowell (Words as) hard as cannon-balls —Ralph Waldo Emerson Hard as corkwood —Miguel de Cervantes (Felt as) hard as dried mud —James Crumley The descriptive frame of reference is the face of a man who’s been beaten up. (Her breasts were small but looked) hard as green apples —Anon Hard as the knots in a whip —Yehuda Amichai Hard as nails —Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist) This now commonplace simile may well precede its appearance in Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Many other writers have used it since and have modified and extended it, e.g.: “Hard and sharp as nails,” attributed to S. J. Weyman; and “Hard as nails and sour as vinegar,” attributed to George Beillairs. Hardened and set like concrete —Karl Shapiro My ass … was tight as a bull’s in a thunderstorm —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker (His jaw was) rigid as a horseshoe —Flannery O’Connor Rigid as a starfish —Joyce Cary Rigid as bamboo —Diane Ackerman
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Fishing
THE SIMILES
Rigid as iron post —Marge Piercy
< FLATNESS
(He went as) rigid as Lenin’s mummy —Joseph Wambaugh
See: SHAPE
Rigid as though bound and gagged —Eudora Welty
< FLATTERY
She’s hard as steel —William Shakespeare. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Heat) solid as a hickory stick —Eudora Welty Solid as a hill —William Boyd Stand firm as a tower, which never shakes its top, no matter what winds are blowing —Dante Alighieri Stiff as a garden hose left out in December —Will Weaver In Weaver’s novel Red Earth, White Earth the comparison is used to describe the physical condition of a man who’s had a stroke. (His head) stiff as a scarab —Theodore Roethke Stiff as a wedding night prick —Michael Connelly, The Harry Bosh Novels Stiff as chessmen —Elizabeth Bowen Stiff as icicles —Anon
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, WORDS OF PRAISE As a wolf is like a dog, so is a flatterer like a friend —Thomas Fuller Bang compliments backwards and forwards, like two asses scrubbing one another —Jonathan Swift Bask in it [flattery] like a sunflower —Tennessee Williams A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil —Victor Hugo Compliments are like perfume, to be inhaled, not swallowed —Charles Clark Munn Fawn like dogs —Percy Bysshe Shelley Flattered me like a dog —William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s simile from King Lear continues: “And told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there.”
Stiff as sticks —Dan Jacobson
Flatterers, like cats, lick and then scratch —German proverb
[Bed sheet] stretched tight as a drumhead —Walker Percy
Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs —George Chapman
(Backside,) sturdy as baking soda biscuits —Curtis White
Flattering as a testimonial dinner —Anon
Taut as a sail —Barbara Howes Taut as a tent —Karl Shapiro (Neck tendons) taut as banjo strings —Derek Walcott Tight as a scout’s knot —Lorrie Moore
< FISHING See: SPORTS
< FITNESS See: HEALTH
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Flattery is like a cigarette; it is all right if you don’t inhale —Adlai Stevenson Flattery … is like a qualmish liqueur in the midst of a bottle of wine —Benjamin Disraeli Flattery is like champagne, it soon gets into the head —William Brown Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed —Josh Billings Paraphrased from Billings’ phonetic dialect which reads: “Flattery is like Kolone water, tew be smelt of, not swallowed.” Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit —Socrates
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THE SIMILES Flattery is like wine, which exhilarates a man for a moment, but usually ends up going to his head and making him act foolish —Helen Rowland (Twilight was) kind as candlelight to a bad face lift —Paige Mitchell An overdose of praise is like ten lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it —Emily Post
Flexibility/Inflexibility Has as much give as a tree trunk —Jimmy Breslin Implacable an adversary as a wife suing for alimony —William Wycherly (Softly, unhurriedly but) implacably, like a great river flowing on and on —Harvey Swados Inflexible as a marble pillar —Anon Inflexible as steel —Ouida Inflexible as the rings of hell —John Cheever
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity —Samuel Johnson
Intractable as a driven ghost —Sylvia Plath
Some folks pay a compliment like they went down in their pocket for it —Kin Hubbard
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind —W. Somerset Maugham
Whatcha gonna do when a feller gets flirty / An’ starts to talk purty / Whatcha gonna do? / S’pposin’ that he says / That your lips are like cherries, /Or roses, or berries —Oscar Hammerstein, “I Cain’t Say No, Oklahoma
(The adolescent personality is as) malleable as infant flesh —Barbara Lazear Acher, New York Times, October 23, 1986
< FLAVOR
The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind —William Blake
See: FOOD AND DRINK
Mind set like concrete —George Garrett
< FLAWS
Pliable as wax —James Shirley
See: ERRORS
Pliant as cloth —Eugene Sue
< FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY See Also: HABIT Adaptable as a Norwegian wharf rat —James Mills Adjustable as prices of goods sold in a flea market —Anon Adjust to as your eyes adjust to darkness or sudden light —Anon
Pliant as flesh —Linda Pastan Rigidity yielding a little, like justice swayed by mercy, is the whole beauty of the earth —G. K. Chesterton Set as a piece of sculpture —Charles Dickens [She did not even pretend there would be another meeting. It was] as final as death —Laura Moriarty, The Chaprone
Elastic as a criminal’s conscience —Anon
They made their hearts as an adamant stone —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha A variation from “Hearts firm as stone” and “Cold as stone” from the Book of Job
Elastic as a steel spring —Anon
Uncompromising as a policeman’s club —Anon
Flexible as a diplomat’s conscience —Anon
Uncompromising as justice —William Lloyd Garrison
Be pliable like a reed, not rigid like a cedar —Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar
Flexible as figures in the hands of the statistician —Israel Zangwill Flexible as silk —Ouida
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
(There he was, as) unshakable as granite —Frank Swinnerton
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Flowers
< FLOWERS See Also: NATURE All white scented flowers, like the perfume of love in fresh sheets —Janet Flanner Blossoms covered trees like colored powder puffs —Rita Mae Brown Blossoms … fell to the ground like confetti —Shelby Hearon Bluebells like grey lace —Joan Aiken Bougainvillea … large as basketballs —William Faulkner The bud came apart … its layers like small velvet shells —Eudora Welty The flowers burned on their stalks like yellow tongues of flame —Dorothy Canfield
THE SIMILES Patches of tiny wildflowers … like luminous rugs on the grass —Gina Berriault Pink roses blooming like flesh —Bin Ramke The plants sprang up thick as winter grass —Annette Sanford Primroses waving gently like lazy yellow gloves —George Garrett Roses, big as a man’s fist and red as blood —Eudora Welty Rows of white flowers … throwing shadows on the azure-colored ground like trails of shooting stars —Gustave Flaubert Small blue flowers like points of sky —Philip Levine The simile launches Levine’s poem “The Voice.”
Flowers burst like bombs —Vachel Lindsay
The tiny yellow flowers danced underfoot, like jewels in the dust —Mary Stewart
Forsythia … sprawling like yellow amoebae —A. R. Ammons
The tulip-beds across the road flamed like throbbing rings of fire —Oscar Wilde
A host of crocuses stood up like yellow trumpets —Howard Spring
Tulips … bright as the showers —Dame Edith Sittwell
Irises, rising beautiful and cool on their tall stalks, like blown glass —Margaret Atwood The jonquils glowed like candles —Helen Hudson Lilies bunched together in a frill of green … like faded cauliflowers —Katherine Mansfield The little red and yellow flowers were out on the grass, like floating lamps —Virginia Woolf Magnolia flowers … like rosettes carved in alabaster —Edith Wharton Oleanders with their pink flowers like something spun out of sugar —George Garrett Open blooms like ballet-skirted ladies —John Steinbeck Orange and yellow poppies like just-lit matches sputtering in the breeze —John Out of the earth came whole troops of flowers, like motley stars —Felix Salten
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Variations of flowers are like variations in music, often beautiful as such, but almost always inferior to the theme on which they are founded —the original air —Leigh Hunt The yellow dandelions rose up like streaks of golden light —Guy de Maupassant
< FOG See Also: MIST A churning mass of fog was welling up from the sea like a tidal wave —John Dos Passos Fog closed in like a long sigh —George Garrett Fog … dissolving into the sky like milk in water —Ross Macdonald The fog … floated into the garden like gauze —Ludwig Bemelmans Fog hung above the road like an alien intelligence —Charles Johnson Foggy as London —Robert Traver
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THE SIMILES
Food and Drink
The fog rolled off the river like a woman rolling off a bed —Marianne Wiggins
A chocolate [birthday] cake … lit up like an oil refinery —Tom Robbins
The fog smothered sounds like an acoustical curtain —Margaret Millar
Coffee … black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. —Charles de Talleyrand Talleyrand’s description of good coffee once again illustrates how a simile which may sound trite by itself, will gain new momentum when appropriately combined with two or three others.
Fog that came like bitter smoke —Stephen Vincent Benét (Pines … wrapped with) fog that moved like bits of cloth in the wind —Shirley Ann Grau A fog wandering like a pilgrim —Patricia Hampl
Coffee … it tasted like swamp water —William Beechcroft
The fog was settling in and became rapidly denser. It was like wading about in dark milk soup —Erich Maria Remarque
Coffee-pots breathing wisps of steam like old men talking in winter —J. G. Farrell
The fog was thick and strangely white. Like wet bed sheets —Bertolt Brecht Haze … like a thin smoke from slowly burning money —Ross Macdonald Night fog thick as terry cloth —Maxine Kumin Puffs of white fog which hung there like frozen cabbage —Donald McCaig There’s a fog at the waists of the trees, like a sash —William Matthews, A Happy Childhood Wreaths of white fog walked like ghosts the haunted meadows —John Greenleaf Whittier
< FOOD AND DRINK See Also: EATING AND DRINKING Appetizing as a boiled cocktail —H. L. Mencken Blackberries big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes —Sylvia Plath A bottle of wine brings as much pleasure as the acquisition of a kingdom, and not unlike it in kind: the senses in both cases are confused and perverted —Walter Savage Landor The brandy went to Whit’s stomach like a saber cut —John Farris Cake … beautiful as a palace —tall, shining and pink, outlined with balconies and battlements of white frosting —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Cakes … iced like the rock of Gibraltar —Penelope Gilliatt
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love —Turkish proverb Coffee … tasted like a third pressing —Derek Lambert I consider supper as a turnpike through which one pass in order to get to bed —Oliver Edwards The inspiration for Edwards’ simile was Samuel Johnson declaration that he never ate supper. Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all —Harriet Van Horn, Vogue, October 15, 1956 Croissants, light and warm as birds —Pat Conroy The dining room table steamed [with hot food] like a caldron —Dan Wakefield A fish without bones is like an artichoke without leaves, a coconut without a shell, a lobster without a carapace —Anon, from an item on an Idaho company which is trying to breed boneless fish, New York Times November 5, 1986 Food is a narcotic in a way, like alcohol —Edna Ferber Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong —Slogan, Pan American Coffee Bureau, 1961 A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness —Elsa Schiaparelli [Soup] Hot as an adulterous love —Erica Jong
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Foolishness
THE SIMILES
This description from a poem entitled “Chinese Food,” pertains to hot and sour soup. It is preceded by two other similes: “Dense as water … sour as death.”
Tea … liquid and warm, like weeping —Margaret Drabble To expand upon the comparison, The author added: “It replaced the tears.”
It [beer] touched his stomach like petrol on live ashes —Caryl Phillips It [water] was heavy, tepid, and savorless and like castor oil —Vicki Baum
To drink a glass of sherry when you can get a dry Martini is like taking a stagecoach when you can travel by the Orient Express —W. Somerset Maugham
Lamb … hard as a wood chip … cold as Christmas —Richard Ford
Unripe oranges like dark-green golf balls —Ross Macdonald
Left their eggs up until the whites were glazed like plastic —Daniela Gioseffi
The yolk of one of the eggs had leaked out onto the plate like a miniature pool of yellow blood —Ross Macdonald
Lettuces like garlands of faint green roses —Cynthia Ozick The liquid [broth] went down my throat like bones. —Maya Angelou Margaritas flow like the Colorado River in March —Bryan Miller reviewing a Mexican restaurant, New York Times August 1, 1986 Martinis yellow as the rose and warm as summer rain —E. B. White Pears … like too many women their beauty condemns them to uselessness —Bin Ramke
< FOOLISHNESS See Also: ABSURDITY, FUTILITY, STUPIDITY As giddy as a drunken man —Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol This is the last of a whole string of similes uttered by a reformed Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. “I’m as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I’m as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.”
Roast beef, which tasted … like the uppers of an old pair of pumps —Shelby Hearon
A blockhead is as ridiculous when he talks as is a goose when it flies —Lord Halifax The words “talks” and “flies” have been modernized from the old English “talketh” and “flieth.”
A scrambled egg that tasted as if it had just hatched in the refrigerator —Richard S. Prather
Comparing them [American and Oriental women] is like comparing oven broilers and banties —Bobbie Ann Mason
Sherry … as thin and dry as benzene —Philip Levine
Felt foolishness drag like excess flesh on his face —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Slices the bread … into thin volumes like poetry —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Foolish as to cut off the head to preserve the hair —Anon An alternative to the cliché “As foolish as to cut off your nose to spite your face.”
Pears … shapely as violins —Babette Deutsch Rice … sticky as a snowball —Ira Wood
Steam rose like incense from the bowl [of hot soup) —Joanna Higgins Stick as close to that kitchen [where a gourmet cook is in residence] as the croute to a pate or the mayonnaise to an oeuf —Angela Carter
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Foolish as to judge a horse by its harness —Anon A fool is like other men as long as he is silent —Jacob Cats
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THE SIMILES A fool … says little, but that little said owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead —William Cowper Gullible as geese —Anon How foolish one would be to climb into the ring with love and try to trade blows with him, like a boxer —Sophocles If all fools wore white caps, we should look like a flock of geese —English proverb
Forehead Tittle’s simile dates back to 1962 when his team won the playoff game for the National Football League championship. Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors —Frank Gifford, Sports Illustrated, June 4, 1960 [Gary Anderson of the Miami Dolphins] runs like a locomotive —Craig James, Anderson’s teammate, New York Times, September 10, 1986
Lightheaded as a thistle —Mary Lavin
Some of them [professional players] always look like brooding Pillsbury Doughboys and some of them look wizened from the start, middleaged and beaten down, as if they’d never known what it was like to be young —Jonathan Valin
A man who commits suicide is like a man who longs for a gate to be opened and who cuts his throat before he reaches the gate —Dylan Thomas
To me football is like a day off. I grew up picking cotton on my daddy’s farm and nobody asked for your autograph or put your name in the paper for that —Lee Roy Jordan
Senseless … it’s like wearing a bullet proof vest with a hole over the heart —Senator John Heinz, December, 1985, news item
Treated his players as if he had bought them at auction with a ring in their noses and was trying not to notice they smelled bad —Jim Murray about football coach Paul Brown, Los Angeles Herald, 1986
I’ll not be a fool like the nightingale who is up till midnight without any ale —Dylan Thomas Life’s little suckers chirp like crickets while spending all on losing tickets —Ogden Nash
Unrealistic … like someone who eats like a linebacker but yearns for the shape of a fashion model —Anon
< FOOTBALL See Also: SPORTS The ball just skittered around in the backfield like a puck on ice —Jonathan Valin The ball peeled his head like an onion —Ken Stabler and Berry Stainback Both players bounce up like toys —Richard Ford My teammates were cringing in the huddle, like those scurvy hounds who live off garbage at county landfill projects —Pat Conroy Passes faltered and tumbled like wounded ducks —James Crumley Passes swerved like a diving duck —Y. A. Tittle, New York Giants quarterback quoted in New York Times, January 12, 1987
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
[Football] uniforms … heavy as mattresses —Lael Wertenbaker When you hit that line, it gave like a sponge, and when you tackled that big long Swede, he went down like he’d been hit by lightning —Sinclair Lewis Without a network outlet, football will disappear like cigar smoke in the wind —Harvey Meyerson, summation at NFL-USFL trial, 1986
< FORCEFULNESS See: POWER
< FOREBODING See: ANXIETY, FEAR
< FOREHEAD See Also: FACE(S)
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Forgetfulness
THE SIMILES
The artery in his forehead bulged like a snake —Richard Ford
Forgiving without forgetting is like loving without liking —Anon
Brow like masonry —Ted Hughes
Overlooked as a favorite child’s failings —Anon
Forehead … as wrinkled as a washboard —Harvey Swados
(God) pardons like a mother who kisses away the repentant tears of her child —Henry Ward Beecher
Forehead like a bright new moon —Arabian Nights (A slim girl with) a forehead which was shiny and protuberant, like a Bartlett pear —George Ade
< FORLORNNESS See: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS
Forehead, with wrinkles like lines drawn all over it —Ivan Turgenev
< FORMALITY
Her forehead shines like the gleam of morning —Arabian Nights
See Also: ORDER/DISORDER Formal and self-conscious as a football team in a photograph —George Garrett
A high forehead with a soft vein running indirectly down the middle like an aimless trickle of water on a windowpane —John Hersey His brows became contorted with thick frowns, like a bull’s forehead —V.S. Pritchett His brow swells out over his face like an eroded riverbank —T. Coraghessan Boyle His forehead bulged [with fury] as if he were horned —Jonathan Valin His forehead rose like a gleaming dome towards the crown of his bald head —Alexander Solzhenitsyn A pair of thin horizontal lines, like furrows in a meadow of snow, appeared on her forehead —Bill Pronzini The skin [on a character’s forehead] was wrinkled into long horizontal lines, like lines of inquiry —Dan Jacobson
< FORGETFULNESS See: MEMORY, MIND
< FORGIVENESS Forgiving the unrepentant is like drawing pictures in water —Japanese proverb (God) pardons like a mother who kisses away the repentant tears of her child —Henry Ward Beecher
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Formal as a Japanese print —Ramon Delgado Formal as an undertaker —William McIlvanney Informal as paper napkins —Dee Weber Ordered … like a nun’s evening prayers —Charles Hanson Towne This simile is extracted from the first stanza of Towne’s poem “The Best Road of All,” in which he writes about the best road being that which leads to God. The simile in full context reads: “I like … a road that is an ordered road, like a nun’s evening prayers.”
< FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE Adversity was spreading over him like mold —Irvin S. Cobb Bad moments, like good ones, tend to be grouped together —Edna O’Brien Blessed as the meek who shall inherit the earth —Anon This illustrates how a quote can be transposed into a simile. The day of fortune is like a harvest day, we must be busy when the corn is ripe —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Disasters … rolling in the brain like pebbles —Denise Levertov Fortune is as … brittle as glass —Publilius Syrus
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THE SIMILES
Fragility
Fortune is like glass: she breaks when she is brightest —Latin proverb
Misfortunes, like the owl, avoid the light —Charles Churchill
Fortune is like the market, where if you will bide your time the price will fall —German proverb A variation by Francis Bacon begins like the above and finishes as follows: “If you can stay a little, the price will fall.”
Misfortunes … passed over her like wild geese —Ellen Glasgow
Fortunes made in no time are like shirts made in no time; it’s ten to one if they hang long together —Douglas Jerrold Fortune sits on him like a ton of shit —Irving Feldman Fortunes made in no time are like shirts made in no time; it’s ten to one if they hang long together—Douglas Jerrold Good fortune, like ripe fruit, ought to be enjoyed while it is present —Epictetus Good fortune seemed to be following me like a huge affectionate dog —John Braine It’s a nightmare like trying to conquer the Himalayas on roller skates or swim the English Channel lashed to a cannon —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle —James Russell Lowell The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties —Captain Frederick Marryatt Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head —William Shakespeare, As You Like It Tried to conceal his misfortune as if it were a vice —Mikhail Lermontov To wait for luck is like waiting for death —Japanese proverb
< FRAGILITY See Also: WEAKNESS As thin of substance as the air —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Bones frail as a small bird’s —George Garrett
Lord it’s like a hard candy Christmas / I’m barely getting through tomorrow —Carol Hall, “Hard Candy Christmas,” The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Brittle as a dead tree —George Garrett
Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth —Japanese proverb
Brittle as straw —Ellen Glasgow
A luckless man … the kind of man who would have gotten two complimentary tickets for the Titanic —William McIlvanney The actual text in Scotch author McIlvanney’s Papers of Tony Veitch reads: “The kinnaa man woulda got two complimentary tickets for the Titanic.”
(Her own body seemed) fragile and empty like blown glass —Margaret Atwood
Luck shines in his face like good health —Anon Misfortunes disappeared, as though swept away by a great flood of sunlight —Émile Zola
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Brittle as dry wood —Miller Williams Brittle as glass that breaks with a touch —Algernon Charles Swinburne Brittle as twigs —Margaret Atwood
(Laughter … as) delicate and frail as new ice —Frederick Barthelme (She was) delicate as a pig was not —Pat Conroy Fragile and rather beautiful, like a rare kind of mosquito —Lawrence Durrell Fragile as a bird’s egg —George Garrett Fragile as a chrysalis —John Updike
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Frankness Fragile as a coquillage bouquet —Truman Capote Capote’s simile refers to Isak Dinesen. Fragile as a cup —Reynolds Price (Shoulder) fragile as a little bit of glass —Eudora Welty Fragile as ancient lace or parchment —George Garrett Fragile as a reed —Cornelia Otis Skinner (Her conical breasts look) fragile as birds’ eggs —R. V. Cassill
THE SIMILES I felt like a moth hanging on the windowpane —Jacqueline Kennedy, Newsweek, January 21, 1961 The occasion being described was the first night in White House. Insubstantial … like fake wedding cakes in a bakery window—lots of whipped cream rosettes and garlands surrounding a hollow middle —Michiko Kakutan, New York Times Like a dry leaf closed into a book, he seemed frail and ready to crumble —Arthur A. Cohen
Fragile as snowflakes —Sharon Sheehe Stark
More frail than the shadows on glasses —Algernon Charles Swinburne
(She felt very weak and her plump body seemed, somehow, flat and) fragile, like a pressed leaf between the sheets —Helen Hudson
Promise as solid as a bundle of water —Hindu proverb
Fragile … like a spider’s web —John Fowles
(Hair and garments) tenuous as gauze —W. D. Snodgrass
Fragile like her good intentions —Marguerite Yourcenar
(You’re so old) you’re like a cup I could break in my hand —Paule Marshall
Fragile, like the skin on scalded milk —Sharon Sheehe Stark
< FRANKNESS
Frail as a blade of grass —Belva Plain
See Also: CANDOR
(She felt as) frail as a cobweb —Jonathan Kellerman
< FRAUD
Frail as a fading friendship —Anon Frail as antique earthenware —Sylvia Plath Plath’s simile describes the occupants of an old ladies’ home.
See Also: CRIME, DISHONESTY
< FRECKLES See Also: FACIAL DETAILS
Frail as April snow —Wallace Stevens
< FREEDOM
(Breasts rising) frail as blisters —Sharon Olds
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found —Edmund Burke
Frail as flesh —Laman Blanchard [School boys] Frail, like thin-boned fledgling birds clamoring for food —Sylvia Berkman I feel [fragile] like a poppy; one gust of wind and everything will blow away —Carla Lane, dialogue “Solo,” British sitcom, broadcast June 23, 1987 The reason the character in Lane’s script feels so fragile is that she is a woman in her fifties in a relationship with a much younger man.
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(They just) broke free like the water —Boris Pasternak Broke free like the sun rising out of the sea —Miller Williams Feels freedom like oxygen everywhere around him —John Updike Felt like a volatile gas released from a bottle —Olivia Manning Foot-loose as a ram —Irvin S. Cobb
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THE SIMILES (I am) free as a breeze, free like a bird in the woodland wild, free like a gypsy, free like a child —Oscar Hammerstein II, from lyric for Oklahoma Hammerstein used the multiple simile to paint a picture of an unattached man bemoaning the speed with which his situation can change. Free as a fat bird —John D. MacDonald Free as air —Alexander Pope The simile in full context is as follows: “Love, free as air at sight of human ties, spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.”
Freshness determinism. The way you play your hand represents free will —Norman Cousins Independence, like honor, is a rocky island without a beach —Napoleon Bonaparte Independent as a hog on ice —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Independent as a wild horse —Anon According to Irving Stone, author of The Passionate Journey, this simile was used to describe the father of his fictional biography’s hero, John Noble.
Free as a pig in a pen —Anon, from American song, “The Lane County Bachelor”
A laissez-faire policy is like spoiling a child by saying he’ll turn out all right in the end. He will, if he’s made to —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Free, as happens in the downfall of habit when the mind, like an unguarded flame, bows and bends and seems about to blow from its holding —Virginia Woolf
Liberty, like charity must begin at home —James Conant Yet another twist on the much adopted and adapted charity comparison.
Free as is the wind —Anon A popular variation attributed to James Montgomery is “Free as the breeze.”
Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free —Leonard Cohen, “Bird on the Wire”
Free as Nature first made man —John Dryden
Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce, as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship —Patrick Henry
Free as Nature is —James Thompson Free as the grace of God and twice as plentiful —Anon Freed, like colored kites torn loose from their strings —Rainer Maria Rilke Freedom and responsibility are like Siamese twins, they die if they are parted —Lillian Smith Freedom is like drink. If you take any at all, you might as well take enough to make you happy for a while —Finley Peter Dunne Several words have been changed from Dunne’s dialect: any was “nny,” for was “f’r.’ Free speech is like garlic. If you are perfectly sure of yourself, you enjoy it and your friends tolerate it —Lynn White, Jr., Look, April 17, 1956 Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
There is no such thing as an achieved liberty; like electricity, there can be no substantial storage [of liberty] and it must be generated as it is enjoyed, or the lights go out —Robert H. Jackson Unrestricted like the rain —Mark Twain We were free like water —Rob Thomas, “Ever the Same Again”
< FRESHNESS [She looks as] clear as morning roses newly washed with dew —William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew Fresh as a daisy —Slogan, June Dairy Products Co. Fresh as an unveiled statue —Henry James Fresh as any rose —John Lydgate
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Friendliness The natural association between freshness and flowers has made this simile and its variants a common expression. The daisy rivals the rose as a popular comparison. (Looking as) fresh as apple blossom among the tender leaves of late spring —Frank Swinnerton Fresh as April grass —Karl Shapiro Fresh [in the face] as a rain-washed rose —Reynolds Price Fresh as a spring morning —Slogan, Little America Frozen Foods, Inc. Fresh as hope —Susan Engberg Fresh as paint —Francis Edward Smedley Fresh as the dawn —Anon An extension used as a slogan by Pacific Egg Producers: “Fresh as dewy dawn.” Fresh as the month of May —Geoffrey Chaucer The above is modernized from, “As fresh as is the month of May.” Fresh as salt-drenched skin —Theodore Roethke Fresh as the morning —Slogan, Campbell’s corn flakes Fresh as the morning wind that tatters the mist —Marge Piercy Fresh as thyme or parsley —W. H. Auden Fresh as tomorrow —James G. Hueneker Fresh as yesterday —Shelby Hearon In Heron’s novel A Small Town, what’s fresh is a family feud. Fresh like frilled linen clean from a laundry —Virginia Woolf
< FRIENDLINESS See: SOCIABILITY
< FRIENDSHIP See Also: LOVE, SOCIABILITY An acquaintanceship, if all goes well, can linger in the memory like an appealing chord of music,
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THE SIMILES while a friendship, or even a friendship that deteriorates into an enemy ship, so to put it, is like a whole symphony, even if the music is frequently unacceptable, broken, loud and in other ways painful to hear —William Saroyan Became like old friends, the kind who can’t leave each other on deathbeds —Thomas McGuane Comradeship … burned and flamed like dry straw on fire —Stephen Longstreet Early friends drop out, like milk teeth —Graham Greene Every man is like the company he won’t keep —Euripides An ironic twist on “A man is known by the company he keeps,” and “Tell me the company you keep and I’ll tell you who you are.” Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys recorded by art or life —Simone Weil Friendship … should, like a well-stocked cellar, be … continually renewed —Samuel Johnson A friendship that like love is warm; a love like friendship steady —Thomas Moore Friendship with Cape was like climbing a ladder. You had to wait a while on each rung before he invited you to climb the next —Robert Campbell Friends just can’t be found / Like a bridge over troubled water / … If you need a friend / I’m sailing right behind / Like a bridge over troubled water” —Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, from lyrics to song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Friends … slipping from his orbit like bees from a jaded flower —Beryl Markham friends were like clothes: fine while they lasted but eventually they wore thin or you grew out of them —David Nicholls, One Day He who helps a friend in woe is like a fur coat in the snow —Russian proverb I keep my friends as misers do their treasure —Pietro Aretino
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THE SIMILES Aretino’s simile dating back to the sixteenth century was followed by this explanation: “Because of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship.” Ill company is like a dog, who dirts those most whom he loves best —Jonathan Swift In their friendship they were like two of a litter that can never play together without leaving traces of tooth and claw, wounding each other in the most sensitive places —Colette It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife —Samuel Johnson Life without a friend is like life without sun —Spanish proverb Life without a friend is death with a vengeance —Thomas Fuller Life without a friend is death without a witness —John Ray’s Proverbs Life without a friend is like life without sun —Spanish proverb The light of friendship is like the light of phosphorous, seen plainest when all around is dark —Robert Crowell Like old friends they wear well —Slogan, Meyer gloves The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired —Robert Southey My friendship [with Vita Sackville-West] is over. Not with a quarrel, not with a bang, but as a ripe fruit falls —Virginia Woolf, March 11, 1935 diary entry A new friend is like new wine; you do not enjoy drinking it until it has matured —Ben Sira A new friend is a new wine —The Holy Bible/ Apocrypha Their association together possessed a curiously unrelenting quality, like the union of partners in a business rather than the intimacy of friends —Anthony Powell
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Friendship, Defined Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water —David Nicholls, One Day Went through our friendships like Epsom salts, draining us, no apologies, no regrets —Rosa Guy Without a friend the world is a wilderness —John Ray’s Proverbs
< FRIENDSHIP, DEFINED Acquaintances … they’re like weeds; they grow up around the real friends and choke them off —Christopher Isherwood A broken friendship, like a broken cup, can be mended but it will never be perfect again —Anon This can be traced to the Latin proverb “A broken friendship may be soldered but will never be sound.” A cheerful friend is like a sunny day which spreads its brightness on all around —Sir John Lubbock Choose your friends like your books, few but choice books —James Howell The false friend is like the shadow of a sundial —French proverb False friends, like birds, migrate in cold weather —Anon The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roastbeef; love like being enlivened with champagne —Samuel Johnson A friendless man is like a left hand without a right —Hebrew proverb Friends are like fiddle-strings, they must not be screwed too tight —John Ray’s Proverbs Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why? To find one good, you must a hundred try —Claude Mermet Friendship is like money, easier made than kept —Samuel Butler
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Frowns
THE SIMILES
Friendship is like a treasury; you cannot take from it more than you put into it —Benjamin Mandelstamm
An untried friend is like an uncracked nut —Russian proverb
Friendship is like two clocks keeping time —Anon
< FROWNS
A friendship like a soft pillow that made her feel secure and bolstered —Mary Gordon
See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, MICELLANEOUS; LOOKS; STARES A dark scowl playing on his face like a spotlight —Jonathan Valin
Friendship, like credit, is highest where it is not used —Elbert Hubbard
Face was screwed up as if he had a stomach ache —Nina Bawden
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermission —Samuel Johnson
Frowning like the Mask of Tragedy —Max Shulman
Friendship is love without his wings —Lord Byron
Friendship, like love, is but a name —John Gay Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed —Ralph Waldo Emerson The friendship of a great man is like the shadow of a bush soon gone —French proverb A group of good friends is like the relatives you wish you’d been born with —Anon A twist in simile form of, “You can’t pick your relatives, but you can pick your friends.” A hollow friendship is like a hollow tooth —it’s always best to have it out at once —Punch, 1862 I find friendship … like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial —Thomas Jefferson
Frowned like a public character conscious of the interested stares of a large crowd but determined not to take notice of them —Joyce Cary Frowning, as if at some infernal machine —Elizabeth Taylor Frowning like a battered old bison who’d spent too many years at the zoo —Jonathan Kellerman Frowning like a cat at a mouse hole —John Updike The frown like serpents basking on the brow —Wallace Stevens Glared at me like a wolf in a trap —Robert Traver Glared slightly … like a judge intent upon some terrible evidence —Flannery O’Connor
An old friendship is like old wine; the longer it lasts the stronger it grows —Antonio Perez
Glares at me like a starving wolf from the forest —Bernard Malamud
Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless and distasteful —William Hazlitt
Glares at us, his eyes like the barrels of a shotgun —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Some friends are like the shadow; they follow us when our sun shines —Moses Ephraim Kuh A variation of this attributed to Christian Nestell Bovee is, “False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shadow.” Some friends are like a sundial: useless when the sun sets —Judah Jeiteles
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He was frowning, which tensed his small face up and made his deep pockmarks look like holes that went clear through his cheeks —Larry McMurtry His lips curled away from his teeth like he was exposing so many switchblade knives —Donald McCaig His scowl crinkled like crushed paper —F. Scott Fitzgerald
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THE SIMILES Like a ruffled old eagle on a high, bare rock, she scowled at the setting sun —Louis Auchincloss A reddened grimace of hate and fury, like a primitive mask in a museum —Iris Murdoch Scowl like a cap pulled over the brow —Peter De Vries
Furniture and Furnishings
< FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS See Also: HOUSES, ROOMS Armchairs angular as choir stalls —Julia O’Faolain Bed that sagged like a hammock —John D. MacDonald
Scowl like a child about to receive an injection —Laurie Colwin
The big oriental rug glowed like a garden of exotic flowers —George Garrett
Scowl, like he’d turn a cold into cancer if you crossed him —J. W. Rider The scowler is a doctor.
(In a mirrored room) carpeted like spring grass —William Humphrey
Scowled like a junkyard dog —Jay Parini
The carpet … felt like fur laid over clouds —Alice McDermott
Teeth bared like the rats —Eudora Welty
Carpeting as soft underfoot as moss —Sue Grafton
< FRUSTRATION
Carpets threadbare —Jaroslav Seifert
See Also: DEJECTION, EMOTIONS Feel so useless … like a still life —Margaret Drabble (I’m as) frustrated as a dog on a chain —Anton Chekhov Frustrated [about career] … as though she were peanut butter that was forced into a hypodermic syringe —Ann Jasperson Frustration … began to creep up his neck like a hot hand —Flannery O’Connor Frustration lingered between her legs like an ache —Susan Lois (The writing is becoming) more and more impossible … I’m like a toad squashed by a paving stone, like a dog with its guts crushed out by a shit-wagon, like a clot of snot under a policeman’s boot, etc. —Gustave Flaubert (The reporters are still) running around like blind dogs in a meat house —James Reston, New York Times/ The Changing Guard, February 22, 1987
< FUN See: PLEASURE
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
like
ancient
shrouds
The chairs and tables looked like poor relations who had repaid their keep by a long career of grudging usefulness —Edith Wharton Chairs that looked and felt like unbaked bread dough —Jonathan Kellerman Chandeliers as big as locomotives —Mark Helprin Chandeliers like crystal clouds —Gavin Lyall Chinese lanterns … hanging like fiery fruit —Babette Deutsch A clock clucked like some drowsy hen on the wall —V.S. Pritchett Colored plates, like crude carnival wheels —V.S. Pritchett Curtain of red velvet drawn apart like lips —Beverly Farmer Curtains billow … as if large birds were caught in them —Charles Simic Curtains billowed slightly like loose clothing —Bin Ramke The curtains fluttered coyly like ladies’ skirts —Margaret Millar
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Furtiveness Curtains, flying out like flags from the opened, seaward window —Elizabeth Taylor The curtains over the open window next to them billow suddenly like an enormous cloud —Tony Ardizzone This simile concludes Addizzone’s story, The Evening News. Each time I’m inside [an apartment] all is precisely as it was the time before, as if riveted in place —Richard Ford An electric night lamp that looks like a big firefly that might have come in through half-open window —Marguerite Yourcenar
THE SIMILES The swinging-to of a shutter was like the nervous and involuntary flicker of an eyelid —Elizabeth Bowen The table [set for party] bloomed like a miracle of shining damask and silver spoons —Elinor Wylie (Grandma’s old long wooden dining-room) table, kept as bare and shining as an ad for spar varnish —Robert Traver Table lamps with shades like extravagant hats —John Rechy A threadbare carpet that looked like frayed paper —Heinrich Böll
The furniture around me thick as elephants —Richard Ford
The waxed (rectangular) table shone like a black lake —Alice McDermott
Furniture like mismatched plates —Jonathan Valin
A white curtain like a wedding veil —Beverly Farmer
Furniture with legs like those of a very fat woman planted firmly and holding her ground —Linda West Eckhardt
< FURITIVENESS
A hard bench about as comfortable as a gridiron —Emily Eden
< FURY
Huge chandeliers, like clusters of grapes —Helen Hudson Lace curtains from the parlor flying like flags in the summer sky —Sharon Olds Long gauze curtains flapping out the open window like ghosts waving —Dianne Benedict One’s chairs and tables get to be almost part of one’s life, and to seem like quiet friends —Jerome K. Jerome A polychromatic rug like some brilliant-flowered rectangular, tropical islet —O. Henry Shadows [of flowers on window-sill] on curtains … waving like swans dipping their beaks in water —Jean Rhys The sheets were like blankets of dry snow —Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio Some aura of grief and transient desperation clings to the curtains and the shabby upholstery like a sour breath —Herbert Lieberman
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See: SECRECY
See: ANGER
< FUTILITY See Also: ABSURDITY, DIFFICULTY, IMPOSSIBILITY, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS Being a producer around here is like trying to direct a Broadway show full of deaf-mutes —William Diehl Charging like Don Quixote at the windmills —George Bernard Shaw Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing —Phyllis Diller The twists on everyday life similes to describe ineffective actions are virtually without limit. A few examples: effective “As using a sword against cobwebs,” “As trying to plug a hole with Scotch tape,” “As waxing a broken car.” Confronting Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle with real arms control is like
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THE SIMILES confronting Dracula with a silver cross: You expect him to make loud noises and thresh about —Wall Street Journal editorial, March 25, 1986 Convincing her [to get an abortion]is like trying to convince her the moon’s a yo-yo —Ann Beattie Effective as redecorating a house over a corroding plumbing system —Anon Explained to, cajoled, and bullied … but he might as well have been boxing with a feather bolster —Lael Wertenbaker Futile as an attempt to tattoo soap bubbles —Anon Futile as regret —Edward Arlington Robinson Futile as to attempt to dust cobwebs off the moon —Anon Futile as to fight an earthquake with argument —Anon Futile … like a lacy valentine with a red heart which contains no message of love —Louis Auchincloss Futile … like emptying a cupful of ants into a butterfly nest for safekeeping —Beryl Bainbridge Futile [to fight unfounded suspicions] … like fighting with air, a mock battle with blank cartridges —August Strindberg Futile like Samson pulling the roof down on the Philistine —George Garrett Futile, like shoveling sand into the sea —Isabel Allende Futile … like talking to a lake, a chilled lake, no reaction, not a ripple —James Kirkwood Lending to the feckless is like pelting a stray dog with dumplings —Chinese saying Like a spent prisoner before the moment of execution, he knew that it was too late for protest —Dorothea Straus Maintaining classical studies in 1987 is like Cosmopolitan magazine obstinately advertising
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Future bustles —Dennis O’Brien, New York Times, February 12, 1987 O’Brien, a university president, used the comparison to support his argument that college should not be viewed as a product. Might as well try to teach good manners to a wolf or a wild boar [as to bloody-minded soldiers who have lost whatever religion they may have had] —George Garrett My efforts [to stir husband out of sense of doom] have been like so many waves, dashing against the Rock of Ages —Robert E. Sherwood Sherwood wrote this simile for the character of Mary Todd Lincoln in his play Abe Lincoln In Illinois. (About as) pointless and inglorious as steppin in front of a bus —John Osborne Pointless as throwing birdseed on the ground while snow still falls fast —Ann Beattie The prophesying business is like writing fugues; it is fatal to every one save the man of absolute genius —Henry Louis Mencken Showing emotion [when with uncommunicative father] was like having a snow ball fight with a brick wall —Ann Jasperson Speculating about it was like robbing last year’s bee tree —Borden Deal To argue with William is like arguing with Vesuvius —Delmore Schwartz
< FUTURE Can see about as far ahead as a goat —Harold Adams Doomed like a moth —Dame Edith Sitwell A dreadful prospect, like losing your potency —Harvey Swados The future comes like an unwelcome guest —Edmund Gosse The future grows like a scar —Philip Levine
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Gaiety
THE SIMILES
The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face —Jim Bishop, New York Journal-American, Oct. 15, 1959
The gaiety of life, like the beauty and the moral worth of life, is a saving grace, which to ignore is folly, and to destroy is a crime —Agnes Repplier
The future is like heaven —everyone exalts it but no one wants to go there now —James Baldwin
Gay as a funeral procession —Anon
The future was like a sunny road that wandered through a wide-flung, wooden plain —W. Somerset Maugham The future was rushing toward her like the jaws of a trap snapping shut —A. E. Maxwell Great promise [of a brilliant career] … faded like his imagination —Marguerite Young He would fly, if he could, fly in search of a future like a sycamore seed —Louis MacNeice The years stretched before her like some vast blank page spread out to receive the record of her toil —Edith Wharton
< GAIETY See Also: CHEERFULNESS As merry as a grig —Frank Swinnerton As merry as a mouse in malt —George Garrett As merry as forty beggars —Proverb As merry as notes in a tune —Dame Edith Sitwell Merry as the day is long —William Shakespeare Shakespeare used this in both Much Ado About Nothing and The Life and Death of King John. In daily conversation ‘cheerful’ is often substituted for ‘merry.’ Gay as the latest statistics on cancer or crime —Elyse Sommer
(As) merry as a condemned man eating his last meal —Elyse Sommer Gay as a honey-bee humming in June —Amy Lowell Gay as a parade —Hilda Conklin Gay as larks —Aesop The use of “gay as” and “merry as” comparisons to larks, crickets and just about any kind of humming or buzzing bird or insect abound throughout the annals of literature as well as in everyday speech. Heart … lighter than a flower —Elinor Wylie Making merry like grasshoppers —Robinson A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it turns —Henry Ward Beecher Were Beecher alive today, he might substitute “A car without shock absorbers” for “A wagon without springs” (Everything went as) merrily as a marriage bell —W. Somerset Maugham A merry heart does good like a medicine —The Holy Bible/Proverbs The word “doeth” has been modernized to “does,” and the simile is often shortened to “A merry heart is like medicine.”
(Yours is) a spirit like a May-day song —Dorothy Parker
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a loom of clouds, and litters for a moment —Joseph Addison
Blithe as the air is, and as free —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
< GAIT
Cavorted like a mule let out to pasture —Borden Deal Feeling like fourth of July —Stephen Vincent Benét
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See: WALKING
< GARDEN SCENES See: FLOWERS, LANDSCAPES, NATURE
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THE SIMILES
Glimmer, Glitter, and Gloss
< GENEROSITY
All ablaze like poppies in the sun —Ouida
See: KINDNESS
All glittering like May sunshine on May Leaves —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
< GENIUS See: GREATNESS
< GENTLENESS See Also: KINDNESS As gentle as an old lady singing —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye Gentle as a newborn colt —Rex Reed In Reed’s novel, Personal Effects, the gentle behavior is that of a man making love. (Looked as) gentle as a suckling dove —Arthur Train Gently as a whisper —Slogan, door checks, Sargent & Co. Tender as dusk —Jessamyn West Tenderly as a mother —John Greenleaf Whittier Tender as young love —Maxwell Anderson They are as gentle / As zephyrs, blowing below the violet, / Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough —William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
< GESTURES See: HAND MOVEMENTS
Beams like flowers —Percy Bysshe Shelley (Bright faces cast thousand) beams upon me, like the sun —William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII Blazing like a jeweled sun —W. S. Gilbert Blinking like a digital display —Natascha Wodin A dull sheen, like the white of a hard-boiled egg —T. Coraghessan Boyle (Eyes) flashed like lightning —Honoré de Balzac Flashy as the slot machines in a gambling casino —Anon (Evening) flickers like the midnight sun —Karl Shapiro Gleam and glitter … like jewels in a dark velvet case —Louis Auchincloss (His Hair) gleamed like a freshly washed blackboard —Mavis Gallant [A car] Gleamed like a jewel in a box with an iridescent lining —Robin McCorquodale (The Hyde Park Library, which was) gleaming like a chrome fender in the afternoon sun —Jonathan Valin Gleaming like light on water —Beryl Markham
< GIDDINESS See: LIGHTNESS
< GIFTS See: KINDNESS
< GLANCE See: LOOKS
< GLIMMER, GLITTER, AND GLOSS See Also: BRIGHTNESS, LIGHTNING, SHINING Aglow, like fruit when it colors —William Canton
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Gleaming like oil on water —Erica Jong Gleaming like raw meat —James Crumley Gleaming like water over moon-bright sand —Robert Penn Warren Gleam like bone —Donald McCaig Gleam like small change —Sylvia Plath (The token woman) gleams like a gold molar in a toothless mouth —Marge Piercy Gleams like a small coin —Philip Levine Gleams like the cared-for brass of bank buildings —George Garrett
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Glimmer, Glitter, and Gloss
THE SIMILES
(The necklace) gleams, sharp as malice —Louise Erdrich
(Eyes) glittered like a string of Christmas tree icicles —Donald McCaig
(Water) glimmered like a shower of diamonds in the broken moonlight —Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Glittered like bracelets —Hans Christian Andersen
Glimmer … like glow worms twinkling through the shade —Sir Walter Scott
Glittered like confetti —Lawrence Durrell Glittered like steel struck with a bright light —Honoré de Balzac
Glimmer, sparkled like a matrix of platinum sequin laid over velvet —Richard Ford
Glittering like a brook —William Wordsworth
(Eyes … ) glinted … like crumpled tinfoil —Susan Neville
The glitter of the sea was like glass in my eyes —Steve Erickson
(Helmets) glinted like nail heads —Derek Walcott
[Fruit wet with mist] glowed like a globe of fire —Philip Levine
[Shoulders] Glisten as silver —D.H. Lawrence
Glowed like painted glass —Lincoln Kirstein
Glistened, like a globe of burnished gold —Edgar Allan Poe
Glowed like somebody had polished her —J. B. Priestly The narrator of Priestly’s Lost Empires is describing a showgirl in her costume.
Glistened like an oiled plum —Jerzy Kosinski The descriptive frame of reference in The Painted Bird, from which this is taken, is a snake’s head.
Glowed like the initials of an illuminated manuscript —Edmund L. Pearson
(The empty pavement that) glistened like a wet leather strap —Tadeusz Borowski
(His head) glowing like a red sun —Bernard Malamud
[A dog’s coat] Glistened like black velvet —Roald Dahl
Glow like a sunbeam —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(Her neck and shoulders) glistened like liquor in a crystal bottle —Paige Mitchell (Peas) glistened like medieval enamels —Mark Helprin Glistened like the sun in water —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Glow, like moths by light attracted and repelled —Percy Bysshe Shelley (Water) glows … like a crystal ball —Edward Hoagland Glows like a drunk’s nose —Hank Searls Glows like a meteor in the distant North —William Blake
(The van) glistening like opal —MacDonald Harris
Lights glittering like Oz —Diane Ackerman
Glistening like satin —Ouida
Polished like new boots —John Ciardi
Glisten like melted butter —Marilyn Hacker
Shimmered like the wing of a dragonfly —Eudora Welty
[Hair] Glisten like sunshine —D. H. Lawrence Glistens like the scaling of a snake —Mikhail Lermontov In Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, the comparison refers to a river.
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Shimmer like a vision —John Gardner Sparkled like stars —Percy Bysshe Shelley (Four tiny black-eyed girls … ) twinkling like Christmas trees —Hart Crane
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THE SIMILES
Gloom
< GLOOM
Gloomy as a tick on Sunday —Grace Paley
See Also: BEHAVIOR; DEJECTION; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS; SADNESS Bleak and uninviting as an empty hotel room —Jonathan Valin
Gloomy as a wet holiday —Anon
Bleak as a winter hillside —F. van Wyck Mason
Glum as a student who’s fallen hopelessly behind —John Gardner
Brain which had become as inhospitable to the brighter side of life as a house without windows is to cheerful lodgers —Bertolt Brecht Brooded over … misfortune, like Hamlet or a character in Ibsen —Mary McCarthy Brooding … like a martyr —Paul Reidinger Brooding like a woman unsatisfied —Joanne Selzer The comparison as used by the author in a poem entitled “Summer Heat” refers to the atmosphere after a heavy storm. The simile in its full context beginning as follows: “The air hung heavy after the storm, brooding.…” Brood like a ghost —Fannie Stearns Gifford Cheerful as a turkey before Thanksgiving —Anon Variants for changing seasons include: “Cheerful as a rabbit before Easter” and “Cheerful as a goose before Christmas.” Cold and gray … like the mortuary —Mike Fredman Dour as a wet cat —Warren Beck Felt heavy as Sunday —John Braine Gloom … dark and stagnant like a bed of straw for sick livestock —Kenzaburo Oe Gloom, like a poisonous mist, fills the car —Ira Wood Gloomy and melancholy, like ghosts —Mark Twain Gloomy as a beach resort on a wet Sunday in July —Anon This may be inspired by a much-used, also unattributed simile “Gloomy as a graveyard on a wet Sunday afternoon.” [A house] Gloomy as a crypt —Michael Korda
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Gloomy as night —Homer Glum as a gumboil, as sad as despair —Don Marquis
Glum as a tongue-tied parrot —Joseph C. Lincoln Grew clouded and closed, like the dense pallid sky —Sylvia Berkman Ill-humor is like laziness, for it is a kind of laziness —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe It was the kind of day that made suicide look like a reasonable proposition —Mike Fredman Listen to this guy, he kills me. He’s like a filling station of gloom. I go away with a full tank of gloom, it lasts me all day. —Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Looked like he swallowed a lemon —William Diehl Melancholy as a defeated politician —Herbert V. Prochnow Melancholy as a gib (castrated) cat —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I Melancholy sound … like the weeping of a solitary, deserted human heart —Guy de Maupassant Moping around like a chicken with the dropsy —Babs H. Deal (The men grew silent and) morose like lumps of soft coal —Richard Ford A sense of melancholy had enveloped her like a sheath —Charles Johnson (My grandmother had) a permanently bleak outlook … like one of those cartoon characters with a small cloud over their heads —Susan Walton, New York Times, June 25, 1987 Somber and unreadable as Latin —Tony Ardizzone Sour as port decanted too long —Truman Capote
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Glory Speak like a death’s head —William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II Sulked like a bear —Anon We [3 motorists] drove out the lane like a funeral cortege —Ross Macdonald
< GLORY See: FAME, SUCCESS/FAILURE
< GLUTTONY See: GREED, EATING AND DRINKING
< GOD See: FORGIVENESS, RELIGION
< GOLD See: COLORS, MONEY
< GOLF See Also: SPORTS Addressed his ball as if he were stroking a cat —P. G. Wodehouse Wodehouse, known for his humorous golf stories, not surprisingly coined many funny golf similes. The ball breasting the hill like some untamed jack-rabbit of the California prairie —P. G. Wodehouse Before making a shot, he would inspect his enormous bag of clubs and take out one after another, slowly, as if he were playing spillikens —P. G. Wodehouse Brooded over each shot like one whose heart is bowed down by bad news from home —P. G. Wodehouse
THE SIMILES He stood over his ball, pawing at it with his driving-iron like a cat investigating a tortoise —P. G. Wodehouse He whiffed that baby [the ball] so bad he torqued like a licorice twist and found his head looking straight behind him like a cockatoo —Joseph Wambaugh I’m playing like Tarzan —and scoring like Jane —Chi Chi Rodriguez, quoted in the 1987 Masters tournament by Dick Schaap A man … with thirty-eight golfless years behind him … loses all sense of proportion [when he takes up the game] … like a fly that happens to be sitting on the wall of the dam just when the crack comes —P. G. Wodehouse Scooped with his mashie as if he were ladling soup —P. G. Wodehouse Stood addressing his ball [to tee off] like Lot’s wife just after she had been turned into a pillar of salt —P. G. Wodehouse That poor golf ball … perched on the tee, as naked as a quarterback without a helmet —Dave Anderson, New York Times, May 11, 1987 Wielded his midiron like one killing snakes —P. G. Wodehouse With infinite caution, like one suspecting a trap of some kind, he selected clubs from his bulging bag —P. G. Wodehouse
< GOOD HEALTH See: HEALTH
< GOODNESS
Drove as if he were cracking a whip —P. G. Wodehouse
See Also: HEART, KINDNESS Decent men are like Daniel in the lion’s den: their survival is a miracle and they do not always survive —George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House
Golf is like a love affair: it you don’t take it seriously, it’s no fun. If you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart —Arnold Daly, Reader’s Digest, November, 1933
I think your heart is the eighth wonder of the world. I think your heart is like that recordbreaking tower they’re building in Dubai that’s going to be 2,000 feet tall and have the world’s
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THE SIMILES fastest elevator and look like a shining silver spiral reaching —Kate Fodor
< GOSSIP [News in the computer industry] as rife with rumor as the C.I.A. or the National Security Council —Erik Sandberg-Diment, New York Times January 25, 1987 Collected them [rumors] as a child might collect matchbooks —W. P. Kinsella
Government Rumors that rush around … inflating as they go, like giant balloons until somebody comes along to prick them —Vita Sackville-West Scandal, like a kite, to fly well, depends greatly on the length of the tale it has to carry —Punch, 1854 A secret in his [the gossip’s] mouth is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but it is out —Ben Jonson Spits out secrets like hot custard —Thomas Fuller
Confirmed gossips are like connoisseurs of cheese; the stuff they relish must be stout —Holman Day
Stories, like dragons, are hard to kill … If the snake does not, the tale runs still —John Greenleaf Whittier
Delivered more gossip than the National Enquirer —Joseph Wambaugh
Tale-bearers are as bad as the talemakers —Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Far and wide the tale was told, like a snowball growing while it rolled —John Greenleaf Whittier
Tell tales out of school like a child —Honoré de Balzac
Fond of gossip as an old woman —Ivan Turgenev An indiscreet man is like an unsealed letter —everybody can read it —Sebastian Shamfort Little words of speculation drone like bees in a bottle —Beryl Markham News as roaring in the air like a flight of bees —Truman Capote News … would have run like a pistol shot through Faithful House [the name of publishing business around which Swinnerton’s novel, Faithful Company, centers] —Frank Swinnerton Rumor … it had gone like a fire in dry grass —William Faulkner Rumors [on Iranian arms scandal’s effect on Washington] are spreading like lava from a volcano —Senator Robert Byrd, CBS-TV news program, December 5, 1986 Rumors began to thicken like a terrible blizzard —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Rumors … flew like birds out of the unknown —Stephen Crane Rumors swirled around his name like the waters in a riptide —Peter De Vries
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
They come together like the coroner’s inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week —William Congreve They [a talkative family] fly around with news in their beaks like blue jays —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Traded in gossip the way grown-ups play the stock market —Nora Johnson This comparison by the teen-aged narrator in The World of Henry Orient would be equally apt without the reference to age. Trumpeting it [a secret] … like an elephant in heat —William Alfred The United States government leaks like a rusty tin can —David Brinkley, This Week with David Brinkley, ABC-TV, November 16, 1986 Word gets around … it’s like jungle drums —George Axelrod Word of scandal spreads like a spot of oil —Marcel Proust
< GOVERNMENT See Also: LAW, POLITICS An administration, like a machine, does not create. It carries on —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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Government Any government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But … continuance of that habit means the poorhouse —Franklin Delano Roosevelt The balance of power our Founding Fathers so brilliantly contrived … has functioned like a gyroscope to keep us from plunging irretrievably into anarchy or despotism —John R. Stockwell, New York Times/Op Ed, December 14, 1986 Stockwell’s simile was part of the argument for open hearings on Colonel Oliver North. Democracy is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet —Fisher Ames Government is like that old definition of a baby: an enormous appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other —Ronald Reagan Government … like fire … is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action —George Washington
THE SIMILES Like clowns, they [royalty] amuse the people, even with their funerals —Marie, Queen of Romania Like knights in search of the Holy Grail, lawmakers are always looking for painless ways to raise revenues —David E. Rosenbaum, New York Times, March 5, 1986 A monarchy is like a man-of-war, bad shots between wind and water hurt it exceedingly; there is danger of capsizing. But democracy is a raft. You cannot easily overturn it —Joseph Cook Monarchy is like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks —Fisher Ames, English Tory, former monarchist, quoted in Money Magazine A nation … is like a body contained within a circle, having a common center, in which every radius meets; and that center is formed by representation —Thomas Paine Nations are as a drop of a bucket —The Holy Bible/Isaiah
Governments are like men, more or less suspicious according to their temperaments —Punch, 1844
Nations are like olives. To gentle pressure they respond with sweet oil, to hard pressure with bitter oil —Ludwig Boerne
Governments, like clocks, go from the motions men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined also —William Penn
No nation can survive if Government becomes like the man who in winter began to burn the wall boards of his house to keep warm until he had no house left —Ronald Reagan on controlling government spending, annual address to annual conference of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank September 30, 1986
A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges —Benjamin Franklin The life of governments is like that of man. The latter has a right to kill in case of natural defense: the former have a right to wage war for their own preservation —Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Like a funeral or a marriage, an administration in the making creates disparate relationships and revived forgotten alliances —Maurice Edelman Edelman put this simile into the mind of the fictional hero of his novel Disraeli Rising.
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States, like men, have their growth, their manhood, their decrepitude, their decay —Walter Savage Landor States, like men, never protest their honor loudly unless they have a bad case to argue —Harold J. Laski The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril
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THE SIMILES from the other whom he assumes to have perfect vision —Henry Kissinger The entire Civil Service is like a fortress made of papers, forms and red tape —Alexander Ostrovsky
< GRACEFULNESS
Greatness (Eyes) gray as storm clouds —Margaret Millar (Max was) gray as the sky —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Gray like dust —Algernon Charles Swinburne Gray [hair] like the last snows of winter —John Cheever
See: AGILITY, BEAUTY
Gray like washed slate —John Updike
< GRACIOUSNESS
(Eyes had gone) icy gray, like winter frost —Andrew Kaplan
See: BEHAVIOR, MANNERS
< GRAVENESS
< GREATNESS
See: SERIOUSNESS
See Also: FAME, INTELLIGENCE, MIND
< GRAY
Early genius is like a cabbage: it doesn’t head well —Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms
See Also: COLORS, GLOOM, HAIR COLOR, SKY, WEATHER An ash-gray … like that of the first thinning of the darkness after a rain-sodden night —Dan Jacobson
A fine genius, in his own country, is like gold in the mine —Ben Franklin
(His face was) faintly gray like newsprint —John Updike
Genius is like a flint of many edges, but it is the edges that give the sparkle —Moritz Gottlieb Saphir
(Eyes) gray as a goose —Geoffrey Chaucer Gray as a vault —Elizabeth Spencer Gray as bones —Martin Cruz Smith Gray as cement —Philip Levine (The weather had turned as) gray as concrete —Jean Thompson Gray as flannel —Jonathan Valin In his novel, Life’s Work, Valin thus describes what remains of a man’s hair: “bald on top, gray as flannel on the sides.” (Eyes) gray as glass —Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer used the simile in The Canterbury Tales (“The Miller’s Tale”) and Shakespeare used it in Gentlemen of Verona. Gray as lava —D. H. Lawrence (Skin) gray as lead —William Diehl (Warships) gray as sharks —George Garrett
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Genius, in one respect, is like gold—numbers of persons are constantly writing about both who have neither —Charles Caleb Colton
Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use —William Hazlitt Genius, like water, will find its level —Proverb Genius must have talent as its complement and implement, just as, in like manner, imagination must have fancy —Samuel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge built on this simile as follows: “in short, the higher intellectual powers can only act through a corresponding energy of the lower.” Genius without education is like silver in the mine —Benjamin Franklin A genius without vices is like a race horse without a good jockey —Benjamin De Casseres Great men are like mountains; we do not appreciate their magnitude while we are still close to them —Joseph Chamberlain
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Greed
THE SIMILES
Great men are like meteors; they litter and are consumed to enlighten the world —Napoleon Bonaparte
Greedy as a colt first loosed to pasture in the spring —Ben Ames Williams
Great men, like great epochs, are explosive material in whom tremendous energy has been accumulated —Friedrich Nietzsche The simile is also quoted with the word “ages” substituted for “epochs.”
He [Donald Trump] has an appetite [for property] like a Rocky Mountain vulture —Alan Greenberg quoted in The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 1987
Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Great minds are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude —Arthur Schopenhauer It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with —Henry Van Dyke Men of genius are like eagles, that live on what they kill, while men of talents are like crows, that live on what has been killed for them —Josh Billings In Billings’ special phonetic dialect this read: “Men ov genius … tha live on what tha … while men ov ..tha live on what haz bin killed for them.”
< GREED See Also: EATING AND DRINKING, ENVY (My) avarice cooled like lust in the chill grave —Ralph Waldo Emerson Avarice is like a graveyard; it takes all that it can get and gives nothing back —Josh Billings Avaricious … like a pig which seeks its food in the mud, without caring where it comes from —Jean B. M. Vianney
Greedy as a vulture —Tobias Smollett
Kings, like hyenas, will always fall upon dead carcasses, although their bellies are full, and although they are conscious that in the end they will tear one another to pieces over them —Walter Savage Landor (Love surfeits not) lust like a glutton dies —William Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis” Love comforteth like sunshine after rain —William Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis” Rapacious as a crocodile —Anon Rapacious as a warlord —Sharon Sheehe Stark Sucked him dry like a raw egg —Bertolt Brecht They’re [the doctors] milking you like a cow —Molière
< GREEN See Also: COLORS, ENVY Bright green like a parrot’s wing —Hugh Walpole (Eyes as) deeply green as an Amazonian jungle —Ed McBain Green and shiny as a frog come out of the swamp —R. Wright Campbell Green as a canker —V. S. Pritchett Green … as a well-watered palm —Mark Helprin Green as jealousy —Vita Sackville-West
The avaricious man is like the barren sandy ground of the desert which sucks in all the rain and dew with greediness, but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others —Zeno
(Fields as) green as jellied mint —Malcolm Cowley
Covetous persons are like sponges which greedily drink in water, but return very little until they are squeezed —G. S. Bowles
(The trees were) green as paper money —George Garrett
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(Eyes) green as leeks —William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Green as spring —Beryl Markham
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THE SIMILES Green as St. Patrick’s Day icing —Marge Piercy (Eyes) green as wings of horseflies —Erica Jong Greener than envy and money —George Garrett
< GRIEF See Also: SADNESS The eye, like a shattered mirror, multiplies the images of sorrow —Edgar Allen Poe Grief as constant as a cloud of black flies —James Crumley Grief deep as life or thought —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Grief floats off spreading out thin like oil —Elizabeth Bishop Grief had flown away like a sparrow —Jean Stafford
Grin(s) The news of his death [Byron’s] came down upon my heart like a mass of lead —Thomas Carlyle Our sorrows are like thunder clouds, which seem black in the distance, but grow lighter as they approach —Jean Paul Richter Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy —Leo Tolstoy She had borne about with her for years like an arrow sticking in her heart the grief, the anguish —Virginia Woolf She wore her grief like a string of pearls —Anon Sorrow as true as bread —E. E. Cummings Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away —Samuel Johnson
Greif holds him like a corset —Anon
Sorrow like rain makes roses and mud —Austin O'Malley
Grief is like a mine shaft, narrow and deep —Kenzaburo Oe
Sorrows are like tall angels with star-crowns in their hair —Margery Eldredge Howell
Grief is to man as certain as the grave —George Crabbe
Sorrows blurred around their edges, like a careless woman’s lipstick —Jean Thompson
Griefless as a rich man’s funeral —Sidney Dobell Grief … like a mallard with clipped wings circles me summer and winter, settled for life in my lie’s reedy lake —Denise Levertov The simile comes from the closing lines of Levertov’s poem “Visitant.” Grief rolled across the space between us like a wash of salt water —Sue Grafton Grief sat on his chest like a dragon —Norman Garbo Griefs … pain me like a lingering disease —John Milton I felt as if my chest were banded, like a barrel, with iron straps of sorrow —John Hersey Man sheds his grief as his skin sheds rain —Ralph Waldo Emerson Mourning had lain thick in the room, like dust —Belva Plain
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Sorrow was like the wind. It came in gusts —Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings The stains of her grief became her as raindrops to the beaten rose —Edith Wharton There are peaks of anguish in life which establish themselves as peerless, like sharp ridges above a range —Davis Grubb Woman’s grief is like a summer storm, short as it is violent —Joanna Baille Wore his broken heart like a mourning band —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
< GRIN(S) See Also: LAUGHTER, SMILES Face … cut wide open by a beautiful grin … like pumpkins with candles shining out through their strong ivory teeth —Marge Piercy
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Groans and Whispers Grin at each other as if we’d just completed a double steal —W. P. Kinsella
THE SIMILES Grin … wide as a pumpkin’s —Mary Hedin
Grinning dreamily, like a man who has just had a final fix —James Crumley
He was grinning expectantly like a salesman offering great deals on finance —David Nicholls, One Day
A grin like a flash of dental lightning —Don Marquis
His grin was like a big wrinkle among the small ones —Robert Campbell
Grin like a German Shepherd —Rick Borsten
A lop-sided grin, like he had a lemon in his mouth —Joseph C. Lincoln
Grin like a kid caught smoking behind the barn —W. P. Kinsella Grin like an apple slice —Julia O’Faolain
< GROANS AND WHISPERS
Grin like the moon, just barely there, and like the sun, getting ready to set —Hortense Calisher
See Also: SIGHS The continuous moaning was a simple irritant, like the clanking of a radiator pipe —Mary McCarthy
Grinned at her like a six-year-old boy caught doing something he must charm his way out of —Niven Busch
Furious whispers which sounded like the hissing of snakes roused from a summer nap in some warm garden heap —Joyce Cary
Grinned at me very engagingly, like a daddy who has just finished explaining to his little boy how the new electric train works —Harvey Swados
Gasped like a big fish —Brian Moore
Grin like a salesman —Richard Ford
Grinned, filling his cheeks, as if he had food in his mouth —Paul Theroux Grinned just like a jackass chewing briars —George Garrett Grinned like a hungry tiger —Harvey Swados Grinned like a pumpkin —Marge Piercy Grinned like a shark —T. Coraghessan Boyle Grinned like a weasel in a chicken coop —T. Coraghessan Boyle Grinning like a cageful of monkeys —Erich Maria Remarque Grinning like a Death’s-head —Loren D. Estleman Grinned like beans —Rita Mae Brown Grinning like egg-sucking foxes —John D. MacDonald A grin of recognition spread across Bunty’s face like a burn —Harvey Swados Grins like a clown with a banjo —R. H. W. Dillard
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Groaning … like the wind in the chimney —William Faulkner Groan like a poleaxed steer —James Thurber Grunted … like a goat hit with a sledgehammer —William Moseley Grunted like a man hit with a baseball bat —James Crumley Grunt like a water-buffalo —O. Henry Her husky whisper, gentle as a rain breeze, was like a tender caress —Cecilia Rosas Hissed … like the deadliest of adders —Joseph Heller (Nola’s) husky whisper had a thrill in it like the rattle of a snake —Wallace Stegner Like the sound of water readying to boil were the whispers of his voice —Norman Mailer Moan and pace like captured leopards —Diane Wakoski Moaned … deeply, like a cello —Martin Cruz Smith Moaned … like some baffled prowling beast —James Joyce
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THE SIMILES Moaning like a dumbstruck giant —Scott Spencer Moans like a bedridden grandmother —T. Coraghessan Boyle A moan that sounded as if it had been wrenched from her chest with a steel hook —James Crumley
Growth (Life had) blossomed out like a flower in the sun —Ellen Glasgow Blown up like a tumor —Ralph Waldo Emerson Bred and nourished like a gardenia —Pat Conroy
Wail … like wind outside a cabin window —Charles Johnson
Breed as quickly as cockroaches and are as difficult to stamp out —Bob Davis, in article about bugs in computer software, Wall Street Journal, January 28, 1987
(Felt my wrinkled heart) wheeze like a dog on a leash —Jayne Anne Phillips
Breed like cells under a microscope —Doris Lessing
Whimpering like a puppy just yanked from its mother and thrown onto the side of the road —Gloria Norris
Breeds like a rabbit —Jonathan Swift
Whimper like a well-trained pet wanting to be let out —George Garrett A whispering moan like the rustle of wind in trees —James Stevens Whispers dramatically, as though she were telling me a state secret —Daphne Merkin Whisper softly as a girl’s tear —Isaac Stern Wince as if somebody had driven a red-hot spike into his head —P. G. Wodehouse
(Ambassadors) cropped up like hay —W. S. Gilbert (His belief … came to the surface and) expanded like some delicate flower —E. M. Forster Expanding like the shade of a cloud on sand —Wallace Stevens Fertile like the divine creation —Victor Hugo (The righteous shall) flourish as a branch —The Holy Bible/Proverbs Flourishing like a weed —Stefan Zweig Flourish like a cabbage rose —John Ashberry
< GROWTH
Flourish like an herb —The Holy Bible/Isaiah
See Also: SPREADING Accumulate … like acorns beneath the trees of a forest —Thomas H. Huxley
Going [a criminal investigation] like a grass shack fire —Harold Adams
Accumulate like a pile of dead leaves drifting onto the pavement of August —Barbara Pym
Grew … like a balloon being pumped full of gas —Myron Brinig Grew like a larch —Emily Brontë
Accumulate like wire coat hangers in a closet —Anon
Grew like asparagus in May —W. S. Gilbert
Blooming as a bride —Anon
[George Ade’s popularity] Grew like Jack’s beanstalk —Lee Coyle
Blooming as spring —John Dryden Bloom like wildflowers in moss —George Garrett [A young girl] blossomed … like a tree or a branch where every bud was breaking into flower —Rumer Godden (Curiosity) blossomed like leprosy —Yehuda Amichai
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Grew like weeds in sand —Marge Piercy Grow and grow like a maypole —Erica Jong Grow like a summer pumpkin —W. P. Kinsella (His notions) grow like a tropical forest —G. K. Chesterton Grow like savages —William Shakespeare, Henry V
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Grumbling
THE SIMILES
(I watch our children) grow like stubborn weeds —George Garrett
[Popularity] sprung up, like a grass fire —James Thurber
Growth … as fast as the light from polar regions —John Ashberry
Stockpiled … like grain in a grain elevator —Doug Feiden In Feiden’s novel The Ten Million Dollar Getaway, the people doing the stockpiling are mobsters and bodies are the frame of reference for the comparison.
Have grown like a bug from a bug out of the garden of Eden —Dylan Thomas (In earth) like a man in a woman, I’ll make food out of food —Daniela Gioseffi A major advance … it’s like going from the propeller airplane to the jet —Dr. Bruce R. Baral, a dentist commenting on new cavity removal system, New York Times, December 31, 1986 (Disappointment) mounting higher every week, like a quick-growing hedge —Mazo de la Roche Multiplies itself [ultimate truth about fellow men] like taxes —Ogden Nash
Stretched out like a string released —Henri-Pierre Roché Swelled like bullfrogs at mating time —R. V. Cassill Cassill’s bullfrogs comparison is used by a character in Hoyt’s Child to describe how policemen will fatten up their role if you let them in on your problems. Swelling like a balloon —Robert Silverberg
Multiplies like loaves and fishes —George Garrett
Swelling up like blowfish —Peter De Vries
Multiply (thy seed) as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore —The Holy Bible/Genesis
We grow like a tree from the earth —Marge Piercy
Multiply like fruit flies —Herbert Lieberman Progress is like a merry-go-round. We get up on a speckled wooden horse … we think we’re travelling like the devil, but the man that doesn’t care about the merry-go-rounds know that we come back where we were —Finley Peter Dunne In Dunne’s Observations by Mr. Dooley some words were in dialect: “travellin’ like the divvle.” Proliferate, like creditors at a bankruptcy —Mike Sommer (Plots) ripen like fruit —O. Henry Soaring like Halley’s comet —Jane Wagner As used in Jane Wagner’s stage show starring Lily Tomlin, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life, soaring refers to a sharp increase, as in the teenage suicide rate. (Poems) sprout like grain from quickened seeds —George Garrett
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Unfolding like a tree —Philip Levine
< GRUMBLING See: COMPLAINTS
< GUILT See Also: CONSCIENCE Branded with his guilt as if he were tattooed —Henry Slesar Berating himself, like an orator grading his own speech —William Diehl Gather guilt like a young intern his symptoms, his certain evidence —Anne Sexton Guilt is like mothers. Everyone in the world has at least one. And it’s passed down like a torch to the next generation —Erma Bombeck This has been changed to the present tense from the original which read: “I figured out long ago that guilt was like mothers. Everyone in the world had at least one. And it was passed down like a torch to the next generation.”
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THE SIMILES
Hair
Guilt, thick as ether, seeped into my body —Jonathan Valin
(I like to) go tick-ticking along like a clock —Edith Wharton
Guilt will descend on you like London Fog —Walter Allen
Habit, like a crane, will bow its neck and dip its pulleyed cable, gathering me … into the daylight —Harold Monro
The heat of shame mounted through her legs and body and sounded in her ears like the sound of sand pouring —Nadine Gordimer
(All will be well, we say; it is) a habit, like the rising of the sun —Edna St. Vincent Millay
Looked as guilty as if he’d kicked his grandmother —Raymond Chandler, “Red Wind”
The habit (of command) was already fitting him like a tailored suit —Ken Follett
Looking behind me … as guilty as a murderer whose knife drips blood —Ann Beattie
Kept on along the narrow track of habit, like a traveler; climbing a road in a fog —Edith Wharton
Looks like a hound caught slipping a chop from the table —T. Coraghessan Boyle A sense of guilt like a scent —Louis MacNeice
Set in his ways as a chunk of concrete —F. Hopkinson Smith
Shame crowding his throat like vomit —Jean Thompson
Set in one’s way, as elderly apple trees —Allison Lurie
The thought of the wrong she had done … aroused in her a feeling akin to revulsion such as a drowning man might feel who had shaken off another man who clung to him in the water —Leo Tolstoy
Shook my wild habits from me … like a worn-out cloak —O. Henry
We are all like mice: one eats the cheese and all are blamed —Solomon Ibn Vega
< HABIT See Also: BEHAVIOR, FLEXIBILITY/INFLEXIBILITY An annoying habit … like the habit of people who take nonfattening sweetness in their coffee, and order chocolate mousse —Marilyn Sharp As the snow flakes gather, so our habits are formed —Jeremy Bentham A bad custom is like a good cake, better broken than kept —Randle Cotgrave The word “custom” is often interchanged with “habit.” Bad habits are like a comfortable bed; easy to get into, but hard to get out of —Rev. Watson C. Blake The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come —Dante Alighieri
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Standard, like the salmonella in a poorly cooked chicken sandwich. —Hamilton Nolan, “Thomas Friedman Writes His Only Column Again,” Gawker.com, June 25, 2012 The article took columnist Friedman to task for repetitious, boring writing practitices. Take for granted, like running water —Anon Used to it, like a wart —Jonathan Kellerman Using drugs like table salt —Jimmy Breslin We are bagged in habit like clothes back from the cleaners —Marge Piercy Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as … as … as a fiddler on the roof! —Sheldon Harnick, lyrics from “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof.
< HAIR See Also: HAIR COLOR; HAIR, CURLY; HAIR STYLES; HAIR TEXTURE Bangs down over her forehead like a sheepdog’s —Margaret Atwood Bangs jitter across her forehead like magnets —Susan Minot
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Hair Bangs … like overcooked bacon —Ann Beattie Black hair hung like a river about her shoulders —Helga Sandburg
THE SIMILES Hair … moving under her comb like a muscular skin —Gary Gildner
Braid of hair … like a thick black snake —Ann Petry
(Whitish) hair pointy and close as a burr or a sunflower when the seeds have been picked out of it —Saul Bellow
A crest of stiff white hair, like a prophet or a cockatoo —Ellen Currie
(The girl’s black curly) hair shone like an eclipsed sun —Carol Ascher
Golden hair fountaining around her shoulders like spilled beer —Paige Mitchell
[Blonde] Hair shone like well-polished old silver —F. van Wyck Mason
Hair as fiery as copper ivy, and eyes as blue as sky —Patricia Cornwell, Five Scarpetta Novels
(White) hair smooth as a bird’s breast —Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
Hair as short as a fuse —Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hair spread out like feathers —Jayne Anne Phillips
Hair … as smooth and shining as a blackbird’s wing —John Braine
Hair … straight and sleek, and lay like black satin against her forehead —Vita Sackville-West
Hair … auburn and abundant, like a well-nourished orangutan’s coat —James Morrow Hair … bright and garish as brass —Margaret Millar Hair floated around my face like wet gauze —Sue Grafton Hair flying like a pennant —Paul Theroux Hair foamed around her head like a dandelion cloud —Julia O’Faolain Hair [red] … gleaming like the sand streaked with sunset —Marguerite Young (Gray) hair grows out of my skin like rot on an ancient tree —Anon Irish verse Hair hanging straight as nylon cord —Alfred Gillespie Hair … its fine smooth loops, like slabs of snow, hung low on her cheeks —Gustave Flaubert Hair like a field in bloom —T. Coraghessan Boyle Hair like dry ashes —Maureen Howard Hair like metal in the sun —Dorothy Parker
Hair, thick and springy like an Airedale’s —Tobias Wolff, The Garden of the North American Martyrs Hair … thin and white and very short, laid over her skull like a placemat —Helen Hudson Hair tumbled about her like a veil —Jean Stafford Hair which resembled a horse’s mane … was like filaments of the brightest gold of Araby —Miguel de Cervantes Hair which was long and smooth on either side of her face, like the shut wings of a raven —Mary Austin Heavy chestnut hair hanging like a cloak about her shoulders —Marge Piercy Heavy straight hair swinging behind like a rope —Eudora Welty Her hair fell in bright ripples like a rush of gold from the ladle of a goldsmith —Stephen French Whitman
Hair like spilled barley —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Her hair burned about her like a molten copper —Maurice Hewlett In the original simile the hair was “aburned.”
Hair … like the rumpled wig of a clown —Hallie Burnett
Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a clam —Oliver Wendell Holmes
Hair … like ripe wheat —Nelson Algren
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THE SIMILES
Hair, Color
Her hair fell across her shoulders like a nun’s veil —Sue Grafton
Thick yellow hair … like a palm thatch —Jean Stafford
Her hair … ran smooth like black water through her hands —Ross Macdonald
Tumbling loose dark hair like a wet mop —George Garrett
Her long, dark hair fell across her eyes like stray crayon marks —Joan Hess
Uncombed hair hung about her face like an old dog’s —H. E. Bates
Her long hair hung as straight as rain —Jean Stafford
Untidy hair like a lion’s mane —Barbara Pym
Her wet hair lay flat as a second skin —Helen Hudson His hair glittered like a skull cap of beads —Miles Gibson His hair rose in an unruly swirl, like the topknot of some strange bird —John Yount His hair slicks back, like a baby’s or a gangster’s … shiny as a record album —Lorrie Moore His hair stood upright like porcupine quills —Boccaccio His thin gray hair lay on his scalp like molting feathers —John Cheever A light fringe of hair, almost like frost —Joyce Carol Oates
The wild hair of his head bloomed like fallen snow —Z. Vance Wilson Wisps of hair, like sunburst grass hanging over eyes as clear as pale grey crystals —Edith Wharton With his tangled mane and beard, he looked like some ridiculous lion out of a bestiary —Wallace Stegner Pale brushed heads like candles burning in the summer sunlight —John Updike
< HAIR, COLOR See Also: BLACK, BROWN, GRAY, RED, WHITE
A lock of black hair lay on his forehead like a leech —Jean Stafford
Black [hair], with only a few gray streaks like a timid motif running through it —Helen Hudson
A man with hair like white flames —Lionel Shriver, The Post-Birthday World
Blond as a Zulu under the bleach —Raymond Chandler
Nearly as hairy as a dog —John Yount
Blond hair … like long uncut grass but no color —Rosellen Brown
Peroxide hair like rope ravelings —Paul J. Wellman Pomaded hair slicked back like shiny Naugahyde —Paul Kuttner The thick black hair of his chest forced its way out of the opening [of his shirt] like a jungle growth seeking sunlight —Harvey Swados Thick shining hair, glossy as a squirt of black paint —Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay A thick sprinkling of dandruff, like a fall of flour, on the shoulder of her blouse —Ruth Rendell
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Braids, brown and shiny like a ripe hazelnut —Henry Van Dyke A carroty mass of hair flaming round his cheeks and crown like a brush fire —T. Coraghessan Boyle (Her long) chestnut hair was waving about like a curtain of silk —Francine du Plessix Gray Gray hair … like meringue —James Lee Burke Gray hair that looks like the head of an old wornout wet mop left out to dry and bleach in the sun —George Garrett
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Hair, Curly
THE SIMILES
Gray hair, which he wore like a kind of silver beret —Robert Traver
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow —The Holy Bible/Revelation
Hair a fading mixture of black and gray, like an afternoon storm —Laura Furman
His white hair stood out from his head like the fur of a Angora rabbit —Thomas McMahon
Hair … artificially streaked, as though someone had emptied a bag of feathers over her head —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Long yellow hair like broken egg yolks spilling down all over her head —Helen Hudson
Hair, as straight and red as ironed ketchup —Tom Robbins Redheads and their problems feature prominently in Robbins’ Life with Woodpecker and this is one of several similes about red hair. Hair, black and shining like mica —Jean Garrigue Hair, black as a seal’s wet fur —Jean Garrigue Hair … bronze and silver like pear trees in full bloom —William Alfred Hair … dark and live as snakes —George Garrett
Pale auburn with a touch of gold … like butter with paprika in it —John Gunther Red hair … all fluffed out, like her face lived in a pink cloud —Sharon Sheehe Stark Red hair … as glossy as plum-skins —Beverly Farmer Red hair like a curtain that would draw down like a shade —Shirley Ann Grau White hair … flecked all over with little rust colored dashes, like India ink put on with a fine brush —Willa Cather White hair like a cloud —Helen Hudson
Hair … had gray in it like streaks of milk —William Styron
White hair made her face look like a rose in snow —L. P. Hartley
Hair [red] … like a fiery wick dipped in a well of incendiary sunlight —John Farris
White hair shone, like mountain snow —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hair … like Montana wheat planted in contours on a slope of hill —John Gunther
White-headed as a mountain —Thomas Hardy
Hair looks as if it had been stained with blueberries —W. P. Kinsella Hair, not just blonde, but radiating gold like a candle flame behind a window in winter —Stuart Dybek
(Her) yellow hair, like strands of gold —Anon line from early American ballad, “Locks and Bolts”
< HAIR, CURLY
Hair … streaked like old piano keys —Reynolds Price
See Also: HAIR STYLES A circlet of crisp curly gray hair like a laurel wreath —Marge Piercy
Hair … without definable color, as though it had very early begun to rehearse for its inevitable whiteness —Doris Grumbach
Curled their hair so tightly that their heads looked like bunches of black grapes —Angela Carter
Her locks were yellow as gold —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(Her gold) curls hang like lazy springs —Ira Wood
Her long hair was naturally a light brown, but the sun had bleached tawny streaks in it, like the stripes of a very old battle flag seen through imperfect glass —R. V. Cassill
Curls like those of a young hyacinth —Edgar Allen Poe
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Curls of yellow hair like pine shavings —Peter De Vries
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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THE SIMILES
Hair Styles
(His dark) curls were flat, plastered over his head like a wet beret —Joan Hess
Hair … cropped so short in back that he looked like a Marine in boot camp —Jonathan Valin
Curly scented black stiff hair, like cock feathers —Janet Flanner
(Her chestnut) hair, cut short, closed about her neck like a choker —Arthur A. Cohen
Hair … as tightly curled as a poodle’s —Margaret Millar A popular comparison with variations including the simplified as in “Hair … curly as a poodle” and extensions like “Hair curled like a gilded poodle’s.” (T. Coraghessan Boyle’s Water Music)
Hair hanging down, straight, as if it were cut out of wood and painted —Rumer Godden This is slightly modified from the dialect spoken by a character in Godden’s story, No More Indians, “outa” and “hangin” instead of “out of” and “hanging”
Hair curled as rings of iron wire —Aharon Megged
Hair hanging … like a brush across his forehead —Ella Leffland
Hair … curled like the fruit on the trees —Dame Edith Sitwell
Hair hanging like seaweed —John Updike
Hair … curly as moss —Marge Piercy
Hair … hanging loose down to her shoulders, like a child’s unbound for a party —Eudora Welty
Hair … curly as the wool on a ram —George Garrett
Hair … lay on her forehead like a ruffled crest —James Joyce
Hair that curled naturally like very young leaves —Mollie Hardwick Hair that sprang into ringlets like gold coins —Paige Mitchell It [hair] covered either side of her thin face in curly muffs, like a poodle’s ears —Jonathan Valin Soft gray hair curled out of his skull like smoke —Miles Gibson Towers of hair, curled like Indian temples —Joyce Cary
< HAIR STYLES Brown ringlets rising straight out of his temples like a waterfall in reverse —Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World Close-cropped head, cut so close to the scalp that the patches of gray are like a light stain —George Garrett Hair … almost as if ironed in place —H. E. Bates Hair … brushed straight back —like he was wearing a hairpiece or as though a small black beaver was lying on top of his skull —Donald McCaig
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Hair parted from the middle of her forehead like the two panels of a curtain —Saul Bellow Hair pulled back tight as if to punish it —Marge Piercy Hair … razor cut and blow-dried and sprayed so firmly into place that he looked like he was wearing a helmet —Robert B. Parker Hair, so tightly braided it felt stitched on, showing her bare scalp like little seams all over her skull —Helen Hudson Hair that grew long and thick around his face like ivy round a window —Helen Hudson Hair … twisted like a pastry into a knot —Patricia Henley Hair was cut close to his scalp, like freshly mowed grass —Daphne Merkin (Her white) hair was so permanently waved and arranged that it looked like concrete —Noel Coward Her white hair … stood high above her face like a chef’s cap —Nancy Huddleston Packer His hair … covered half his forehead like a bowl —Reynolds Price
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Hair Texture
THE SIMILES
His hair … cut short as that of a monk, seemed like a barber-college special —Thomas McGuane
Hair … black and dense and glossy, like boot polish —Maeve Brennan
His shiny brown hair was razor cut, wrapped like a scarf around his ears —Jonathan Valin
Hair … coarse and slightly wavy, with just a trace of oil all over it, like a well-tossed salad —Roald Dahl
Pale fluffy hair whipped up beautifully on the top of her head like confectioner’s cream —Elizabeth Bowen
Hair, frizzy like unravelled rope —D. H. Lawrence
Parted it [her hair] evenly, like the curtains of a neat house —Saul Bellow
Hair … like a coiled piece of copper —Laurie Colwin
Short-cropped hair hugging her head like a bangle bracelet —Arthur A. Cohen
Hair like a frizzled yellow sponge —Phyllis Bottome
Straight hair, cut like a little train to a point at the nape of her neck —Eudora Welty
Hair like blown-up gold and finer than gold —Joyce Carol Oates
Wore her hair away from her forehead, like a cloud which a little wind in May peels off finely —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Hair like dirty cotton —Loren D. Estleman
Wore her hair nearly to her waist, in long pastel strands like the trailing branches of a weeping willow —Harvey Swados
Hair like moth-eaten fur —Ellen Glasgow
Wore it [hair] as though he’d had thought it indecent exposure to have allowed anyone to catch even a glimpse of his eyebrows, his ears, or the back of his neck —George Bagby
Hair like fuzz on a tennis ball —Jean Thompson Hair like Persian lambs’ fur —Saul Bellow Hair like porcupine quills —Elizabeth Tallent Hair … like the raffia you had to soak before you could weave with it in a basket class —Saul Bellow
< HAIR TEXTURE
Hair … matted and dry, like that of a sick animal —W. P. Kinsella
Dead-looking hair … as if it had been glued on —Willa Cather
Hair rich and dark, clustering thick as grapes or hyacinths —Elizabeth Spencer
Frizzy brown hair like short feathers —Marianne Hauser
Hair … rough, like a mongrel dog’s —Frank Tuohy
A great shock of hair, like the best type of sheepskin rug —Phyllis Bottome The Point of Vantage from which this is taken, leads off with a simile. Here it is in full context: “Teobaldo Kurt Dubrik was a large stout man with a grand shock of hair, like the best type of sheepskin rug.”
(His curly straw) hair shone like frail golden wires on his head —James Stern
Hair and mustache fluffy as down —Mark Helprin Hair as glossy as a blooded chestnut’s coat —Elizabeth Spencer Hair as sleek as a seal’s fur —Sarah Bird
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Hair smooth as a cat’s —Jayne Anne Phillips Hair … soft as milkweed silk —McKinlay Kantor Hair … straight as a string —Dorothy Canfield In her story Married Children, Canfield expands on this with “She looks like a squaw.” Hair … texture like damp thread —Anthony Powell (A mane of black) hair that was as thick as a tow rope —Sumner Locke Elliott
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THE SIMILES Hair, thick and coarse as dune grass —Marge Piercy Hair thick and glossy like fur —Martin Cruz Smith Hair, thick as a cushion —Helen Hudson Hair tough as a rocking horse’s —Penelope Gillliatt (Her pale red) hair was wispy and stuck out from her head like duckling down —Tama Janowitz Her hair, after all the combing, shone like something Marco Polo might have brought back from Far Cathay to show the peasants —William Dieter
Hand(s) Fist like a piece of iron —Raymond Chandler Fists … as large as wastebaskets —Dashiell Hammett Fists like knotty pine —George Garrett Hand as wide as a stirrup —Richard Ford Hand … dry, hard and cold —rather like a chicken’s foot —F. van Wyck Mason Hand … like a fine piece of ivory carving —Rebecca West A hand like a aside of meat —Douglas Adams Hand … like a baseball catcher’s glove —Frank Ross Hand like a boxing glove —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Her locks had been so frequently and drastically brightened and curled that to caress them … would be rather like running one’s fingers through julienne potatoes —Dorothy Parker
Hand like a bundle of taut wire —Oakley Hall
His fine dark hair looked more like a shadow than like real hair —Katherine Mansfield
Hand like a wood rasp —Raymond Chandler
Long coarse hair, like a mop —Rosa Guy
Hand like a ham —Stephen Vincent Benét Hand … like a sharp, icy stake —Ariel Dorfman Hand … limp as a tassel —Frank Swinnerton Hand, quick as a bird claw —Eudora Welty
(Black) shiny hair, hard as bristles —Ivan Turgenev
Hands … as soft as cotton-wool —Ivan Turgenev
Straight shining hair like smooth straw —James Stern
Hands … cool, muted and frail with age like the smoothness of old yellow linen —Stephen Vincent Benét
Thick, bulging hair, like a bear’s fur —Albert Moravia
< HAND(S) See Also: ARM(S), FINGER(S), HAND MOVEMENTS, HANDSHAKE Big hands like the claws of a crab —Guy de Maupassant The bones in her narrow wrists were small as chicken bones —Mary Hedin Closed they [hands] looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls as large as walnuts —Sherwood Anderson A craftsman’s hands … hands quick as cats —William H. Gass
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Hands … crude and functional as if whittled out of hard wood —George Garrett Hands folded like flower petals —Clare Boylan Hands … gnarled, huge and misshapen, like chunks of wood hewn from a pale tree —James Stern Hands gnarled, twisted and earth-stained like the vigorous roots of a tree —Ellen Glasgow Hands, horny as a laborer’s —Harvey Swados Hands hung like clusters of sausages —Louis Bromfield Hands … large and too thin, like empty gloves —Margaret Laurence Hands like asbestos —Mary Hedin
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Hand Movements
THE SIMILES
Hands … like blocks of wood and about as gentle —Leslie Thomas
Hand that rested like a sparrow on the table —Tony Ardizzone
Hands like bunches of bananas —Frank Swinnerton
Hand … warm as a horn —Walker Percy
Hands like coal shovels —Gerald Kersh Hands … like dangling shovels —Jonathan Gash Hands … like elephant’s ears —Arthur Baer Hands … like great paws —Elizabeth Taylor Hands like hard rubber —Helen Hudson Hands like hunks of steak —Julia O’Faolain Hands like lion’s feet —Arthur A. Cohen
Hand … wet and cold as something fished out of a pond —T. Coraghessan Boyle Her hands were stunning like a sublime idea —Boris Pasternak His hand felt like the tentacles of a sea anemone —Kate Grenville His hands … seemed large and awkward as if he was wearing invisible mittens —Stephen Crane
Hands … like wings of butterflies —Hart Crane
His wrists seemed to dangle from his cuffs as if they were sewn to the cloth —Jonathan Valin
Hands … looked like roots in earth —Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
Long hands, like pitchforks —Arabian Nights
Hand … soft, like worn silk —Jayne Anne Phillips Hands ridged like topography maps —Sharon Sheehe Stark Hands … slender and smooth as though they had lifted nothing heavier than a knife to cut corners —Helen Hudson Hands … soft from the [dish] water, like old gum erasers —Jean Thompson Hands … steady as steel —H. E. Bates Hands that felt … like a scrubwoman’s hands, red-knuckled and practical —Hortense Calisher Hands that have thickened and calloused through the years so they look like tough paws —Louise Erdrich Hands turned out flat, palms up, like a Balinese dancer —Leonard Michaels Hands … which projected like strings upon the finger-board of a violin, and armed with claws like those on the terminations of bats’ wings —Theophile Gautier A hand that felt as though it was reaching for you from the grave —Harvey Swados
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An old man’s hand, hooked and grimy with a couple of nailless fingers, like a hand in a horror film —Jonathan Valin Veins [beneath skin of hands] tessellated like a blue mosaic, shining like an intricate blue design captured beneath glass —William Styron Wrists like steel whips —H. E. Bates
< HAND MOVEMENTS See Also: HANDSHAKE Brushed at his forehead, like an insect had landed there —Donald McCaig Clapped her hands liked someone shooing pigeons —Sharon Sheehe Stark Clapping as loudly as if their hands were wooden slats —Louis Auchincloss Clapping her hands like cymbals —Ann Beattie Clasped her hands behind her back like a child embarrassed at a social function, or stuck in the middle of a recitation —Peter De Vries Cradled his hand in his lap, like it was a ruined bird —Donald McCaig Flapped his hand like a flag —Mary Hedin Flashing the palms of both hands like two headlights —Ludwig Bemelmans
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THE SIMILES
Handshake
Folding both hands in her lap like a reprimanded schoolgirl —Ed McBain
Long thin hand … floated like a scarf through the air —Marge Piercy
(He flagged the car with … ) gestures like hoops —Eudora Welty
Nervous, tentative gesture, like someone making up his mind to stroke a dog that has the reputation of biting —Francis King
A hand, like a leaf, fell on his shoulder —Katherine Mansfield Hands clasped like the hands of an old man round a stick —Sylvia Townsend Warner Hands flapping like misshapen white moths —Joan Hess Hands flew off the steering wheel like a pair of startled birds —Ed McBain Hands fluttered like the fins of angel-fish —Frank Swinnerton
Opening and closing his fingers like a neon sign flickering at night —Ariel Dorfman Passed her hand over her eyes as if to dispel a cloud —Robert Graves Rearranges her hair like a horse shaking away a fly —W. P. Kinsella Rubbing his hands together as if working tobacco for a pipe —Patrick White
(Her delicate) hands … flutter like birds —Phyllis McGinley
Spread his hands in front of him, palms up, as if he intended to read in their lines the past as well as the future —Margaret Millar
Hands gesticulating —flying through the air like two brown sparrows —Jonathan Kellerman
Using his hands like a sculptor to shape the words he throws out —George Garrett
Hands jerked as if they were on wires —Dorothy Parker
Wave as regal as Henry the Eighth’s —Mary Hedin
Hands lifting out as if to smooth, like a sheet on a bed —John Updike
You can’t do anything [practical] with your hands.… You’re all gestures and waving. Cutting the air, and flapping them up and down all the time, trying to make a point, its like EMPHASISING a WORD because you DON’T know how to use them and compensating with those hands of yours.… They’re like tennis rackets on the end of sticks. Like satellite dishes at the end of fishing rods —Mike Barlett, Cock
Hands rose and floated in the air, graceful and helpless as doves —Marge Piercy Hands spread wide as calipers —Diane Ackerman Hands were outspread as though he were leading an orchestra into a profound and final diminuendo —Ralph Ellison A plain and simple variation: “Raised his hands like an orchestra conductor” Hasty, jerky gestures like a comedian in a silent movie —George Garrett
< HANDSHAKE
Held up her hand like a schoolgirl asking for permission to leave the room —Harvey Swados
A grip like a trash compactor —Jonathan Valin
Held up his hand like a traffic cop signaling stop —Ross Thomas
Grip like iron —Walker Percy
Kept rattling the ice in her glass, rattling her beads, rattling her bracelet like an impatient pony jingling its harness —Flannery O’Connor
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A grip like a weightlifter —Harvey Swados A grip like pincers —Gerald Kersh Hand gripped like bird claws —Wallace Stegner (Your) hand grips mine like a railing on an icy night —Adrienne Rich
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Handwriting
THE SIMILES
Hand … pumping at mine as if he expected my fingertips to squirt milk or something —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Ecstatic as a scientist who had just discovered the key to immortality —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Handshake like a bite —Leonard Michaels
Elated as though he had stumbled on a treasure —Brian Moore
Handshake like cold, cooked spaghetti —Mark Singer Her hand was limp as a dead carp —Jay Parini His fingers pressed my hand like pieces of wood —Aharon Megged Shook hands … like competitors before a match of some kind —Ross Macdonald Shook hands like strangers —John Dos Passos Took it (the hand) cautiously, as if he were picking up a loathsome object preparatory to dropping it in the trash basket —Evan Hunter (She) took Jim’s soft fingers and held them closely, until he felt that they had been drawn into a mangle —Frank Swinnerton
< HANDWRITING Handwriting … like driven sleet —Peter De Vries Handwriting looks as if a swarm of ants, escaping from an ink bottle, had walked over a sheet of paper without wiping their legs —Sydney Smith
< HAPPINESS See Also: CONTENTMENT, JOY, PLEASURE All happiness is a chance encounter and at every moment presents itself to you like a beggar by the roadside —André Gide The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick —Madame Swetchine Dry happiness is like dry bread. We eat, but we do not dine —Victor Hugo In Les Miserables, the hero, Jean Valjean, continues: “I wish for the superfluous, for the useless, for the extravagant, for the too much, for that which is not good for anything.”
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A gay, light happiness, like bubbles in wine held up against the sun —Ben Ames Williams Glowed with happiness, like a child with expectations of a birthday party —Frank Swinnerton The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history —George Eliot Happiness as wholesome as honey on the comb —John Braine Happiness choked my throat like an anthem. It flowed through me like a river from the beginning of the column to its end —Aharon Megged (In the midst of happiness grows a seed of unhappiness.) Happiness consumes itself like a flame. (It cannot burn for ever) —August Strindberg Happiness … descended upon her heart, like a cloud of morning dew in a dell of wild-flowers —Walter de la Mare Happiness … filled her brain like wine —William Dean Howells Happiness flits from branch to twig to branch like a hummingbird —Delmore Schwartz Happiness is falling on us out of the sky … like a blanket of snow —Jean Giraudoux Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts —Chinese proverb Happiness is like mana; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated —Tryon Edwards Happiness is like time and space; we make and measure it ourselves —George Du Maurier Happiness, like air, is not something you can put in a bottle —Anon
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THE SIMILES Happiness like the pink and white anemones of my childhood is a flower that must not be picked —André Maurois The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent —Jean Baptiste Racine Happiness struck her like a shower of rain —Eudora Welty Happiness … was there like light seen through moving leaves, like touching a warm stone —Sumner Locke Elliott Happy and thoughtless as an apple on a tree —George Garrett Happy as a bee. —Noel Coward This is one of dozens of “happy as” similes that was a favorite Coward expression, probably repopularized by him, as was “merry as a grig,” another old simile attributed in the first edition under GAIETY to novelist Frank Swinnerton, but probably a variation of “merry as a Greek.” Happy as a butterfly in a garden full of sunshine and flowers —Louisa May Alcott Happy as a clam —American colloquialism, attributed to New England A variation of this found in Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms is “Happy as a clam at high water.” Happy as a couple of linebackers after winning a high school game —Marge Piercy Happy as a couple of cherrystone clams —George Garrett Happy as a dog with a bone —Anon Happy as a lover —William Wordsworth
Happiness Happy as a tick in a dog’s ear —Jay Parini Happy as candles that shine on a cake —Oscar Hammerstein, “A Lopsided Bus,” Pipe Dream Happy as trees that find a wind to sway them —Sara Teasdale He loved happiness like I love tea —Eudora Welty (I was) high as taxes —Loren D. Estleman When it [happiness] comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep —Willa Cather I felt like an amputated leg —Raymond Chandler, Trouble Is My Business I was like a river in flood … drowning in my own happiness, and buoyed up by it at the same time —Eugene Ionesco Live together … as happily as two lobsters in a saucepan, two bugs on a muscle —Dylan Thomas Looked like the sun at the zenith —Carlos Baker Happy-looking as if he’s just heard the foreman say “Not Guilty” —William Slavens McNutt Looking for happiness is like clutching the shadow or chasing the wind —Japanese proverb Looks like he is a kid holding his first puppy —John Wainwright Moments of happiness hang like pearls on the finest silken thread, certain to be snapped, the pearls scattered away —Joan Chase
(I am) happy as a mother whose good baby sleeps —May Sarton
On the brink of our happiness we stop like someone on a drunk starting to weep —Galway Kinnell
Happy as a pig in clover —American colloquialism In the American army this gave way to “Being happy as a pig in shit.”
The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Happy as a robin when he trills —Anon American song, “Love Letters” Happy as a swallow —Richard Ford
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn —Samuel Johnson, March 21, 1776
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Hardness The vicissitudes of life touch him [a happy man] lightly, like the wind in the aspen-tree —Anton Chekhov Wore his new happiness like an advertisement —Nancy Huddleston Packer
< HARDNESS See: FIRMNESS, TOUGHNESS
< HARD-HEARTEDNESS See: CRUELTY
< HARDSHIP
THE SIMILES contains this line: “She spread about her beauty for a snare, harmless as doves.” Harmless as leaves —Reynolds Price Harmless as pigeons —Robinson Jeffers Harmless as witches that have been robbed of their terror —Ellen Glasgow
< HARMONY See: AGREEMENT, COMPATIBILITY, PEACEFULNESS
< HARSHNESS
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
See Also: FIRMNESS, VOICE(S) Austere … as an aging virgin —Paige Mitchell
< HARD WORK
Corrosive as shame —Frank Swinnerton
See: AMBITION, WORK
Harsh as the bitterness of death —Algernon Charles Swinburne
< HARMLESSNESS
Harsh as the yelping of jackals —Gustave Flaubert
See Also: INNOCENCE, KINDNESS As incapable of inflicting harm as a butterfly —Anon
(I will be harsh as … ) harsh as truth —William Lloyd Garrison
Harmless and pleasant as the murmur of brook and wind —Robert Buchanan
Rough as a cob and twice as corny —American colloquialism, attributed to South
Harmless as a Fuller Brush salesman —Raymond Chandler Invariably topical or “brand name” similes either become obsolete or change when the name is no longer a household word. However, there’s always a new name or catchword to take its place.
Shrill and active like a flight of gulls —George Garrett
Harmless as a moth in a closet of Dacron —Anon Harmless as an infant at play —William Cowper Besides other variants meaning literally harmless (“Harmless as a baby,” “Harmless as a sleeping infant”), there are also the more dramatic ones implying danger (“Harmless as an infant playing with knives/a box of pins/matches”) Harmless as a paper tiger —Chinese proverb Harmless as doves —The Holy Bible Attribution for the simile is often given to Christina Rosetti’s Sonnet of Sonnets, which
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Shrill as a whistling teapot with a head full of steam —Anon (His nerves sang a song) shriller than a dog whistle —Douglas Adams Shrill [voice] like a blade turning on a whetstone —Clifford Irving Spoke sternly like a ward nurse to a familiar patient —Arthur A. Cohen Strident as mustard —Marge Piercy Threw orders around like lashes from a cato’nine-tails —Maya Angelou
< HASTE See: SPEED
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< HASTINESS See: CARELESSNESS
< HATRED
Head Movements In his essay, The Pleasures of Hating, Hazlitt continues to describe the effects on hatred: “It makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence and famine into other lands; it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness.”
Dislike ran round the table like electricity —Penelope Gilliatt
Promiscuous haters get religion as promiscuous lovers get clap —Gerald Kersh
Exuded venom like a malicious old lady —Colette
Spite may often see as clearly as charity —Lawrence Durrell
The greatest hatred like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is silent —Jean Paul Richter Hate … flowed like electric syrup through her veins —Marge Piercy Hate is ptomaine, good-will is a panacea —Elbert Hubbard Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat —Harry Emerson Fosdick Hatred fills my mouth like spit —Margaret Atwood Hatred is a form of subjective involvement by which one is bound to the hated object —Lao Tzu Hatred is like fire; it makes even light rubbish deadly —George Eliot Hatreds, like chickens, come home to roost —Joseph Shearing He’ll (a hated individual) be getting into your beer like prussic acid; and blotting out your eyes, like a cataract and screaming in your ears like a brain tumor and boiling around your heart like melted lead and ramping through your guts like a cancer —Joyce Cary I hate you like all-fire —Truman Capote (Lady Charlotte would swallow back her hot feeling against Cynthia.) It [hate] was like a dark web within her, a fibrous tangle like the roots of plants in too small a pot —M. J. Farrell My hate is like ripe fruit —Marvin Bell The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry —William Hazlitt
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< HEAD(S) See Also: HEAD MOVEMENTS Great head and neck rising up like a howitzer shell from out of his six-button doublebreasted, after the manner of the eternal Occupation Zone commandant —Tom Wolfe The man being profiled by Wolfe is describing Otto Preminger. Head like a hard apple —Hugh Walpole Head stiff and to the side like the bust of a minor Roman official —Cynthia Ozick A head too small for the size of his face, like an underinflated balloon —Sue Grafton Held his torso like a bit of classical rubble —Cynthia Ozick Her head looks as if it had worn out two bodies —American colloquialism attributed to New England Face is often substituted for head. His skull curved like a helmet above his deep-set blue eyes —Jonathan Valin In the novel, Life’s Work,Valin follows this with a sentence containing another simile: “His lower face fit into that helmet like a hardwood dowel driven in by a hammer.” A sleek, round head like an umbrella’s —Arthur Train
< HEAD MOVEMENTS Bowed his head … as if wishing to fall at her feet —Leo Tolstoy
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Head Movements Craned her head back and forth like a periscope, the way people do when they are searching for a taxi at rush hour in Manhattan —Daphne Merkin Cranes his neck like a swan —Anton Chekhov Drew his head into his shoulders like the bellows of an accordion —Paul Olsen Ducks his head, like a man someone has menaced and who has barely gotten out of the way —Richard Ford Gave a shake of his head, like a dazed boxer coming to —Peter De Vries Head, bobbing like a hollow ball —John Updike (She was looking at her husband) head cocked like a setter bitch (as if wondering, trying to remember who she had climbed into bed with this time) —James Crumley (The old man’s) head had lowered itself into his collar like a turtle’s —Flannery O’Connor Head moving like a prison search light —T. Glen Coughlin Heads … bent, like flowers following the sun or thrushes listening for snails —Frank Swinnerton
THE SIMILES Her head dropped like a soaked tea rose —Sharon Sheehe Stark His head droops like a sun-flower —S.J. Perelman His head hangs limp as a sock full of sand —Ira Wood His head moved to and fro like a foolish kitten’s after a swinging tangle of wool —Vicki Baum His head rolled about his shoulders like a balloon that wanted to break its string —James Lee Burke His head swung like a snake’s as he talked, scanning anyone who chanced to come near —Donald MacKenzie Holds up her head like a hen drinking —Alan Ramsay’s Collection of Scots Proverbs Lifted his big head like a listening deer —Zane Grey Lifted up his head like a mouse sniffing the air —Isaac Babel Lowered her head like a slow-witted schoolgirl trying to collect her thoughts in an effort to understand the teacher’s question —Franz Werfel
Head sliding forward [while dozing] like an abandoned puppet —T. Alan Broughton
Lowered his head to pray, like a martyr who believed the kingdom of heaven was at hand —Z. Vance Wilson
(Little Nigel’s) head snaps round like a weathervane in a gale —John le Carré
Made the convulsive movement of his head and neck, as if his tie were too tight —Leo Tolstoy
Head spun like a lazy susan —Jay Parini
A man with a small head is like a pin without any, very apt to get into things beyond his depth —Josh Billings
Head thrust forward like a hungry hawk —Harold Adams Head tilted to one side like a bib bird sitting on a branch of a tree —Harvey Swados
Nodded like a basking lizard —Derek Lambert Nodded … like a leaf —William McIlvanney
Head tilted to one side like a robin listening for worms —Jay McInerney
Nodded smartly —like a second lieutenant’s salute —Jonathan Valin
Head turning quickly from side to side, like an animal’s —Eudora Welty
Nodding his head like a pecking bird —Beryl Markham
Head wagging like a mechanical toy —F. van Wyck
Nods his head like a sage old trial judge —Richard Ford
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Health
Pulls back his head, like a turtle sensing danger —Rick Borsten
(Has a heart) as sound as a bell —William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing
Shaking her head as if to get rid of a fly —Ruth Suckow
Drug addiction is like a light that doesn’t shine —Cardinal John O’Connor, speaking at New York City ceremony to fight drug addiction, August 8, 1986
Shaking her head impatiently … as if in a futile attempt to ease the chafing of an invisible collar —Carolyn Kizer Shook his head like a wet retriever —Sharon Sheehe Stark Shook his head like an overburdened professor —Martin Cruz Smith Shook my head back and forth like a silent, solid bell —Richard S. Prather Tossed her head with petulant violence, like a child who doesn’t want her snarls combed out —John Updike Turned her head … cocking it a little, like a pretty canary in a cage —Harvey Swados
Felt like the symptoms on a medicine bottle —George Ade (Looking) fit and taut as a fiddle —Robert Louis Stevenson (I feel as) fit as a bull moose —Theodore Roosevelt to newspaper reporters Fit as a fiddle —John Ray’s Proverbs This is the most famous of the many “Fit as” comparisons. A modernized extension by novelist Geoffrey Wolff: “Fit as an electric fiddle.” (You’re looking this morning as) fit as a flea —Henry James
Turning his head from side to side as though his necktie were too tight (and when he did that he usually clutched at his throat), —Ivan Turgenev In a story entitled “Knock … Knock … Knock …” to describe a character who seemed to feel constantly cramped in the world.
Healthy as a steer —Thomas Zigal
Turns his head from side to side, like a turtle —Margaret Atwood
A healthy body is the guest-chamber of the soul; a sick body its prison —Francis Bacon
Wagged their heads like a company of cockatoos —Katherine Mansfield
Hones himself down [to stay in top physical condition] sharper than a Gillette blade —Norman Keifetz
Waved her head here and there like a piece of wind-worried old orange-peel —F. Scott Fitzgerald The way he jerked his head from side to side made him seem like some sort of a little perky bird —a goldfinch, perhaps —Roald Dahl Withdrew his head like a scared tortoise —Donald MacKenzie
< HEALTH See Also: PAIN As clean and strong and healthy as a young tree in the sun —Hugh Walpole
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Gobbled pills like a famished chicken pecking up corn —Dale Kramer [Narrator’s father] Gradually sank as if he had a slow leak —Oliver Sacks Healthy as a kayaker —Richard Ford
It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser —Robert Louis Stevenson No neurotic is cured, he merely substitutes one set of neuroses for another. Like a man who stops biting his fingernails only to start scratching his head —Margaret Millar Pent-up resentment, aggression and hostility are as bad for health as constipation —George Garrett Radiate health and good will like a red-hot stove —Robertson Davies
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THE SIMILES
Sickness fell upon me like an April cloud —Edward Marsh
Hearts isolated behind the bars of ribs and jumping around like monkeys —Yehuda Amichai
So far as ailments went, Uncle Horace was like an insatiable gardener confronted by a seedsman’s catalogue. He had only to get news of an untried specimen to have a go at it —Howard Spring
Hearts … mellow as well tilled soil in which good seed flourishes —Vladimir Korolenko
Sound as a bell of brass —Anon According to Larry Gottlieb, a one-time handicapper for The New York Morning Telegraph, this expression used to assay a thoroughbred up for sale is the most commonly used simile in racing circles, probably introduced in England in the nineteenth century. Sound as a nut —Mazo de la Roche
Hearts opening like jaws —Sharon Olds Heart trembling a little like the door for Elijah the Prophet —Yehuda Amichai A heart without affection is like a purse without money —Benjamin Mandelstamm Her heart divided like two wings —Carson McCullers Her heart sank like a wounded bird —Ellen Glasgow
Temperature as high as a tree —Mary Lee Settle
His heart ached like Niagara Falls —Frank O’Hara
Unhealthy as the liver of a goose intended for pate —Israel Zangwill
His heart is like a viper, hissing and spitting poison at God —Jonathan Edwards
< HEART(S) See Also: AGITATION, HEARTBEAT Hard hearts, and cold, like weights of icy stone —Percy Bysshe Shelley The heart errs like the head —Anatole France The heart (especially the Jewish heart) is a fiddle: you pull the strings, and out come songs, mostly plaintive —Sholom Aleichem The heart is like the sky, a part of heaven, but changes night and day, too, like the sky —Lord Byron The heart is like a creeping plant, which withers unless it has something around which it can entwine —Charles James Apperley The heart is like an instrument whose strings steal nobler music from Life’s many frets —Gerald Massey Heart like a child —Mary Hood The heart of the wise, like a mirror, should reflect all objects, without being sullied by any —Confucius
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His heart … like the sea, ever open, brave and free —F. E. Weatherly His heart sagged in its net of veins like a rock in a sling —George Garrett His heart swelled up in his throat like a toad —Oakley Hall His heart was open as the day —Anon ballad, “Old Grimes” The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven —Martin Luther The human heart is like a millstone in a mill: when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds and bruises the wheat to flour; if you put no wheat, it still grinds on, but then ’tis itself it grinds and wears away —Martin Luther A man’s heart is like a sponge, just soaked with emotion and sentiment of which he can squeeze a little bit out for every pretty woman —Helen Rowland A man’s heart, like an automobile, is always apt to skid and ditch him just at the psychological
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Heartbeat
moment when he thinks he has it under perfect control —Helen Rowland
Heart pulsing like a womb which has just given birth —Erica Jong
My heart clenched like a fist —Charles Johnson The fist comparison is also effective for describing a grim, pinched facial expression.
Heart … running like a hamster on a wheel —Diane Ackerman
My heart is like an apple-tree whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit —Christina Rossetti The first stanza of “A Birthday,” from which this is taken contains yet another heart comparison: “My heart is like a rainbow shell that paddles in a halcyon sea.” My heart is like an outbound ship that at its anchor swings —John Greenleaf Whittier My heart is like a singing bird —Christina Rossetti My little heart pops out, like springs —Diane Wakoski This simile is the title of a poem which begins with yet another simile: “a little spirit in me that’s wound up like a clock.” [Without my loved one] My heart’s like a beet root choked with chickweed —Anon This simile appears in a poem entitled “The Broken Hearted Gardener” found in John Ashton's 1888 compilation Modern Street Ballads.
< HEARTBEAT See Also: AGITATION Chest chiming like a cathedral gone berserk —Jonathan Gash Feel his heart beating wildly inside his child’s body, like a bird in a frail cage —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Hearts … like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A heart that ran up and down within the cage of ribs like a restless panther —Leonard Casper Heart thumping like a June bug —Anne Sexton Heart thumping like an outboard —Richard Ford His heart … beat high and fast like the ticking of a watch under a pillow —Frank Swinnerton His heart began to give off tremendous explosions like a rifle —Eudora Welty His heart beating, fiercely, like a small clock —Celia Dale His heart flapped like a mass of furled banners —Bernard Malamud His heart fluttered like that of a small bird about to be stoned —Alice Walker My heart leaps forward like a hungry dog —Karl Shapiro My heart pounds away, confident as a clock —Denise Levertov My heart pounds down on itself like an anvil —Richard Ford My heart staggers like a drunk —George Garrett My heart was beating intolerably like a held bird —Reynolds Price
Heart banged like a drum —Katherine Mansfield
The noise that his heart valve produced sounded like two mechanical mice making love in a spoon drawer —Tom Robbins
Heart beating like an African drum —Hugh Walpole
Heart like a bass drum in her chest —Susan Richards Shreve
(Mrs. Arkin’s) heart fluttered like a bird’s wing —Gloria Norris
[A skylark’s] heart … drumming like a motor —Ted Hughes
Heart jumping like a puppy —Anne Sexton
(In his ears his) heart sounded like jungle drums —Mary Hedin
Heart noisy as a cockcrow —Walter de la Mare
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Heartiness
< HEARTINESS See: EMOTIONS
THE SIMILES Heat waves rippling like lake water —Jessamyn West Hot as a fox —Elizabeth Spencer
< HEAT
Hot as a jungle —T. Coraghessan Boyle
See Also: WEATHER The days were like hot coals —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hot as a mink in Africa —Reynolds Price
A glaring, summery heat covered everything like a layer of glass —Jean Thompson The heat came down on you like a leaden mantle, stifling you as it did so —Dominique Lapierre [Midsummer] Heat closed in like a hand over a murder victim’s mouth —Truman Capote Heat fell on her like a blanket —Julia O’Falain Heat gathers like fog —Angela Carter Heat … heavy as water —Dan Jacobson The heat … hung like a hot dust vapor —H. E. Bates Heat lay on the pavement like a tired dog in the doorway of a house —Aharon Megged Heat shimmered and bent the fields like the landscape was a reflection in an old mirror —Will Weaver The heat thick as a swamp —Margaret Atwood Heat thick as jelly —Elizabeth Enright The heat was like a tyrant who hated his subjects —William H Hallhan The heat was like a wasting disease —T. Coraghessan Boyle Heat waves … rising … like fumes off kerosene —Larry McMurtry Heat waves rose writhing like fine wavy hair —Wallace Stegner [Sun) hot as a blast furnace —Raymond Chandler Hot as a blister —Sir Francis C. Burnand Hot as a draft from hell —William H. Gass Hot as a four-alarm fire —H. C. Witwer
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Hot as an oven —The Holy Bible Writers and speakers have long repeated and enlarged upon this simile, changing the descriptive frame of reference altogether or switching from the oven to what comes out of it. Some of these old-timers include: “Hot as hell-fire” (John Dryden), “Hot as hate” (Hamlin Garland), “Hot as hammered hell/hot as hammered lightning” (American colloquialisms), and “hot as a basted turkey” (Will Carleton). (On some nights, New York is as) hot as Bangkok —Saul Bellow Hot as live ash —Beryl Markham (I am as) hot as molten lead, and as heavy too —William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I (I’m) hot as shit —Richard Ford (Even the fog that day was) hot as soup —Marge Piercy Hot as the business end of a pistol —Delmore Schwartz Hot as the hinges of hell —Babs H. Deal The hot days pressed people flat as irons —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Hot, like a furnace room —Frank Conroy It was like being inside a radiator —David Brierley It was more than hot: it was like being under a damp blanket in the tropics —Laurie Colwin Scorches like nettles —Babette Deutsch Steaming [from hot weather] like crabs in a soup pot —Margaret Laurence (The shallow ditches were) steaming like fresh cowflap —Paul Theroux [A hot bath] Steams like a bowl of soup —Margaret Atwood
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Helplessness
(She was) trapped between the heat of the sun and the heat rising from the earth. It was like being struck simultaneously by gusts of fire from above and from below —Margaret Millar
< HELPFULNESS
Warm as a newborn child —William Alfred
< HELPLESSNESS
Warm as summer —Walter Savage Landor
As defenseless [without a gun] as a tethered goat in a jungle —Eric Ambler
Warm as veins —Ted Hughes (The water is) warm like my blood —Marge Piercy (A novel that) warms like a hug —Anon book blurb, quoted in advertisement from San Francisco Chronicle
< HEAVINESS Feel heavy … like a corpse —Penelope Gilliatt Feel heavy like the September limbs of an apple tree —Diane Wakoski The hand upon his shoulder weighed like a hand of lead —Oscar Wilde Heavy and indistinct, like the consciousness of a man in a dream —Gustave Flaubert Heavy as a lecher’s kiss —Sylvia Plath (A cold sky) heavy as a vault —Malcolm Cowley (They are) heavy as dumplings —Henry David Thoreau To give added emphasis and specificity, there’s “Heavy as overcooked dumplings,” “Heavy as matzo balls,” “Heavy as latkes,” “Heavy as wontons.” Heavy as guilt —Anon Heavy as hard luck —Philip Larkin
See: KINDNESS
Brutally as on a gag in her mouth, she choked on the sense of her defenselessness —Dorothy Canfield Chucked about like a cork —Nicholas Monsarrat Feel like a card in a deck that is being constantly shuffled —W. P. Kinsella Feel like a rookie runner caught off base by a wily pitcher, hung up in that vast area between first and second, fluttering back and forth like a wounded bird who knows he’s doomed —W. P. Kinsella Felt as a lost sailor on a sinking ship might feel, who throws his last rope —and no saving hands to grasp it —Stella Benson Felt [as result of being moved to another home by grandparents] as if I was being kidnapped —Elizabeth Bishop Felt helpless, like a rape victim —Rose Tremain Felt helpless, as if he were involved in some disgraceful fraud —Katherine Anne Porter Felt helpless, like a dog that’s been run over —Robert Lowry Felt I was nothing but a husk blown this way and that way by the winds of misfortune —Angela Carter
Heavy as ingots —Diane Ackerman
Felt like a beast in a trap, whose enemy would come upon him soon —H. G. Wells
(The glass mugs were) heavy as sin —Harvey Swados
Felt like a bone between dogs —Julia O’Faolain
[A suitcase] heavy as some icon —Cynthia Ozick Heavy as the weight of dreams —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Leaden like a bullet —Ted Hughes
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Felt like a man trapped in a swamp —Donald MacKenzie Felt like a marionette, as though something out side her were jerking the strings that forced her to scream and strike —Jean Rhys
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Helplessness Felt like a wounded fish who faced a larger hungry fish —William Beechcroft Felt more and more like a soldier being pitched into battle without proper orders —John Fowles
THE SIMILES It was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top. Falling, falling, and not knowing when you will hit —Margaret Atwood I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter —The Holy Bible/Jeremiah
Felt ridiculous and out of control, like an engine breaking itself apart —Mark Helprin
Lame as a butterfly spread on a pin —Shirley Kaufman
Helpless and hopeful as a blade of grass —George Garrett
Like elastic, stretched beyond its uttermost, his reason, will, faculties of calculation and resolve snapped to within him —John Galsworthy
Get tossed like salad —Charles Bukowski Helpless … as a hooked fish swinging to land —Thomas Hardy Helpless as a lion without teeth —F. Scott Fitzgerald Helpless as an infant caterpillar in a nest of hungry ants —James Montgomery Flagg Helpless as a plant without water —F. Hopkinson Smith Helpless [against tide of emotions] as a swimmer swept away in a strong current —Margaret Kennedy Helpless as a turtle on its back —O. Henry Helpless as a writhing beetle on its back —Robert Traver (I have become as) helpless as if the branch I seize and the one I stood upon both broke at the same time —Tamil Helpless as shadows —Jean Garrigue Helpless as the dead —W. S. Gilbert Helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish —Kin Hubbard Helpless … like a man with a rumbling volcano in his pocket, trying to hold back the eruption with his naked hand —Irving Stone Impotent yet defiant … like a wild animal driven into a hole or fettered to a stake —Arthur Train It almost feels out of his control now, like pattern baldness —David Nicholls, One Day
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Looked like sheep looking for their shepherd —W. Somerset Maugham My will was a leaf in a gust of wind —Natascha Wodin Powerless … as a stone —Elizabeth Barrett Browning Powerless as before a cataract —Simone de Beauvoir Powerless as the wind —Percy Bysshe Shelley The sense of being trapped ran through him like fire through dry grass —Ben Ames Williams Sense of helplessness … like a soft-shell crab that just shed its shell —Kenzaburo Oe Sinking under the leaden embrace of her affection like a swimmer in a drowning clutch —Edith Wharton The situation [of tumbling stock market prices] is like being caught in the Bermuda Triangle —Harvey P. Eisen, New York Times, January 1986 Tossed about like an empty can in the sea —Romain Gary Tossed about like cattle on a train —Ignazio Silone Tossed about like twigs in an angry water —Willa Cather Unable to do anything … it was like watching a big cat thrash around in a cage and being helpless to free the beast —May Sarton
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THE SIMILES Watching a friend fail … it’s like a bunch of lifeguards standing and watching their friend drown —Robin Williams, “Sixty Minutes” interview, September 21, 1986 The comedian’s comparison described how comedians feel when they watch one of their own fail on stage. We’re all drawn by wires like puppets, and the strongest wire pulls us in the direction in which we are meant to go —Ellen Glasgow Without power, like a buzzing horsefly —George Garrett Worked by strings, like a Japanese marionette —W. S. Gilbert Wriggling helplessly, like a butterfly impaled by a pin —Louis Bromfield
< HESITANCY See: UNCERTAINTY
Honesty History is floated like a bond issue on the fat of banks —Marge Piercy History is written to order like the Sunday funnies —Marge Piercy This is one of several similes pertaining to history in Piercy’s poem “For Shoshana Rihm.” History … like some lump of viscid porridge sliding slowly down a sink —Lawrence Durrell History passes like falling rocks in the dark —Robinson Jeffers History trails its meaning like old cobwebs caught in a cellar broom —Robert Penn Warren (History) sifting and seeping, piddling itself away as one wastes a Sunday —William H. Gass To the scientific eye all human history is a series of collective movements, destructions or migrations, like the massacre of flies in winter or the return of birds in spring —G. K. Chesterton
See: MOUNTAINS
You can’t escape history, or the needs and neuroses you’ve picked up like layers and layers of tartar on your teeth —Charles Johnson
< HISTORY
< HOCKEY
See Also: MEMORY; PAST, THE Americans treat history like a cookbook. Whenever they are uncertain what to do next, they turn to history and look up the proper recipe, invariably designated “the lesson of history” —Russell Baker
See: SPORTS
Carried his history with him like a tattooed sailor —Alice McDermott
See: FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS, HOUSES, ROOMS
< HILLS
History is a hill or a high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are —G. K. Chesterton Chesterton continues this simile as follows: “Without some such contrast or comparison, without some such shifting of the point of view, we should see nothing whatever of our own social surroundings. We should take them for granted, as the only possible social surroundings.”
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< HOLLOWNESS See: EMPTINESS
< HOME
< HOMELESSNESS Like a ship at sea, vainly I looked for a shore —Oscar Hammerstein, “The Man I Used to Be,” Pipe Dream
< HONESTY See Also: RELIABILITY/UNRELIABILITY Clean as a hound’s hind leg —William Beechcroft
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Honor Honest as bread —Mollie Hardwick Honesty is a compulsion swinging a heavy sword like loving —Marge Piercy Honesty is like an icicle; if once it melts that is the end of it —Anon Incorruptible as a statue —Jean Garrigue Law-abiding as a cow —G. K. Chesterton (I’m totally legit.) Legal as a Jesuit —Jay Parini
< HONOR See: REPUTATION
< HOPE
THE SIMILES Hopeful, like extras at an audition —Lawrence Durrell Hope has as many lives as a cat or a king —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Hope is a kind of cheat: in the minute of our disappointment we are angry; but upon the whole matter there is no pleasure without it —Lord Halifax Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us —Samuel Smiles Hope is nearly as strong as despair, and greatly more pertinacious and enduring —Walter Savage Landor
See Also: DREAM(S) As renewed as a baby born to middle life —Richard Ford
Hope is to a man as a bladder to a learning swimmer; it keeps him from sinking … but yet many times it makes him venture beyond his height —Owen Feltham
As spring flowers are promised by seed-sellers in their new catalogues, you too were once full of promise —Charles Simic
Hope … it’s like a fire in the wind; the slightest breeze will diminish it, but if I feed it the wind will make it blaze —Richard Maynard
Carry hope like a tallow candle —Marge Piercy
Hope’s as cheap as despair —H. G. Bohn’s HandBook of Proverbs
Cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay —Percy Bysshe Shelley Every wish is like a prayer with God —Elizabeth Barrett Browning Full of inexpressible expectations, like a child running downstairs on Christmas morning, not knowing what wonderful things may be in the stocking —Harvey Swados Had his hopes jerked back and forth like Pinocchio —dialogue from Hill Street Blues, television drama, 1987 Hope dawned in the distance like a sail —Marguerite Yourcenar Hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Nothing in the world is as) hopeful as knowing a woman you like is somewhere thinking about only you —Richard Ford
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Hopes like a child —Randall Jarrell Hope springing like a Jack-in-the-box —Alice McDermott It was as though a great eraser had swept across Stern’s mind, and he was ready to start fresh again —Bruce Jay Friedman Like our shadows, our wishes lengthen as our sun declines —Edward Young Living on hope is like living on an 800 calorie-aday diet —Anon This may have its origins in a Scottish proverb: “He who lives on hope lives on a very lean diet.” Look at hopefully, like a bird with its beak open waiting for a nice juicy worm —Sara Woods Plucked my spirits up like a hitchhiker who catches a ride when all hope was lost —Richard Ford
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THE SIMILES Through the sunset of hope like the shapes of a dream, what paradise islands of glory gleam —Percy Bysshe Shelley Wishes, like painted landscape … afar off they appear beautiful; but near they show their coarse and ordinary colors —Thomas Yalden
< HORROR
Houses Buildings as badly painted as old whores —Larry McMurtry Buildings, lined up like ships —Helen Hudson Buying a new home is like raising children; there’s always room for improvement —Arlene Zalesky, Newsday, September 27, 1986
See: FEAR
The church has a steeple like the hat of a witch —William H. Gass
< HOSPITALITY
(Church) Cold, damp and smelly as a tomb —Sean O’Faolain
Giving a party is very much like having a baby; its conception is more fun than its completion —Anon Hospitable as Welcome Wagoners —Lisa Harris The hospitality described in Harris’ book, The World of a Hasidic Family, is that of the Lubavitcher women in New York’s Crown Heights. A host is like a general: it takes a mishap to reveal his genius —Horace The service was as slow as the progress of a snail and a good-humored as Rip Van Winkle —O. Henry
< HOSTILITY See: ANGER
< HOUSES
Cottages looking like something the three little pigs might have built —Sue Grafton Darkened houses loomed like medieval battlements —J. W. Rider Decrepit houses lay scattered around the landscape like abandoned machines on a battlefield —Peter Meinke Door … shut like an angry face —John Updike A duplex co-op that made Lenny’s [Leonard Bernstein’s home ] look like a fourth-floor walkup —Tom Wolfe An estate without a forest is like a house without a chimney —Sholom Aleichem A first home, like the person who aroused our initial awakening to sex, holds forever strong sway over our emotions —Dorothea Straus
See Also: FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS, ROOMS [A modern building] All glossy undulations and shining declivities, like a razor haircut in concrete and glass —Jonathan Valin
Frame houses collapsing at their centers like underdone cakes —Jean Thompson
(The place was) as conspicuously unadorned as a Presbyterian church —Jonathan Valin
The great glass doors … swished together behind him like an indrawn breath —A. Alvarez
(Tenement house with mean little) balconies pulled out one by one like drawers —Vladimir Nabokov
The house is like a woman you find attractive at a distance. The closer you get, the more you wonder what you were thinking. —Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I Leave You
Bricks [in path to front door of house] laid close as your hairs —Sharon Olds A building long and low like a loaf of bread —Marge Piercy
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A glass-and-concrete air-conditioned block of a building cantilevered from the hillside like a Swiss sanatorium —Walker Percy
Her house is like her chiffon cakes, all soft surfaces and pleasant colors —Bobbie Ann Mason
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THE SIMILES
A home is like a reservoir equipped with a check valve: the valve permits influx but prevents outflow —E. B. White
A modern building made of … big cubes of concrete like something built by a child —Edna O’Brien
A house like this is like some kinds of women, too expensive even —James Hilton
Modern buildings tend to look like call girls who came out of it intact except that their faces are a touch blank and the expression in their eyes is as lively as the tip of a filter cigarette —Norman Mailer
House narrow as a coffin —Angela Carter Apartments … looking like giant bricks stabbed into the ground —W. P. Kinsella Houses, like people, have personalities, and like the personalities of people they are partly molded by all that has happened to them —Louis Bromfield Houses that aged nicely, like a handsome woman —James Crumley Houses, their doors and windows open, drawing in freshness, were like old drunkards or consumptives taking a cure —Saul Bellow The house stood like a huge shell, empty and desolate —H. E. Bates House … trim and fresh as a birdcake and almost as small —William Faulkner It [house] sat among ten acres of blackberry brambles, like an abandoned radio —Tom Robbins [A ranch-style house] just too cute for words … it looked as if it had been delivered, already equipped, from a store —Christopher Isherwood Kept it [an old historic house] up like a museum —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Long rows of apartment houses stood bald and desolate, like sad old prostitutes —Erich Maria Remarque
Paint peeled from it [an apartment house] in layers, like a bad sunburn —Paige Mitchell A peculiar, suggestive heaviness, trapping the swooning buildings in a sweet, solid calm, as if preserving them in honey —Angela Carter The pink stucco apartment house looked like a cake that was inhabited by hookers about to jump out of it any second —Robert Campbell A pretty country retreat is like a pretty wife —one is always throwing away money decorating it —Washington Irving Residences … of brick, whitewashed and looking faintly flushed, like a pretty girl, with the pink of the brick glowing through where the whitewash had worn off —Harvey Swados Slate roofs … like the backs of pigeons —Don Robertson Tents sprang up like strange plants. Campfires, like red, peculiar blossoms, dotted the night —Stephen Crane Victorian house … shaped like a wedding cake —Laurie Colwin We require from buildings, as from men, two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical day well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it —John Ruskin
< HOVERING
It [a big building} looked as bleak as a barracks —Robert Silverberg
See: LINGERING
Looked as homey and inviting as the House of Usher —Sarah Bird
< HOWLS
Houses (seen from a belfry) looked like small caskets and boxes jumbled together —Boris Pasternak
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See: SCREAMS
< HUMANITY See: MANKIND
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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THE SIMILES
< HUMILITY See: MEEKNESS, MODESTY
Hunger Appetite … as insatiable as the sun’s —Wallace Stevens Had an appetite like a chain saw —Harry Prince
< HUMOR
Appetite like a sparrow —Jilly Cooper
See Also: CLEVERNESS, LAUGHTER Funny as a crutch —American colloquialism This typifies the ironic simile that says one thing while it means quite the opposite. A variation that takes the irony an extra step: “funny as a rubber crutch.”
Ate as heartily as a hungry pike —Howard Spring
Funny as a dirty joke at a funeral —William McIlvanney Funny as your own funeral —Anon Good jests bite like lambs, not like dogs —Thomas Fuller Humor … like good cheese, mellowed and ripened by age —Dorothy Canfield Humor, like history … repeats itself —Harold Adams Jokes that weren’t proper and which therefore went through me like an electric shock, both pleasant and intolerable —Thomas Keneally Like clothes for the needy, they [jokes] were worn, shabby and used —Henry Van Dyke
Ate like a gang of hungry threshers —Erich Maria Remarque Belly as empty as a wind instrument —Isaac Babel Hunger makes beans taste like almonds —Italian proverb Hunger stirred in him like a small animal —Carlos Baker Hungry as a bear —John Ray’s Proverbs Of all the “hungry as” similes, the link with bears, lions and wolves is the most frequently encountered. Amongst once popular phrases which have fallen into disuse are: “hungry as a kite,” “hungry as hawks,” and “hungry as a hunter.” (I came home) hungry as a hunter —Charles Lamb Hungry as a nanny goat —Ben Hecht This simple and direct comparison from a play entitled Winkleberg marks a departure from Hecht’s bent for far-fetched similes.
Sarcasm should not be like a saw, but a sword; it should cut, and not mangle —Lord Francis Jeffrey
Hungry as a schoolboy —Raymond Chandler
They [poorly told jokes] just lie where they fall, plop, like dropped jellyfish —Herman Wouk
Nibbled like a minnow —Howard Spring
True sarcasm is like a swordstick; it appears, at first sight, to be much more innocent than it really is, till, all of a sudden, there leaps something out of it —sharp and deadly and incisive, which makes you tremble and recoil —Sydney Smith Wheezing out great lumps of irony like a cat spitting up fur —Wilfrid Sheed
Hungry as the grave —James Thomson Passengers clustered around a food stall like ants trying to drag a crumb of cake back to their nest —Derek Lambert Ravenous as gulls over a fishing boat —Marge Piercy [A voracious eater] Sits down to eat as thin as a grasshopper and gets up as big as a bug in the family way —Erich Maria Remarque
< HUNGER
So hungry, it was as if there was a hand in our stomachs, like purses, rifling through them —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
See Also: EATING AND DRINKING Appetite … as hot as a fire —Henry Fielding
Stomach … as hollow as any trumpet —Henry Fielding
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Hurrying
< HURRYING See: SPEED
< ICICLES See: SNOW
< IDEALS See: BELIEFS
THE SIMILES they are under his own dominion —Sir Joseph Yates Ideas are like beards; men do not have them until they grow up —Voltaire Ideas came with explosive immediacy, like an instant birth. Human thought is like a monstrous pendulum; it keeps swinging from one extreme to the other —Eugene Field Ideas die, like men —Marguerite Yourcenar
< IDEAS
Ideas good as a fat wallet —Richard Ford
As flowers grow in more tropical luxuriance in a hothouse, so do wild and frenzied ideas flourish in the darkness —Stefan Zweig
Ideas, like women’s clothes and rich men’s illnesses, change according to fashion —Lawrence Durrell
Every conjecture exploded like a pricked bubble —Stefan Zweig
Ideas of your own are like babies. They are all right if you can keep them quiet —Anon
The flow of ideas is broad, continuous, like a river —Gustave Flaubert In a letter to George Sand, Flaubert refers to her easy writing style using this simile. About his own style, he said, “It’s a tiny trickle.”
Ideas should be received like guests, in a friendly way, but with the reservation that they are not to tyrannize their host —Albert Moravia
Get ideas like other men catch cold —Diane Ackerman Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something —E. L. Simpson
Ideas that … in the light of day, may hide but never quite go away. Like mice in old houses, one knows they’re there —David R. Slavitt Ideas winged their way swiftly like martins round the bell tower at dawn —Ivan Turgenev
His fancy … ran along with him, like the sails of a small boat, from which the ballast is thrown overboard —Isak Dinesen
The imagination is like the drunk man who lost his watch, and must get drunk again to find it. It is as intimate as speech and custom, and to trace its ways we need to reeducate our eyes —Guy Davenport
The idea came … like a ray of light —Vladimir G. Korolenko
Imagination is like a lofty building reared to meet the sky —Gelett Burgess
The idea danced before us as a flag —Edgar Lee Masters
Imagination … must be immediate and direct like the gaze that kindles it —Italo Calvino
An idea, like a ghost … must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself —Charles Dickens
Just like a busy bee / Each new philosophy / Can fly from tree to tree and keep me moving —Clark Gesner, “My New Philosophy,” You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
The idea remained, roaming in the dark of his mind … like a rat in the basement, too canny to be poisoned or trapped —John Gardner Ideas are free. But while the author confines them to his study, they are like birds in a cage, which none but he can have a right to let fly; for, till he thinks proper to emancipate them,
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Lack ideas … as if someone had tied a tourniquet around the left side of his brain —Anon Like good yeast bread, a good idea needs time to proof —Erik Sandberg-Diment, New York Times, August 24, 1986
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THE SIMILES (Olga’s mind was sensuously slow: she) lingered over an idea like someone lingering in a hot tub —Wilfrid Sheed Old ideas, like old clothes, put carefully away, come out again after a time almost as good as new —Punch, 1856 Picking up the idea by its corner like a soiled hanky —Rosellen Brown Planted ideas … as a gardener will plant sticks for climbing sweet pea —Lawrence Durrell A shortsighted concept … rather like a bankrupt saying he’s invested his capital in debts —Frank Ross The theory arrived neither full-blown, like an orphan on the doorstep, nor sharply defined, like a spike through a shoe; nor did it develop as would a photographic print, crisp images gradually emerging from a shadowy soup. Rather, it unwound like a turban, like mummy bandage —Tom Robbins What America needs now are ideas like shafts of light —Ellen Gilchrist, National Public Radio September 22, 1986
< IDLENESS See Also: SITTING As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy —Samuel Johnson Idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Illness Like lambs, you do nothing but suck, and wag your tails —Thomas Fuller (I’ve been) lying around like an old cigarette holder —Anton Chekhov A slacker is just like custard pie, yellow all through but without crust enough to go over the top —Don Marquis Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used eye is always bright —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs
< IGNORANCE See Also: STUPIDITY The fault unknown is as a thought unacted —William Shakespeare, “The Rape of Lucrece” Ignorance is a form of incompetence —Natsume Soseki Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone —Oscar Wilde Ignorance like a fire doth burn —Bayard Taylor Ignorant as dirt —Karl Shapiro A man’s ignorance is as much his private property, and as precious in his own eyes, as his family Bible —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. A man with little learning is like the frog who thinks its puddle a great sea —Burmese proverb
Idleness is like the nightmare; the moment you begin to stir yourself you shake it off —Punch, 1853
There are a great multitude of individuals who are like blind mules, anxious enough to kick, but can’t tell where —Josh Billings Here are the words as they were originally in Billing’s phonetic dialect: “a grate multitude … but kant tell whare.”
Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen —Jerome K. Jerome
< ILLNESS
Idle as if in hospital —Sylvia Plath
Indolent and shifting as men or tides —Kenneth Patchen A lazy man is like a filthy stone, everyone flees from its stench —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See Also: HEALTH Afflictions are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike until they have fallen —Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire
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Ill Temper A big pulse of sickness beat in him as if it throbbed through the whole earth —D. H. Lawrence The disease and its medicine are like two factions in a besieged town; they tear one another to pieces but both unite against their common enemy … Nature —Lord Francis Jeffrey Diseases … attenuate our bodies … shrivel them up like old apples —Robert Burton His head seemed to be flying about like a pinwheel —Sherwood Anderson Illness and doctors go together like priests and funerals —Armand Salacrou Illness and medicines are invariable as costly as champagne and gaiety at a party —Janet Flanner An illness is like a journey into a far country; it sifts all one’s experience and removes it to a point so remote that it appears like a vision —Sholom Ash Nausea lay like poison in his blood —Heinrich Böll Our bowels were like running faucets —John Farris Stricken as if an angel had landed on her bedpost —Gloria Norris
< ILL TEMPER
THE SIMILES
< IMMOBILITY See Also: DEATH, LYING, POSTURE, SITTING, STANDING (I am) comatose like a mouse in the sun —Janet Flanner The simile was prompted by the writer’s being heavily medicated. Fixed as the garden in a wallpaper mural —Anon Frozen like dogs waiting at night for a bitch in heat —Bertolt Brecht Immobile as a heavily sprayed coiffure —Elyse Sommer Immobile as despair —Yvor Winters (Lay,) immobile, like something caught —an ungainly fish —Daphne Merkin Immobilized like fishes caught in a net —Dominique Lapierre Immovable, emotionless, a jade Buddha serenely contemplating some quintessential episode of a TV police show —T. Coraghessan Boyle (The corpse still) lay like a smashed fly —G. K. Chesterton Lay motionless, as if felled by an axe —Stefan Zweig Lifeless as a string of dead fish —G. K. Chesterton
See: ANGER
Motionless as a dog thrown into the street —Émile Zola
< ILLUSTRIOUSNESS
(Clouds … ) motionless as a ledge of rock —Willa Cather
See: FAME
Motionless as an idol and as grim —John Greenleaf Whittier
< IMAGINATION See: IDEAS
(Remained standing in the same place) motionless as if he were a prisoner —Bertolt Brecht
< IMITATION
Motionless, in an agony of inertia, like a machine that is without power —D. H. Lawrence
See: SIMILARITY
< IMMEDIACY See: SPEED
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Motionless, like a man in a nightmare —G. K. Chesterton (This play has) no more action than a snake has hips —Anon
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THE SIMILES
Immobility
Remained rooted in place like an oak —Charles Johnson
Still as a child in its first loneliness —Theodore Roethke
Sat as still as a tree —Speer Morgan
Still as a cocoon on a branch —Marge Piercy
Sat like a marble man —Margaret Millar
Still as a folded bat —Eudora Welty
Sat … motionless as a drowsing man —Beryl Markham
(Became) still as a hare caught in the light of a torch —R. Wright Campbell
Sat there like a potted plant —Delmore Schwartz
Still as a little hare in the hollow of a furrow —Colette
Sat through it all like a slug —Rita Mae Brown Sits impassive, like Rodin’s Penseur —Frank Swinnerton (I’d rather) sit still, like the pilot light inside the gas —Saul Bellow Standing … like a hydrant —Rosellen Brown Standing there like a glee-club president in granite —Erich Maria Remarque Standing motionless as if turned to stone —Ivan Turgenev Standing stock still … like George Segal plaster figures —Paul Kuttner Standing there rigid as the Venus de Milo —T. Coraghessan Boyle In Boyle’s story, The Descent of Man, the character voicing this simile speaks in dialect, using ‘de’ and ‘dere’ instead of “there” and “the” as used here. Stand motionless as a pillar of the colonial portico of a mansion in a Kentucky prohibition town —O. Henry Stand motionless … as though trying to make myself blend with the dark wood and become invisible —William Faulkner Stand perfectly still, like a scarecrow —Walter de la Mare Statue-like repose —James Aldrich The simile from a poem entitled “A Death-Bed” reads as follows in its full context: “Her suffering ended with the day, yet lived she at its close, and breathed the long, long night away in statuelike repose.”
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
(Sitting as) still as a lizard on a stone —Mary Stewart Still as a picture —John Greenleaf Whittier Still as a pillar —Reynolds Price Still as a post —Fannie Stearns Gifford Other similes to express the same idea are to “sit still as a fence post,” and “to stand like an iron post.” Still as a snapshot —Anne Sexton Still as a turtle on a log which is stuck in the mud near some willows —Elizabeth Spencer Still as bushes —Helen Hudson (The air was) still as death —MacDonald Harris (The next morning was cold and clear and) still as held breath —John Yount (Ray lay) still as ice —Wilbur Daniel Steele Still as if a block of ice had formed around him —William McIlvanney Still as mummy in a case —Henry James Still as sleeping princesses —Joyce Cary Still as the wind’s center —Theodore Roethke Stood frozen like some sort of Mexican stone idol —Robert Silverberg Stood still, petrified like the pillar of salt —Victor Hugo Stood there rooted like a plant —Ellen Glasgow They seemed [tired soldiers] as if they were of stone, without the strength to smile, or to swear —Boris Pasternak
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Impartiality
< IMPARTIALITY Feel rather like a bridge [at being caught between problems of two friends] attached neither to one side nor the other of a tumultuous river, suspended in space —May Sarton Impartially welcoming as the host of a television show —Nadine Gordimer Neutral as a page number —John Braine
THE SIMILES I am essential to the theatre—as ants to a picnic, as the boll weevil to a cotton field —Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All about Eve One of the 1950 screenplay’s most memorable lines was spoken by George Sanders in the role of critic Addison de Witt. I felt like a raisin in a gigantic fruit salad —Mark Hamill, on acting in Star Wars
(A voice ) neutral as Switzerland —Anon
Impact [of information] … as thin as gold —Raymond Chandler
(The Yvette who assembled before me was as) objective as a police sketch —Jill Ciment
(About as) important as a game of golf to an astronomer —Anon Important as mathematics to an engineer —Anon
< IMPASSIVENESS See: COLDNESS, REMOTENESS, RESERVE
Inconsequential … like the busy work that grade school teachers devise to keep children out of mischief —Ann Petry
< IMPATIENCE
Insignificant as the canals of Mars —Frank Conroy
See: RESTLESSNESS
< IMPERMANENCE See: TRANSIENCE
Its loss would be incalculable … like losing the Mona Lisa —Dr. Paul Parks, New York Times August 23, 1986, on the potential death of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee Meaningful as love —Kenneth Patchen
< IMPOLITENESS See: MANNERS
< IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE See Also: MEMORY, NECESSITY Brittle and meaningless as cocktail party patter —William Brammer His influence … it is like burning a … candle at Dover to show light at Calais —Samuel Johnson Had Johnson been an American living in America instead of an Englishman living in England, his comment on Thomas Sheridan’s influence on English literature might well have illustrated with “A candle in New York to show light in Boston.” Hollow as the (ghastly) amiabilities of a college reunion —Raymond M. Weaver
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Meaningless, like publishing a book of your opinions with a vanity press —Scott Spencer Of no more importance than a flea or a louse —Boris Pasternak In the novel Doctor Zhivago, a character uses this simile to compare a wife compared to workers. Shallow as a pie pan —Anon [A speech] shallow as time —Thomas Carlyle Uneventful as theory —A. R. Ammons Worthless as withered weeds —Emily Brontë
< IMPOSSIBILITY See Also: ABSURDITY, DIFFICULTY, FUTILITY, OPPORTUNITY About as much chance as a man with a wooden leg in a forest fire —George Broadhurst
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THE SIMILES About as possible as hell freezing over —Clifford Odets As feasible as capturing the rain in a thimble —Jonathan Kellerman As likely as a mouse falling in love with a cat —Anon As unlikely as a lecture by Dr. Ruth [Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist/media personality] in a fundamentalist church —Elyse Sommer As likely as to see a hog fly —H. G. Bohn’s HandBook of Proverbs As likely to happen as hair growing on the palm of my hand —Anon (Anything of a sexual sort seemed ) as remote as landing on the moon or applying for French citizenship —Kingsley Amis As unlikely as your car metamorphosing into a rocket ship —Elyse Sommer Calling on [emotional] memory for so long a leap was like asking power of a machine wrecked by rust —Wilbur Daniel Steele Getting him to join (the Federal Witness Program) was like getting the Ayatollah Khomeini to enroll in a rabbinical school —Doug Feiden Has about as much chance as a cootie on Fifth Avenue —Maxwell Anderson/Laurence Stallings Has about as much chance of making it into the history books as a fart in a cyclone [about a fictional President] —Peter Benchley Have about as much chance as a woodpecker making a nest in a concrete telephone pole —Anon sports writer, about a bad baseball team Have about as much chance as a dish-faced chimpanzee in a beauty contest —Arthur Baer Baer’s simile was part of a comment about the 1919 Willard-Dempsey fight
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Impossibility Impossible … like pushing a wet noodle up a hill —Anon Washington aide, Wall Street Journal, July 3, 1987 The aide made this comparison to illustrate the difficulty of trying to attract attention to economic issues and away from the Iran-Contra scandal. Impossible as expecting a hook to hold soft cheese —Anon Impossible as it would be to fire a joke from a cannon —Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms Impossible as putting the genie back in the bottle —Peter Jennings, commenting on “World News Tonight” about trying to undo damage to Gary Hart’s presidential campaign after release of story about his private life, May 7, 1987 Impossible as scratching your ear with your elbow —American colloquialism, attributable to Southwest Impossible as setting a hen one morning and having chicken salad for lunch —George Humphrey A comment during Humphrey’s tenure as Secretary of the United States Treasury on quick economic changes Impossible as to imagine a man without a head —Francisque Sarcey Impossible as to pull hair from a bald man’s head —Anon Impossible as to rivet a nail in a custard pie —Anon Impossible as to straighten a dog’s tail —Anon Impossible as trying to put on a laughter exhibition in a morgue —J. B. Priestly Impossible as trying to blow and swallow at the same time —German proverb Another example of usage turning a proverbial statement, “You can’t blow and swallow at the same time,” into a proverbial comparison. Impossible as undressing a naked man —Anon
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Impossibility Another simile with proverbial origins, in this case the Greek proverb “A thousand men cannot undress a naked man.” Impossible as voting “maybe” —Maurine Neuberger Transposed from “Many times I wished I could vote ‘maybe.’”
THE SIMILES Impossible like trying to make cheesecake out of snow —Anon Impossible like trying to write on a typewriter while riding a stagecoach —Dr. Ellington Darden Impossible like trying to knock down the Great Wall with a nail file —Arty Shaw
Impossible … like compressing the waters of a lake into a tight, hard ball —Vita SackvilleWest
Impossible [to keep a secret from my wife] like trying to sneak the dawn past the rooster —Fred Allen
Impossible … like denying a champion fighter the right to compete in the ring on the grounds that he might be hurt —Beryl Markham
Impossible to explain … like telling a religious household you had decided God was nonsense —Harvey Swados
Impossible … like eating chalk or trying to suck sweetness out of paving brick, or being drowned in an ocean of dishwater, or forced to gorge oneself on boiled unseasoned spinach —Thomas Wolfe Wolfe’s writing tended towards excess. Not surprisingly, he tended to string several similes together.
It [a hard-to-beat record] was like DiMaggio’s consecutive game hitting streak: unapproachable —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Impossible … like looking for a grain of rice in a bundle of straw —Dominique Lapierre
It was like talking to a tree and expecting a reply —Clive Cussler It was like trying to catch an eagle in a butterfly net —Wallace Turner, New York Times, February 4, 1987. Turner was reporting on efforts by Washington State game wardens to capture large sea lions that had been eating game fish.
Impossible … like me trying to wash the Empire State Building with a bar of soap —Don Rickles The impossible situation described by Rickles is Eddie Fisher’s marriage to Elizabeth Taylor.
It was like trying to write a description of how to tie shoelaces in a bow for a person who has never seen shoes —W. P. Kinsella
Impossible … like playing tennis with the net down —Robert B. Parker
It [changing person’s mind about another] was like trying to turn a mule —H. E. Bates
Impossible … like selling the cow and expecting to have the milk too —Danish proverb Transposed from the proverbial form, “You can’t expect to sell the cow and get the blood.”
It [trying to sift through events from the past] was not unlike hunting for odd-colored stones in tidal flats —Norman Mailer
Impossible … like stopping a runaway horse with your pinkie —William McIlvanney Impossible, like trying to get blood out of a turnip —English proverb Efforts to get new blood out of this cliché focus on changing the object out of which to try to get the blood … anything from a stone to a corpse.
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(Blackmailing Laidlow would be) like trying to catch a bull with a butterfly net —William McIlvanney No more chance than a one-legged man in a football game —Elbert Hubbard No more possible than the development of an orchid in the middle of a crowded street —W. H. Mallock
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THE SIMILES
Inappropriateness
No more chance than a motorist who passed a red light talking a policeman out of giving him a ticket —Anon
(I) feel [out of place] like Babe Paley at a bar mitzvah in the Bronx —Sue Mengers, talent agent, quoted by Rex Reed
The odds were like poison —Tim O’Brien
Felt like a gap —D. H. Lawrence
To translate this situation to reality would be like trying to stuff a cloud in a suitcase —W. P. Kinsella
Fits in about as well as a bird-of-paradise among wrens —Leslie Bennetts, about character in Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, New York Times, 1985
Trying to make the company [GM] competitive is like trying to teach an elephant to tap dance —Ross Perot, quoted in Wall Street Journal article by George Melloan, February 24, 1987 Unlikely as to see a stone statue walking —Anon We’ve no more chance of surviving than an overripe plum has of staying on the tree —Simon Mawer, The Glass Room
< IMPROBABILITY
Had about as much business teaching in college as a duck has riding a bicycle —Richard Ford Inappropriate as a Size 20 Cinderella —Mike Sommer Inappropriate as running shoes with a cocktail dress —Anon It’s like a thoroughbred horse pulling a milk wagon —line from movie The Eagle Has Landed
See Also: IMPOSSIBILITY
Looked like a greyhound puppy in a litter of collies —Michael Gilbert
< IMPROPRIETY See Also: PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY
A man without a place to be … that’s like being alone at sea without a log to hang on —William H. Gass
< INACCURACY
Misplaced … like a dog in church —Anon
See Also: ERRORS
Misplaced … like a fish out of water —English phrase Borrowed by the English from Greek, the simile has been much used and adapted since the fourteenth century.
< INACTIVITY See Also: IDLENESS, IMMOBILITY
< INAPPROPRIATENESS See Also: BELONGING (I) belonged … like a pearl onion on a banana split —Raymond Chandler Belonged … like a virgin in a brothel —William McIlvanney
Never fit right, like a pair of cheap shoes that sprouts a nail in the sole —Marge Piercy (Looked as) out of place as a chicken in church —James Crumley Out of place as matzo balls in clam chowder —Elyse Sommer
Belong like a right shoe on a left foot —Elyse Sommer
Out of place as a house boat on the high seas —Anon
Belong like a white poodle on a coal barge —Arthur Baer
Out of place as an atheist in a seminary —Anon
Feeling like a Boston schoolteacher in Dodge City —Mary Gordon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Out of place as a Presbyterian in Hell —Mark Twain Out of place as some rare tropical bird —Anon
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Incisiveness Out of place … like an old whale stranded on the beach —George Garrett (Harriet always seemed a little) out of things, like somebody’s mother —Mary McCarthy She was like something wrecked and cast up on the wrong shore —Elizabeth Bowen Sticking out like a solitary violet in a bed of primroses —Tess Slesinger
< INCISIVENESS See: SHARPNESS
< INCOMPLETENESS
THE SIMILES
< INDEPENDENCE See: FREEDOM
< INDIFFERENCE See: REMOTENESS, RESERVE
< INDIGNATION See: ANGER
< INDISTINCTION See: VAGUENESS
< INDIVIDUALITY See: ORIGINALITY
Incomplete and unfinished like an apple that has begun to shrink before it has reached maturity —Louis Bromfield
< INDOLENCE
Incomplete as the world on the fifth day of creation —Anon
< INDUSTRIOUSNESS
Incomplete like a pastrami sandwich without a pickle —Ed McBain Incomplete … like the tree without leaves, a building without a foundation, or a shadow without the body that casts it (The knight-errand without a lady is like … ) —Miguel de Cervantes Unfinished [sentence] like a plaster half of an ancient sculptured torso —Penelope Gilliatt
See: IDLENESS
See: AMBITION, WORK
< INEFFECTIVENESS See: FUTILITY, USEFULNESS/USELESSNESS
< INEVITABILITY See: CERTAINTY
< INEXORABILITY See: CERTAINTY
< INCONGRUITY See: ABSURDITY
< INFATUATION See: LOVE
< INCORRECTNESS
< INFLATION
See: ERRORS
See: ECONOMICS
< INCREASE See: GROWTH
< INDECISION See: CHOICES
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< INFLUENCE See: POWER
< INFORMATION His knowledge about the families and lives of his village friends was acquired in bits and pieces.
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THE SIMILES The information was strung like beads out of casual remarks —Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand Information would come slowly, like sand dropping steadily through the cinched middle of an hourglass —Michael Connelly, The Harry Bosch Novels: The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde
< INGRATITUDE See: PARENTHOOD, SHARPNESS
< INHERITANCE See: PAST, THE
< INJUSTICE
Insects Innocent as a curl —Clarence Major Innocent as a devil of two years old —Jonathan Swift Innocent as a game —Frank Tuohy Innocent as a new-laid egg —W. S. Gilbert Innocent as a snowflake —Anne Sexton (Gaze as) innocent as a teddy bear —Babs H. Deal Innocent as a tourist’s Kodak —William McIlvanney Innocent, like a hornet that has been disarmed —Jean Stafford (Sat there as) innocently as small boys confiding to each other the names of toy animals —Henry James
See: JUSTICE
Innocuous as flowers afloat in a pond —John Updike
< INNOCENCE
Perennial innocence like a chicken in a pen —William Faulkner
See Also: HARMLESSNESS Green as apples —Sumner Locke Elliott, Signs of Life Guileless as old Huck —Richard Ford Guiltless forever, like a tree —Robert Browning Innocence is like an umbrella: when once we’ve lost it we must never hope to see it back again —Punch (Catherine’s) innocence shone like an icon —Rita Mae Brown
She was like a young tree whose branches had never been touched by the ruthless hand of man —Katherine Mansfield
< INQUISITIVENESS See: CURIOSITY, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
< INSECTS
Innocent and affectionate as a child —W. H. Hudson
See Also: ANIMALS Beetles and insects with legs like grass stems —Ernest Hemingway
Innocent and artless, like the growth of a flower —Isak Dinesen
A big black ant, shaped like a dumbbell —John Gunther
Innocent as a baby —Anon
Black beetles … crawled in all directions like animated ink —Harold Adams
Innocent as a child unborn Jonathan Swift who used the phrase in Directions to Servants is often credited as its author. (I was a neophyte about as) innocent as a choirboy being asked to conduct a solemn mass at the Vatican —Alistair Cooke New York Times interview, January 19, 1986
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Fireflies begin to rise … exactly like the bubbles in champagne —Elizabeth Bishop Fireflies dazzle the night like red pepper —W. P. Kinsella Fireflies glow like planets in the moist, silent darkness —W. P. Kinsella
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Inseparability
THE SIMILES
Fleas are, like the remainder of the universe, a divine mystery —Anatole France
He’s like a bagpipe, you never hear him till his belly is full —Thomas Fuller
A fly is as untamable as a hyena —Ralph Waldo Emerson
He’s like a man who sits on a stove and then complains that his backside is burning —W. S. Gilbert, quoted by Stephen Holden, New York Times, July 27, 1986. While Gilbert and Sullivan’s lucrative operettas provided the duo with a lavish lifestyle, Sullivan protested that he couldn’t compose “fine” music because of Gilbert’s light lyrics. This complaint prompted the observation by Gilbert quoted above.
Insects … crooned like old women —Stephen Crane Mosquitoes … as big as mulberries —William Styron Moths as large and white as our hands —James Crumley Nothing is so like a soul as a bee. It goes from flower to flower as a soul from start to star, and it gathers honey as a soul gathers light —Victor Hugo Spiders which floated like cameos in their jars —Pat Conroy Yellow butterflies flickered along the shade like flecks of sun —William Faulkner
< INSEPARABILITY See: CLOSENESS, FRIENDSHIP, RELATIONSHIPS
< INSIGHT See: WISDOM
< INSIGNIFICANCE See: MEMORY, IMPORTANCE
< INSTINCTIVENESS See: NATURALNESS
< INSULT (It was) an affront, like a lewd remark —Scott Spencer
He is like one of those expensive little dogs —George Bernard Shaw, Misalliance. Mrs. Hushabye about her daughter’s fiancé He [Napoleon] spoke like a concierge and said “armistice” for “amnesty” and “section” for “session” —Anatole France France compared Napoleon’s speech to that of a concierge to emphasize that what he said unofficially was quite different from the sayings manufactured for him by hirelings. He thinks like Nixon, talks like Eisenhower, goofs like Goldwater —Noel Parmentel on John V. Lindsay, Esquire, October, 1965 His arms look like a buggy whip with fingers —Fred Allen If he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has no thought upon the subject —Samuel Johnson on Samuel Foote, October 19, 1769 I missed you like Booth missed Lincoln —Elmer Rice This line comes from one of Rice’s best known plays, Counselor at Law.
A day away from Tallulah (Bankhead) is like a month in the country —Howard Dietz
Insults are like bad coins; we cannot help their being offered to us, but we need not take them —C. H. Spurgeon
Has a head as big as a horse, and brains as much as an ass —Thomas Fuller A more condensed version: “a head like a horse with the brains of an ass.”
The king [Prince Albert of England] looks like a retired butcher —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. This much-quoted remark originated with a letter to Holmes’ parents, June 13, 1834
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THE SIMILES Like a sewer rat that wants to scurry into a hole —Kenzaburo Oe Like so many country people who lead a natural outdoor life, his features had hardly any definition. He gave me the impression of an underdone veal cutlet —Alexander King Looks as if he had never been born and could not be extinguished —Harriet Martineau She looked like a street just before they put on the asphalt —George Ade She looked rather like a malicious Betty Grable —Truman Capote A slight (of that kind) stimulates a man’s fighting power; it is like getting a supply of fresh bile —Henrik Ibsen Some insults come like a blow on the head the morning after, but a few are balm —Norman Mailer They’re [the Kennedy men] like dogs, they have to pee on every fire hydrant —Truman Capote Why don’t you buy some stuffing? Your bosoms look like fried eggs —Reynolds Price Why don’t you get a haircut; you look like a chrysanthemum —P. G. Wodehouse You are like a cuckoo, you have but one song —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs A modern variation of this is: “He has as many good features as a cuckoo has songs.” You look as if you’d been put through a washing machine —John Dos Passos You (Harold Ross) look like a dishonest Abe Lincoln —Alexander Woolcott Woolcott’s much quoted comparison of the New Yorker editor Harold Ross to a dishonest Abe Lincoln is one of many quotes born around the famous Algonquin Round Table, and widely circulated in the media and books ever since.
Intelligence Your losing one pound is like Bayonne losing one mosquito —line from the television show The Honeymooners The simile was delivered by Alice (played by Audrey Meadows) to Ralph (played by Jackie Gleason). You talk such convoluted crap you must have a tongue like a corkscrew —William McIlvanney You’ve got a foot movement, kid, like a baby hippopotamus trying to side-step a jab from a humming-bird … And your knees are about as limber as a couple of Yale pass-keys (addressed to a dancer) —O. Henry
< INTELLIGENCE See Also: MIND Brain like Einstein —H.E. Bates Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings standing on a small plot of ground —Arthur Schopenhauer A country without intellectuals s like a body without a head —Ayn Rand (I have) a head on my shoulders that’s like a child’s windmill, and I can’t prevent its making foolish words —D. H. Lawrence Intellect is to emotion as our clothes are to our bodies: we could not very well have civilized life without clothes, but we would be in a poor way if we had only clothes without bodies —Alfred North Whitehead Intelligence is like money … if you don’t let on how little you’ve got, people will treat you as though you have a lot —Anon
You look like a million dollars, green and wrinkled —Saul Bellow
One good head is better than a hundred strong hands —Thomas Fuller In Fuller’s collection of aphorisms it’s “better than a hundred strong heads” but common usage has made “as good as” and “like as” popular.
You’re funny as a boil on the ass —Harold Adams
Smart as a whip —Anon
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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Intensity A simile very much in the mainstream of everyday usage. Smart as forty crickets —American colloquialism, attributed to South Smart … like an idiot savant, smart enough to be dumb when he needed to —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
< INTENSITY See Also: SHARPNESS, STARES Acute as the badness of no woman out in the world thinking about you —Richard Ford Acute like the flow of hope —Joseph Turnley As deep into … as a sheep is thick in wool —Anon Burns like hate —George MacDonald (Worries and obsessions that) come like hot rivets —Wilfrid Sheed Deep as first love —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Deep as earth —Madeleine L’Engle Deep as hell —Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Digging in deeper and deeper, like rats in a cheese —Henry Miller (Lonely and) furious as a hunt —George Garrett Had a startling intensity of gaze that never wavered from its object, like that of a palmist or a seer —Mary McCarthy (Curiosity) heating up like an iron —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Move through life with the intensity of one for whom each day is the last —Anon
THE SIMILES
< INTOLERANCE Bigotry … it’s like putting your elbows on the table. You know you’re not supposed to. But there’s that instinct —Bonnie Currie, New York Times, January 24, 1986 Closed as a bigot’s mind —Anon Intolerant as a sinner newly turned saint —Anon The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Prejudice is as a mist, which in our journey through the world often dims the brightest and obscures the best of all the good and glorious objects that meet us on our way —Anthony Ashley Cooper Prejudices … are like rats, and men’s minds are like traps; prejudices get in easily, but it is doubtful if they ever get out —Lord Francis Jeffrey
< IRONY See: HUMOR
< IRREGULARITY See: REGULARITY/IRREGULARITY
< IRRITABLENESS/IRRITATING See Also: ANGER, NERVOUSNESS, TENSION Annoying as bird droppings on your windowshield —Elyse Sommer Bitter exasperation tightened like a knot in Mr. Casper’s mind —William Styron
Run deep, like old wounds —William Brammer
Bristling like a panther —Victor Hugo
Sharp as a pincer —Julia O’Faolain
Cross as a sitting hen —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
With the intensity of a cat following a rolling ball of yarn —Ira Berkow on Wade Boggs, Red Sox player’s watching of a pitch New York Times, October 7, 1986
< INTIMACY See: CLOSENESS, RELATIONSHIPS
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Cross as nine highways —John Ray’s Proverbs Cross as two sticks —Sir Walter Scott Cross … like a beautiful face upon which some one has sat down by mistake —Victor Hugo Disgust like powder clotted my nose —Cynthia Ozick
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THE SIMILES Disturbing as a gnat trapped and mucking about in the inner chamber of his ear —John Yount Disturbing as decay in a carcass —Julia O’Faolain Excitable … like a stick of dynamite just waiting for somebody to come along and light your fuse —David Huddle Feel feisty, like a galloping colt on a Mediterranean hillside —Tony Ardizzone In the novel from which this is taken, The Heart of the Order, the narrator’s irritability is caused by having his name shortened. Feeling ornery as a bunkhouse cook —Richard Ford
Jewelry (All the mistakes of my misspent little life came down to) irritate me like so many grains of pepper —Gerald Kersh Irritating as a coughing fit during a play —Anon Irritating as a fly that keeps buzzing around your head —Anon Irritating as one sock or an odd glove —Helen Hudson Irritating, like a dish of ‘‘chulent” to an old man’s gut —Stephen Longstreet “Chulent” is a Jewish dish of meat, beans, and onions. Obviously this is the type of comparison that could easily be adapted to be more meaningful to other groups, for example: “irritating, like a dish of hot chili.”
Felt irritably ashamed, like a middle-aged man recalling last night’s party, and his unseemly capers and his pawing of the host’s wife —Wallace Stegner
Irritating like a gun that hangs fire —Joseph Conrad
Gnaws like a silent poison —George Santayana
Prickly as thistles —Lawrence Durrell
Gruff as a billy goat —Mary Hedin
Sizzle and splatter like batter in a pan —line from British television series Bergerac, July 1987
Her grumpiness, her irritability, her crotchets are like static that, from time to time, give way to a clear signal, just as you often hit a pure band of music on a car radio after turning the dial through a lot of chaotic squawk —Laurie Colwin Irritable like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, tormenting himself with his own prickles —Thomas Hood The prickly hedgehog is a favorite image for describing irritability. A shorter variation of the above by Tolstoy is “bristly … like a hedgehog.” Expanded versions include: “The man who rises in the morning with his feelings all bristling like the quills of a hedge-hog, simply needs to be knocked down” (Josiah Gilbert Holland), and “An irritable man is like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, tormenting himself with his own prickles” (Thomas Hood). Irritated as a young stag is irritated by the velvet on his antlers —Rumer Godden
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A minor nuisance, like having a tooth filled —Richard Connell
Snappish as a junkyard dog —Robert Campbell Sulk, like an old man whose son had failed to make varsity —Clancy Sigal Tempers snapping like rubber bands —Anon, WNYC, Public Radio, March 28, 1987 Troublesome as a lawsuit —Colley Cibber
< ISOLATION See: ALONENESS
< JEALOUSY See: ENVY
< JEWELRY See Also: CLOTHING A pear-shaped diamond, as big as your thumb —Paige Mitchell An assortment of costly stones [of questionable taste] … very much like something Hansel
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Jobs and Gretel might well have plucked from the witch’s house to eat —Henry Van Dyke Bracelets seemed to grow up her arms like creeping plants —Nadine Gordimer Bracelets … warm and heavy, alive like flesh —Elizabeth Taylor A diamond as big as an Englishman’s monocle —Lael Wertenbaker A diamond as big as the Ritz —F. Scott Fitzgerald This served as the title for a famous Fitzgerald story. A diamond … as big as your fourth fingernail —Gerald Kersch Diamond pinkie rings sputtering like neon on his manicured fingers —Jonathan Valin Diamonds as big as grapes —Louis Adamic Diamonds as big as potatoes —Henry James Diamonds flashed … like drops of frozen light —Paige Mitchell Earrings tiny as pinheads —Richard Ford A medallion that could have anchored the Queen Mary —William McIlvanney Necklace … flashed like summer lightning —Anais Nin Pearl … shaped like the full moon, and whiter than the morning star —Oscar Wilde (Wedding) ring … pink gold like the morning light —Anon Rubies as big as hen’s eggs, and sapphires that were like gloves with lights inside them —F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE SIMILES
< JOKES See: HUMOR
< JOURNALISM See: PROFESSIONS, WRITERS/WRITING
< JOY See Also: CONTENTMENT, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE Agitated with delight as a waving sea —Arabian Nights Exhilaration spread through his breast like some pleasurable form of heartburn —Nadine Gordimer A joyous feeling … shot up, like the grass in spring —Ivan Turgenev (Heart is) as full of sunshine as a hay field —Josh Billings Bliss … as though you’d suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle —Kathine Mansfield The simile sets the mood for one of Mansfield’s best known stories, Bliss. Ecstasy warm and rich as wine —Harvey Swados Elated … like a lion tamer who has at last found the whip crack which will subdue the most ferocious of his big cats —John Mortimer Enjoy life like a young porpoise —George Santayana
Rubies like cherries, sapphires like grapes —Isak Dinesen
Gorged with joy like a pigeon too fat to fly —Marge Piercy
Rubies like headlights —Philip Levine
Great joys, like griefs, are silent —Shackerley Marmion
She was encrusted with jewels like a Maharini —MacDonald Harris
Gurgle like a meadowlark —W. P. Kinsella Heart … soared like a geyser —William Peden
< JOBS See: WORK
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Her heart became as light as a bubble —Antonia White
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THE SIMILES Joy careens and smashes through them like a speeding car out of control —Irving Feldman Joy … Felt it (joy) rumbling within him like a subterranean river —André Malraux Joyful as carolers —David Leavitt Joy is like the ague [malaria]; one good day between two bad ones —Danish proverb Joy leaping within me … like a trout in a brook —George Garrett
Jumping Triumphant as if I’d just hurled a shutout —W. P. Kinsella The term shutout was particularly appropriate in Kinsella’s baseball novel, Shoeless Joe. Baseball expressions do, however, work well within other contexts. A wonderful feeling enveloped him, as if light were being shaken about him —John Cheever
< JUDGMENTS
Joy rises in me like a summer morn —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
See: OPINIONS
Joys are bubble-like; what makes them bursts them too —P. J. Bailey
< JUMPING
Joy, simple as the wildflowers —George Garrett Joys … like angel visits, short and bright —John Norris The angel visit comparison has been linked as effectively to goodness and fame. Joys met by chance … flow for us fresh and strong, like new wine when it gushes from the press —André Gide The joys we’ve missed in youth are like … lost umbrellas; we mustn’t spend the rest of life wondering where they are —Henry James (He is) jubilant as a flag unfurled —Dorothy Parker Men without joy seem like corpses —Kaethe Kiwitz My heart lifted like a wave —Norman Mailer Our joys are about me like a net —Iris Murdoch
See Also: LEAPING, ROCKING AND ROLLING Bouncing from foot to foot like a child in need of a potty —Joan Hess Flapping and jumping like a kind of fire —Richard Wilbur Hop about like mice on tiptoe —Alistair Cooke, New York Times, January 19, 1986 Cooke’s comparison describes how a speaker’s eyes move back and forth between viewer and teleprompter Hopping about like a pea in a saucepan —Robert Graves Hopping like a shot putter —Pat Conroy Jogging up and down like a cheerleader —T. Coraghessan Boyle Jumped about like sailors during a storm —O. Henry
A strong exhilaration ran through her like the fumes of wine —Ben Ames Williams
(Mrs. Brady’s mind, hopefully calculating the tip) jumped and jumped again like a taximeter —Katherine Bush In a short story entitled The Night Club, the character with the jumping mind is a rest room matron.
The sun in my heart comes up like a Javanese orange —Dylan Thomas
Jumped as though he’d been shot —Katherine Mansfield
Their joys … ran into each other like water paints mingling to form delicate new colors —Sumner Locke Elliott
Jumped back as if he’d been struck by a snake —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rose and fell, like a floating swimmer, on easygoing great waves of voluptuous joy —Christina Stead
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Jumped like a buoy —William Goyen
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Justice Jumped like she’d seen a vampire —Dan Wakefield Jumped like small goats —Theodore Roethke Jumped on him like a wild wolf —Clifford Odets Jumped out of the way like an infielder avoiding a sliding runner —Howard Frank Mosher Jumped sideways like a startled bird —Jay Parini Jumped up as if stung by a Tarantula —Sholom Ash Jumped up like I was sitting on a spring —W. P. Kinsella Jumping up and down like Jack-in-the-boxes —Barbara Pym Jumping like a toad —Ross Macdonald Jumping like Nijinsky —Saul Bellow Jumping up like a squirrel from behind the log —Rudyard Kipling Jump [with shock] like a flea on a frog’s back —Walter Duranty Jump like a flea on a frog’s back —Walter Duranty Jump like a chimp with a hot foot —Anon comment on radio show, about people doing Jane Fonda workout routines, December 10, 1986 Skipping (up the stairs) like a young ghost —Frank Swinnerton
< JUSTICE Even, it [justice] is as the sun on a flat plain; uneven, it strikes like the sun on a thicket —Malay Proverb
THE SIMILES Justice is like the kingdom of God; it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning —George Eliot Shed justice like paladins —Jonathan Valin The tongue of the just is as choice silver —The Holy Bible/Proverbs An unrectified case of injustice has a terrible way of lingering … like an unfinished equation —Mary McCarthy We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream —Martin Luther King Jr., speech, June 15, 1963 This is from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Thy judgments are like the great deep —The Holy Bible/Psalms “Your” replaces the biblical “thy.”
< KINDNESS See Also: GENTLENESS, SWEETNESS A heart as soft as a marshmallow —Michael Korda, Another Life (You’re) as good as an umbrella on a wet day —H. E. Bates As kind as Santa Claus —Oscar Hammerstein II, from lyric for South Pacific As much compassion as a toreador moving in for the final thrust —Marilyn Sharp As occupied with worthy projects as Eleanor Roosevelt —Lisa Harris
Injustice … gathers like dust under everything —Rainer Maria Rilke
Doing a favor for a bad man is quite as dangerous as doing an injury to a good one —Plautus
Just as a sentence meted out by a kangaroo court —Anon
Exuding good will like a mortician’s convention in a plague year —Daniel Berrigan
Justice … inevitable as the law of cause and effect —L. P. Hartley
Gifts are as the gold which adorns the temple; grace is like the temple that sanctifies the gold —William Burkitt
Justice is like a train that’s nearly always late —Yevgeny Yevtushenko
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Gifts are like fish hooks —Epigram c. 65 B.C.E.
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THE SIMILES
Kindness
Gifts are like hooks —Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial)
He gives up a buck as quickly as he would a tattoo —Anon
As good as gold —Charles Dickens A simile that’s become a common expression. In A Christmas Carol, its most frequently quoted source, it’s a response to the question “And how was Tiny Tim Today?” In The Gondoliers, W. S. Gilbert gave it a nice twist with “In the Wonderworking days of old, when hearts were twice as good as gold.” In Joseph Heller’s novel Good As Gold it serves as a play on the hero’s name (Bruce Gold).
A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track … an inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity —Henry Ward Beecher
(He’ll be) good as pie —Ring Lardner
Kindness as large as a prairie wind —Stephen Vincent Benét
A good heart … a heart like a house —Irwin Shaw
He was like Florence Nightingale —Tennessee Williams, Playboy Williams used the Florence Nightingale simile to describe his agent’s devotion when he was ill. (My mother) is soft as a grape —Rita Mae Brown
Kindness is like a baby; it grows fast —Anon
The good is, like nature, an immense landscape in which man advances through centuries of exploration —José Ortega y Gassett
Kindness is like snow; it beautifies everything it covers —Anon caller on night-time radio talk show
Good to the core like bananas —Marge Piercy
Kindness, like grain, increases by sowing —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs
Good will … is like gentle sunshine in early spring. It invigorates and awakens all buds —Berthold Auerbach Great minds, like heaven, are pleased in doing good, though the ungrateful subjects of their favors are barren in return —Nicholas Rowe A hand as liberal as the light of day —Cowper A heart as big as a bird cage —James B. Hall A heart as big as a mountain —Anon A heart as warm as a desert storm —Ogden Nash A heart like duck soup —Jean Garrigue In his short story “The Snowfall,” Garrigue elaborates on the duck soup comparison as follows: “She’s the kind to want to stop a car if she hears some animal crying in the woods.” A heart like warm putty —Mary Stewart Heart … soft as any melon —Franklin Pierce Heart … was as great as the world —Ralph Waldo Emerson In Emerson’s essay “Greatness,” the simile continues with “But there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.”
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A kind word is like a Spring day —Russian proverb Made the Good Samaritan look like a cheap criminal —George Ade Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars, not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole —E H. Chapin (My mother was as) mild as any saint —Alfred, Lord Tennyson My bounty is as boundless as the sea —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears when diffused too widely —Oliver Goldsmith The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere —Jacques Benigne Bossuet (She was unsparing of herself, she) poured herself out like cream (into the cups of these dull people) —Sumner Locke Elliott The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead —Robert G. Ingersoll
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Kisses Shone [with kindness] like the best of good deeds —Frank Swinnerton Solicitous as St. Peter —Norman Mailer, about David Susskind A sympathetic heart is like a spring of pure water bursting forth from the mountain side —Anon
THE SIMILES Kisses, like folks with diminutive souls, will manage to creep through the smallest of holes —J. G. Saxe Kisses … sticky like a child’s —Flannery O’Connor Kisses strong like wine —Algernon Charles Swinburne
To do a kindness to a bad man is like sowing our seed in the sea —Phocylides
Kiss … felt like a drop of rain in the desert —John Updike
Unselfish as the wind —Ken Kesey
Kissing a person who’s self-righteous and intolerant is like licking a mongoose’s ass —Tom Robbins
We are never like angels till our passion dies —Thomas Dekker “Never” is modernized from “ne’er.”
< KISSES See Also: INSULTS Batted them [breast nipples] over and over with my tongue like gum —Joe Coomer Being kissed … was something done to her, like the shampoos her mother used to give her at the kitchen sink —John Updike
Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray —Tom Robbins Kissing her lips was like kissing warm but uncooked liver —Stephen King Kissing her.… was like playing post office with a dead and rotting whale —Truman Capote Kissing him would be like kissing razor blades —David Brierly
His kiss dropped on her like a cold smooth pebble —Edith Wharton
Kissing is a good deal like eating; there is not much fun when person is hungry in standing by, and seeing it done by another fellow —Josh Billings Portions originally in the Billings phonetic dialect: “iz hungry … and see it did bi anuther fellow.”
His mouth was as soft as a flower and his breath as sweet —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
A kiss without a mustache is like an egg without salt —Spanish proverb
It [kissing someone] was like putting your mouth against an automatic bank teller, where it swallows your credit card —John Updike
Moved her head and face about under the kisses as if they were small attacking waves —Doris Lessing
Kissed (the children) with an official air, as if she were conferring an honour, pinning on her kisses like orders —Rebecca West
One more such kiss and I am ready to be roasted upon a slow fire like any chicken or duckling —Delmore Schwartz
Kisses are like confidences, one follows the other —Denis Diderot
Pecks like chicken scratchings —Mary Morris
He kissed her … his neck arching forward, hers backward, like a pair of swans —T. H. White Her lips grazed mine, cool, soft, and tremulous as the wings of a moth —Robert Traver
Kisses are like grains of gold or silver found upon the ground, of no value themselves, but precious as showing that a mine is near —George Villiers
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She dug her lips into my mouth like tiger’s claws —Jaroslav Seifert She kissed me as moistly as a little girl —John Braine
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THE SIMILES
Knowledge
She took kisses like so many coats of paint —Lawrence Durrell
pearl-diver who quietly dives in quest of treasures to the bottom —Washington Irving
A tall, willowy man, with thin lips and grave eyes and a mouth of such infinite depth, with such an inexhaustible array of recesses, that kissing him was like touring the catacombs of Notre Dame —Lionel Shriver, The Post-Birthday World
In science, as in life, learning and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books is the source of the latter —Thomas H. Huxley
They kissed like two old people going to bed after the clock has been wound and the cat put out —Derek Lambert
It’s like swimming, once you learn it you never forget it —Miguel de Cervantes Knowledgeable as a walking encyclopedia of universal knowledge —Louisa May Alcott
To kiss her would be like a Becket play to a college student: She would study it, dissect it, analyze it, appraise it and inject it with the serum of significance, until at last she transformed the simple touching of four lips into a Rosetta Stone that would give meaning to her life —Peter Benchley
Knowledge … is like a fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself —Samuel Johnson
When she kissed him, he melted like a lump of milk chocolate —Marge Piercy
Knowledge, like religion, must be “experienced” in order to be known —Edwin Percy Whipple
< KNOWLEDGE
The knowledge of man is like the waters, some descending from above, and some springing from beneath; the one informed by the light of nature, the other inspired by divine revelation —Francis Bacon Paraphrased from Bacon’s old-style: “Knowledge of man is as the waters.”
See Also: EDUCATION, INTELLIGENCE, MIND A body without knowledge is like a house without a foundation —Hebrew proverb The desire for knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it —Laurence Sterne Follow knowledge, like a sinking star, beyond the utmost of human thought —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Gleaned bits of information like a mouse hoarding pellets of bran stolen from the feed manger —Rita Mae Brown
Knowledge … like a rough diamond … will never be worn or shine, if it is not polished —Lord Chesterfield
Knowledge, when wisdom is too weak to guide her, is like a headstrong horse, that throws the rider —Francis Quarles The right to know is like the right to live. It is fundamental and unconditional in its assumption that knowledge, like life, is a desirable thing —George Bernard Shaw
(There are no limits to his knowledge, on small subjects as well as great;) he is like a book in breeches —Sydney Smith about Macaulay
The struggle for knowledge has a pleasure in it like that of wrestling with a fine woman —Lord Halifax The original simile used “hath” instead of “has.”
In knowledge as in swimming he who flounders and splashes on the surface, makes more noise, and attracts more attention than the
The understanding, like the eyes, while it makes us see and perceive all things, takes no notice of itself, and it requires art and pains to set it
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Landscapes
THE SIMILES
at a distance and make it its own subject —John Locke The fifth word is a modernization of the original, “whilst.”
Green hummocks like ancient cannon-balls sprouting grass —Elizabeth Bishop
We deal our knowledge like a pack of cards —George Garrett
Landscape as precise and vibrant as fine writing —Sharon Sheehe Stark
With information we can go anywhere in the world, we are like turtles, our houses always on our backs —John le Carré In his novel A Perfect Spy, le Carré expands the simile as follows: You learn to paint, you can paint anywhere. A sculptor, a musician, a painter, they need no permits. Only their heads.
The land flowed like white silk … flat as a bed sheet and empty as the moon —Frank Ross
The landscape boiled around her like a pan of beans —Dilys Laing Landscape … gaunt and bleak like the face of the moon —Donald Seaman Landscape … like a gray sink —Paul Theroux The landscape [when it snows] lumps like flour gravy —Lisa Ress
< LANDSCAPES See Also: MOUNTAINS; NATURE; PONDS, RIVERS, AND STREAMS; ROAD SCENES; TREES The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye and it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky —Oscar Hammerstein II, from opening lyric for Oklahoma The endless fields glowed like a hearth in firelight —Eudora Welty
Landscapes … like sorrows, … require some distance —Donald Justice The landscape was bleak and bereft of color … like a painting in grisaille with its many tints of gray —Barbara Taylor Bradford The landscape was yellowish and purple, speckled like a leopard skin —Nikos Kazantzakis The lawn looked as expensive as a velvet carpet woven in one piece —Edith Wharton
A farm … off the road … glittering like a photo in a picture book with its twin silos pointing to heaven like two fat white fingers —Harvey Swados
The lawns looked artificial, like green excelsior or packing material —Saul Bellow
Fields like squares of a chessboard and trees and houses like dolls’ furniture —Hugh Walpole
Light hits that field, like silk being rubbed the wrong way —John Gunther
The fields shone and seemed to tremble like a veil in the light —Eudora Welty The fields were like icing sugar —Joyce Cary
The long slope of the park dipped like a length of green stuff with a ceiling cloth of blue and pink smoke high above —Virginia Woolf
The fields [in March] were white as bones and dry as meal —M. J. Farrell
Meadows carpeted with buttercups, like slabs of gold in the somber forest —John Fowles
Gardens, crowded with flowers of every rich and beautiful tint, sparkled … like beds of glittering jewels —Charles Dickens
Patches of earth showed through the snow, like ink spots spreading on a sheet of white blotting paper —Edith Wharton
Great spots of light like white wine splash over the Jardins Publiques —Katherine Mansfield
Petals … fell on the grass like spilled paint —Laurie Colwin
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The lawn, spread out like an immense green towel —Ludwig Bemelmans
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THE SIMILES Populating the field in dark humps, like elephants moving across savannah, were scores of great round straw bales —Will Weaver Pretty cubes and loaves of new houses are strewn among the pines, like sugar lumps —Walker Percy Smooth swelling fields, like waves —Wilbur Daniel Steele The stony landscape … is full of craters and frozen lights like a moon —Erich Maria Remarque Swelling smooth fields like pale breasts —Wilbur Daniel Steele The reeds and willow bushes looked like little islands swaying in the wind —Leo Tolstoy Vast lawns that extend like sheets of vivid green —Washington Irving Irving’s simile was inspired by English park scenery. The view was green and rich, and breathtaking, like a photo soaked in dyes —Lorrie Moore, Birds of America: Stories> The wet countryside glistened and dripped as though it had been freshly scrubbed —Robert Traver Wet furry fields lay like the stomachs of soft animals bared to the sky —Julia O’Faolain Wet pine growth reflects the sunlight like steel knitting needles —Walker Percy When you drive by them [the woods] fast, the crop rows in between spin like spokes on a turning wheel —Alec Wilkinson, New Yorker, August 12, 1985 The whole landscape loomed absolute, as the antique world was once —Sylvia Plath The whole [valley] was like a broad counterpane, died in rust and yellow and golden brown —Beryl Markham
< LANGUAGE See Also: SPEAKING, WORD(S)
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Laughter Greek is like lace; every man gets as much as he can —Samuel Johnson It is with language as with manners: they are both established by the usage of people of fashion —Lord Chesterfield Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness band refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects —William Hazlitt Language is a city, to the building of which every human being brings a stone —Ralph Waldo Emerson Language is an art, like brewing or baking —Charles R. Darwin Languages evolve like species. They can degenerate just as oysters and barnacles have lost their heads —F. L. Lucas Languages, like our bodies, are in a perpetual flux, and stand in need of recruits to supply those words which are continually falling into disuse —C. C. Felton Show them [Americans with a penchant for “fat” talk] a lean, plain word that cuts to the bones and watch them lard it with thick greasy syllables front and back until it wheezes and gasps for breath as it comes lumbering down upon some poor threadbare sentence like a sack of iron on a swayback horse —Russell Baker
< LAUGHTER See Also: GAIETY, GRINS, HUMOR, SMILES As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool —The Holy Bible/Ecclesiastes Basically when you laugh you have to make a fool of yourself … it’s like sex —Robin Williams, interviewed on 60 Minutes TV series, interview, September 21, 1986 Chuckles … empty and round, like bubbles —Dan Jacobson
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Laughter
THE SIMILES
Chuckle … it sounded like a trapped wasp —Jonathan Gash
A high laugh like a wicked witch —Carolyn Chute
Chuckling like a jovial insurance salesman —James Crumley
His laughter thickened like a droning bell —James Wright
Contralto laughter, like a violin obbligato under trills of a flute —Carlos Baker
A hoarse, very small laugh, like a cat’s cough —Frank Swinnerton
A dry crackle like leaves crushed underfoot —Louise Erdrich
A horrifying derisive laugh, like rolling tin —Barry Hannah
Dry laughter like the cackle of crows or the crackling of fallen leaves underfoot —Margaret Laurence
Laugh … as if a demon within him were exulting with gloating scorn —Iris Murdoch
Giggled … like a naughty child which has unintentionally succeeded in amusing the grownups —Christopher Isherwood (They kissed. And) giggled like cartoon mice —Tom Robbins Giggle, like a child watching a Hollywood adventure film —Nadine Gordimer A good laugh is sunshine in a house —William Makepeace Thackeray Heavy, melodious laughter, like silver coins shaking in a bag —Aharon Megged Her braying laugh rang out like the report of a shotgun —James Thurber Her laugh broke like a dish —Cynthia Ozick Her laugh crackled … like a leap of electricity —Richard Francis
(Louisa’s) laugh begins high and descends from there like a cascade —Daphne Merkin Laughed, a little drugged giggle, like chatter —Paul Theroux Laughed contemptuously like a whore being offered too little money —Gary Hart Laughed like a windup machine —John D. MacDonald Laughed like monkeys —Richard Ford Laughed like murmurs of the sea —W. B. Yeats Laughed … like the trill of a hedge-warbler —Frank Swinnerton A laugh exploded out of me like a sneeze —Scott Spencer Laughing, a sound like wind in the grass —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Her laugh had music in it, like a climbing chord on a harp —Loren D. Estleman, Sugartown: An Amos Walker Mystery
A laugh is just like sunshine —Anon rhyme The simile is the repeat motif running through the poem.
Her laugh pealed out like a raven escaping into the night —Donald McCaig
Laugh … like the barking of a fox —Erich Maria Remarque
Her laugh rang like the jangling of bracelets —Derek Walcott
Laugh … like a bird’s carol on the sunrise breeze —John Greenleaf Whittier
Her laughter hung in the air like sleigh bells on a winter night —Jay Parini
Laugh like a hyena —William Shakespeare This simile from As You Like It crops up in many a modern short story and novel.
Her laughter was a titanic, passionate thing that seemed to pass up like a wave from her toes to her mouth —Pat Conroy High laugh, like a dove cry —Eudora Welty
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Laugh … like a spoon tinkling against a medicine glass —Katherine Mansfield Laugh … like a thrush singing —Oscar Wilde
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THE SIMILES
Laughter
A laugh like clapboards being ripped off the side of a house —Peter De Vries
Laughter roared through the spectators like wind through trees —Gerald Kersh
Laughs [in a film] … come out of despair, like bits of green in a graveyard —Walter Goodman about the movie No Surrender, New York Times August 6, 1986
Laughter spilled out of his prodigious frame like gravel being unloaded from a dump truck —Pat Conroy
Laughs like a rhinoceros —Tom Davies The person Davies described was Samuel Johnson. Laughs like little bells in light wind —George Garrett Laughter … checked by small clutches of muscle, like tiny fists, at the corners of his mouth —Leonard Michaels Laughter crackling like a schoolgirl who has not experienced enough of the world to fear it —Ira Wood Laughter cruel as barbed wire —George Garrett Laughter falls like rain or tears —Dame Edith Sitwell
A laugh that rippled … like the sound of a hidden brook —O. Henry A laugh that rumbles like a freight train in the night —Michael Goodwin about sports broadcaster Steve Zabriskie, New York Times, October 2, 1986 A laugh that unfolds like a head of lettuce —Antler Let out a cackle of a laugh, like the sound a hen might make if the hen were mad about something —Larry McMurtry A little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly —C. Clement Moore
Laughter … high and free and musical, like a happy soprano limbering up —Harvey Swados
Men who never laugh may have good hearts, but they are deep seated; like some springs, they have their inlet and outlet from below, and show no sparkling bubble on the brim —Josh Billings Words originally in Billings’ phonetic dialect are: “laff” for “laugh,” “hav” for “have” and “sum” for “some.”
Laughter hung smoke-like in the sudden stillness —Ralph Ellison
A most pleasant laugh, bubbly and controlled, like fine champagne —Margaret Millar
Laughter … keeps coming like a poison that must be ejected —Nora Johnson
Peal of laughter like the ringing of silvery bells —Nathanial Hawthorne
Laughter leaped suddenly from her throat … then stopped, like something flung away and lost —Graham Swift
A queer stage laugh, like the cackle of a baffled villain in a melodrama —Edith Wharton
Laughter like hiccoughs —T. Coraghessan Boyle
(Boutin’s mouth opened from ear to ear in) a roar of laughter, like the bursting of a mortar —Honoré de Balzac
Laughter fell like a shower of coins —George Garrett
Laughter, light and restrained like the chatter of rolling nuts —Yisrael Zarchi Laughter lonelier than tears —Anon, New York Times Book Review, September 14, 1986 The laughter of a fool is like that of a horse —Welsh proverb
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She laughed, sounding like a small barking dog —Robert Campbell She pursed her lips each time she laughed, making laughter seem a gesture of self-control —W. P. Kinsella
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Laws A silvery laugh, like a brook running out to meet the river —Mike Fredman A slow ripple of laughter, like a scattering of autumn leaves —Robert Traver A snort of a chuckle like a bull-frog —Lawrence Durrell Some … laugh just as a rat does, who has caught a steel trap, with his tail —Josh Billings In the original phonetic dialect this was: “laff just az a rat duz, who haz caught a steel trap with his tale.” The sound [of laughter] was like the whirring of an old grandfather clock before it strikes —Frank Swinnerton
THE SIMILES Corpuses, statutes, rights and equities are passed on like congenital disease —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Exact laws, like all the other ultimates and absolutes, are as fabulous as the crock of gold at the rainbow’s end —G. N. Lewis Going to law is like skinning a new milk cow for the hide, and giving the meat to the lawyers —Josh Billings The original in Billings’ popular dialect form reads as follows: “Going tew law iz like skinning a new milch … tew the lawyers.” The Law is like apparel which alters with the time —Sir John Doddridge
Stopped laughing as suddenly as if a string had been broken —Loren D. Estleman
Law is like pregnancy, a little of either being a dangerous thing —Robert Traver
A sudden fizz of laughter like soda water —George Garrett
The law often dances like an old fishwife in wooden shoes, with little grace and less dispatch —George Garrett In Garrett’s historical novel, Death of the Fox, this simile is spoken by Sir Francis Bacon.
Tittering like a small bird —Beryl Markham Twinkled like Old King Cole —Donald McCaig When he laughed, a satyr-like quality suffused his face —Nathaniel Benchley When she does laugh … it’s like polished crystal, like a stream in the Alps racing over a pebbly bed here below, like … like another simile —Hanoch Bartov For anyone interested in multiple similes … here’s the simile itself used to round up a medley of comparisons. When she laughed it was as if a wren sang —Frank Swinnerton When she was about to laugh, her tone grew higher and melodious, easing into the laugh like a singer easing from recitative to an aria —Lynne Sharon Schwartz Wrinkles of laughter leaped into sight on his face, like small friendly insects running all over it —Romain Gary
< LAWS See Also: LAWYERS
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Laws and institutions … like clocks … must be occasionally cleansed, and wound up, and set to true time —Henry Ward Beecher (Written) laws are like spiders’ webs; they hold the weak and delicate who might be caught in their meshes, but are torn in pieces by the rich and powerful —Anarcharsis The spiders’ web comparison to the law has been much used and varied;. some examples: “Laws, like cobwebs, entangle the weak, but are broken by the strong”; “Laws are like spiders’ webs, so that the great buzzing bees break through, and the little feeble flies hang fast in them” (Henry Smith); “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through” (Jonathan Swift); “Laws, like cobwebs, catch small flies, great ones break through before your eyes” (Benjamin Franklin) “Laws, like the spider’s web, catch the fly and let the hawk go Free” (Spanish proverb). Law should be like death, which spares no one —Charles de Secondat Montesquieu
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THE SIMILES Laws, like houses, lean on one another —Edmund Burke Laws should be like clothes. They should fit the people they are meant to serve —Clarence Darrow Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate —Alexander Pope Legal as a Supreme Court decision —Anon Legal studies … sharpen, indeed, but like a grinding stone narrow whilst they sharpen —Samuel Taylor Coleridge The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect, that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good —Charles Caleb Colton Suits at court are like winter nights, long and wearisome —Thomas Deloney To try a case twice is like eating yesterday morning’s oatmeal —Lloyd Paul Stryker Violations of the law, like viruses, are present all the time. Everybody does them. Whether or not they produce a disease, or a prosecution, is a function of the body politic —Anon, quote in New York Times, November 28, 1986
Leaping hand, loved the law and of course, distinguished himself finally becoming one of our best-known Justices of the Supreme Court. A lawyer’s face always gives warning of an ambush. Like a blockhouse. Used to conceal the artillery —Joyce Cary A lawyer deep in his case is like a man fallen in love. Whether shaving or bathing or plain old-fashioned knaving, in bed or out, always and forever he is obsessed by his goddam case —Robert Traver A variation of this simile from Traver’s People Versus Kirk also appears in his other famous novel, Anatomy of a Murder. A lawyer lacking a flock of law books is like a carpenter run out of nails —Robert Traver A lawyer preparing for the trial of a difficult and complex case … is like a man consulting a dictionary who winds up chasing everything but the word he needs —Robert Traver Lawyers are just like physicians: what one says, the other contradicts —Sholom Aleichem Lawyers, like bread, are best when they are young and new —Thomas Fuller
(Law) was a system like a jigsaw puzzle, whose pieces, if you studied them long enough, all fell into place —Will Weaver
Lawyers on opposite sides of a case are like the two parts of shears; they cut what comes between them, but not each other —Daniel Webster
< LAWYERS
Like most corporate attorneys, he sat squarely on the fence with both ears to the ground —Anon
See Also: LAW, PROFESSIONS A certain criminal lawyer, like a trapeze performer, is seldom more than one step from an awful fate —Paul O’Neil, Life, June 22, 1959 A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats —Benjamin Franklin The glory of lawyers, like that of men of science, is more corporate than individual —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., April 15, 1890 If you would wax thin and savage, like a half-fed spider, be a lawyer —Oliver Wendell Holmes Holmes senior forsake the law for a career in medicine and literature, his son, on the other
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Years of practice had made them sensitive to every whimsy of emotion and taught them how to play upon the psychology of the jury as the careless zephyr softly draws its melody from the Aeolian harp —Arthur Train
< LAZINESS See: IDLENESS
< LEAPING See Also: JUMPING, ROCKING AND ROLLING
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Learning
THE SIMILES
(The flashlight) leaped about like a will-o’-thewisp —Brian Moore
The forest leaves moved like small rustling animals over the moss —Hayden Carruth
Leaped from his chair as a runner leaps crouching, from the mark —Frank Swinnerton
The last leaves of some sultry September hung stiffly, like leaves pressed between the pages of an old catechism —Nelson Algren
Leaped like a fawn —Pat Conroy Leaped like a high jumper —Frank Conroy (Goats) leaped … like arrows speeding from the bow —Willa Cather
Leaves as light and agitated as swarms of little butterflies that hovered above the clover —Willa Cather
Leaped like a spring released —John Updike
Leaves as limp as soiled money —George Garrett
Leaped … like a startled frog —Theophile Gautier
Leaves delicately veined as a baby’s hands —W. P. Kinsella
Leaped up like a little singed cat —O. Henry
Leaves digest sun as men and women eat each other to love —Daniela Gioseffi
Leaps like a buck in air —Caroline Finkelstein Leaps like a flash —Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings This is a line from the Anderson/Stallings play, What Price Glory. (The pulse in his palm) leapt like a trout in a brook —Eudora Welty Leaping through the air like a man released from gravity —Ed Bradley about basketball star Michael Jordan, “Sixty Minutes,” February 15, 1987
Leaves drooped (over white frame houses) like hands —James Reiss Leaves fallen like wet rags —Bernard Malamud The leaves … fall off the branches by the hundreds, like paratroopers from their planes —David Ignatow Leaves fell like notes from a piano —Derek Walcott Leaves fell like rejected brown stars —John Rechy The leaves fly up like birds —Conrad Aiken
< LEARNING See: EDUCATION
Leaves hanging down like tongues —Jean Thompson
< LEAVES
Leaves hissing and steaming like kettles —Philip Levine
See Also: FLOWERS, NATURE, TREES Aspen and poplar leaves covered the road like yellow snow —Susan Engberg
Leaves … hung lusterless, like drying tea-dregs —Julia O’Faolain
The dirty leaves were hanging down from the [rain-wet] trees like dead bats —Josephine Tey Dry leaves blew across the sidewalk like arched spiders —Joan Hess Dry leaves chatter like a children’s brigade —Diane Ackerman A few leaves had fallen and lay like neglected toys on the grass —Carolyn Slaughter
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Leaves … large as a lady’s apron —Caroline Finkelstein Leaves … like a soggy blanket … covered gutter, sidewalk, lawn, backyard, bushes and alley —Bernard Malamud Leaves like green lace —George Garrett Leaves like ruffled wavelets —Sylvia Berkman Leaves like scarlet hands floated on the green slow water —Truman Capote
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THE SIMILES The leaves of the red maples glowed like fruit —Jean Thompson The leaves paled and fell from the shedding trees like old wishes —George Garrett Leaves peep out so fresh and green, so pure and bright, like young lives pushing shyly out into the bustling world —Jerome K. Jerome
Leg(s) Ankles like door knobs —Anon The calves of her legs were as taut and stiff as anchor chains —Mary Ellen Chase Feet heavy as anchors —Richard Ford Feet large as spades —Aharon Megged Feet like canoes —Herbert Wilner
Leaves rattled dryly together, like scales of metal —Aldous Huxley
Feet … swollen, driven through my shoes like devilled egg through a pastry bag —Ira Wood
Leaves scatter and point to every part of the sky, like famished fingers waving —Richard Wilbur
Feet … tripping like the feet of a restless pony —Adela Rogers St. John
(A giant tree which bore) leaves shaped like fans —Anais Nin
(The fiddler’s) feet were like the black hooves of a trotting horse that never seemed to touch the ground —Will Weaver
The leaves sift down one by one like notes in music —May Sarton
Her bony toes seemed as long and articulate as fingers —Thomas Williams
The leaves that a few days before had been green now dropped like heat-withered cellophane —Wallace Stegner
Her legs were shapeless … like a fisherwoman’s —H. E. Bates
The leaves turn and twist in the wind as if quarreling with one another —David Ignatow The leaves were motionless on the trees, as if they were resting in the heat —Willis Johnson Leaves, wrinkled or shiny like apples —Frank O’Hara Some of its [a plant’s] leaves had turned black and were curled up like charred Christmas ribbons —Margaret Millar
His legs felt like two old rusted rain gutters —Flannery O’Connor (She was a vast blonde girl, with) huge limbs like a piece of modern sculpture —Barbara Pym Knees stuck out … like two hard-boiled eggs —Anne Piper Legs bowed like a wishbone —Ian MacMillan Legs … as heavy as sunken logs —Nolan Miller Legs as shapeless and almost as thin as the lines in a child’s drawing —Niven Busch
Yellow leaves like lamps of gold —John Greenleaf Whittier
Legs as thick as newel posts —F. van Wyck Mason
The yellow leaves swam through the air as silently as fish —Jean Thompson
Legs bent like monster springs —Richard S. Prather
The young leaves were still soft and slack … less like leaves than like petals, and drooping in the sweet forest-air like seaweeds in deep water —Isak Dinesen
Legs … bowed, rickety, like bent pipes —George Garrett
< LEG(S)
Legs have gone mottled, like Roquefort cheese —Nadine Gordimer Another simile to describe the effects of cellulite is “Thighs like cottage cheese.”
See Also: PAIN, PHYSICAL FEELINGS Ankles fine as an antelope’s —Josephine Edgar
Legs in motion like the hind parts of a dog —David Ignatow
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Letter-Writing Legs knotted and angular as whittled wood —George Garrett
THE SIMILES Thighs solid as poplars —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Legs like a baseball bat —Delmore Schwartz
Thighs … they look like they’re made of steel —Jonathan Valin
(A large man with) legs like a billiard table —Joyce Cary
Varicose veins crawled like fat blue worms under her stockings —Ross Macdonald
Legs like an emaciated monkey’s —LouisFerdinand Celine
Veins like big ugly worms —James Crumley
Legs like redwood trees —Pat Conroy
< LETTER-WRITING
Legs … like two pillars —Bertolt Brecht
See: CORRESPONDENCE
Legs moving like the hammers of a grand piano —Paul Kuttner
< LIBERTY See: FREEDOM
Legs shaped like lion’s paws —Jilly Cooper Legs solid as tree trunks —Richard Deming
< LIES AND LIARS
Legs … stiff as a wooden soldier’s legs —William Kotzwinkle
See Also: DISHONESTY Falsehood, like poison, will generally be rejected when administered alone; but when blended with wholesome ingredients, may be swallowed unperceived —Richard Whately
Legs … straight as a pair of poplar trees in a storm —Ariel Dorfman Legs were strong as old roots —Truman Capote Legs that were too long, like a colt’s —Beryl Markham Long, thin legs like wading birds —Elizabeth Hardwick My feet feel like balloons —Anthony Powell (The young lady has) a pair of ankles like chianti bottles —George Jean Nathan The pull of the tendons at his ankle like the taut ropes that control the sails of ships —Nadine Gordimer She (a ballet dancer) has legs like a Fordham tackle —Irwin Shaw Skinny legs, like the legs of a turkey gobbler —Ellen Glasgow Swings his game leg like a gate, creaking on its hinges —Bette Howland Thighs big as trees —John D. MacDonald Thighs like a wild mare —Thomas Williams Thighs like pillars of a temple —Peter De Vries Thighs like twin portals —Paule Marshall
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Falsehood, like the dry rot, flourishes the more in proportion as air and light are excluded —Richard Whately A great lie is like a great fish on dry land; it may fret and fling, and make a frightful bother, but it cannot hurt you. You have only to keep still and it will die of itself —George Crabbe (He’s as) honest as the cat when the meat’s out of reach —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs Lie as fast as a dog can lick a dish —John Ray’s Proverbs A lie is like a cat: you need to stop it before it gets out the door or it’s really hard to catch. —Charles M.Blow “Obama For the Win,” New York Times, June 30, 2012 Lied as often and as badly as politicians —James Crumley Lied like a fish —John Dos Passos Lied like an Arab —Anais Nin Lied like a rug —Anon In his novel private i, Jimmy Sangster extends builds on this with “Lying like a cheap carpet.”
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THE SIMILES The lie fell as easily from his lips as a windfall apple —Donald Seaman A lie is like a snowball; the longer it is rolled, the larger it is —Martin Luther Lie like a trooper —American colloquialism, attributed to New England Lie like fish —Saul Bellow Lies are as communicative as fleas —Walter Savage Landor
Life The telling of a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain —Sadi To tell a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain —Sadi When the lie was said it had the effect of leaving her breathless, as if she had just crowned a steep rise —Nadine Gordimer
Lies as fast as a dog trots —John Ray’s Proverbs
< LIFE
Lies as fast as a horse can trot —Danish proverb The comparison tends to change with use, “As fast as a dog can trot” being one of the most frequently heard variants.
See Also: AGE; LIFE DEFINED, MANKIND (It seemed to him that) all man’s life was like a tiny spurt of flame —Thomas Wolfe
Lies … buzz about the heads of some people, like flies about a horse’s ears in summer —Jonathan Swift Lies fall like flaxen thread from the skies —John Ashberry Lies flew out of my mouth like moths —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Lies like a car-dealer —William McIlvanney Lying like a book —Bertolt Brecht
And it seems to me you lived your life / Like a candle in the wind —Elton John, “Candle in the Wind” John’s tribute to the late actress Marilyn Monroe The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe The eventful life has dates; it swells and pauses like a plot —Paul Theroux
Lying like stink —Angus Wilson
How ridiculous it [life] all seems … like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop teeming with infusoria, or a speck of cheese full of mites invisible to the naked eye —Arthur Schopenhauer
Lying to someone is like blindfolding him: you cannot see the other’s eyes to see how he sees you and so you do not know how it stands with yourself —Walker Percy
I couldn’t be content any more stuck here like a fly in molasses [the once happy New England farmer after five years as a seaman] —Eugene O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon
The nimble lie is like the second-hand upon a clock; we see it fly, while the hour-hand of truth seems to stand still, and yet it moves unseen, and wins at last, for the clock will not strike till it has reached the goal —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In life as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard —Theodore Roosevelt
Lying like an accountant at an audit —A. E. Maxwell
(Our) one white lie sits like a little ghost (here on the threshold of our enterprise) —Alfred, Lord Tennyson The prevaricator is like an idolater —Eleazar
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
I often wonder what it would be like if we could begin our lives over again … as if the life we’d already lived were just a rough draft and we could begin all over again with the final copy.… If that happened I think the thing we’d all want most would be not to repeat ourselves —Anton Chekhov, Vershinin in The Three Sisters
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Life
THE SIMILES
Let us play the game of life as sportsmen, pocketing our winnings with a smile, leaving our losings with a shrug —Jerome K. Jerome
Life, like a good story, pursues its way from beginning to end in a firm and unbroken line —W. Somerset Maugham
Life … empty as statistics are —Babette Deutsch
Life, like every other blessing, derives its value from its use alone —Samuel Johnson
Life … flat and stale, like an old glass of beer —Andre Dubus Life folds like a fan with a click —Herbert Read
Life, like war, is a series of mistakes —F. W. Robertson
Life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse —Edna St. Vincent Millay
Life often seems like a long shipwreck, of which the debris are friendship, glory and love —Madame de Stael
Life had been like a cloud rainbowed by the sun —Barbara Reid
Life’s bare as a bone —Virginia Wolf
Life imposes by brute energy, like inarticulate thunder; art catches the ear, among the far louder noises of experience, like an air artificially made by a discreet musician —Robert Louis Stevenson
Life should be embraced like a lover —Rose Tremain
A life indifferent as a star —Randall Jarrell A life is composed of a thousand frail strands, like the rainbow tangle of telephone cables. Somehow, we make connections —Jean Thompson Life is like a mean machine —Rob Thomas, “This Is How a Heart Breaks” Life is like a pipe —Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black” Many commentators believe the pipe in the lyric is a crack pipe. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving —Albert Einstein Life is like an open book through a keyhole / If you wonder what occurs ’ere the / Lady gets her furs, have a look —Irving Berlin, “Through a Keyhole,” from As Thousands Cheer Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it —Tom Lehrer
Life is so like a little strip of pavement over an abyss —Virginia Woolf
Life’s like an inn where travelers stay, some only breakfast and away; others to dinner stop, and are full fed; the oldest only sup and go to bed —English Epitaph A variation of this, also found on a gravestone is “Our life is nothing but a winter’s day.” Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom —Arthur Schopenhauer A life that moved in spirals turned inward like the shell of a sea-snail —Malcolm Cowley Life was like [motion] pictures only in that it hardly every managed to be as exciting as its preview —Larry McMurtry Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright, the longer we live —Jean Paul Richter Like following life through creatures you dissect, you lose it in the moment you detect —Alexander Pope
Life is shapeless as a glove —Kenneth Koch
To live is like love, all reason is against it, and all healthy instincts for it —Samuel Butler
Life … it slips through my hands like a fish —James Reiss
Man’s journey through life is like that of a bee through blossoms —Yugoslav proverb
Life, like a child, laughs shaking its rattle of death as it runs —Rabindranath Tagore
A man’s life, like a piece of tapestry, is made up of many strands which interwoven make a pat-
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THE SIMILES
Life Defined
tern; to separate a single one and look at it alone, not only destroys the whole, but gives the strand itself a false value —Judge Learned Hand Judge Hand compared life to a piece of tapestry at the 1912 proceedings in memory of Mr. Justice Brandeis.
Perhaps like an ancient statue that has no arms our life, without deeds and heroes, has greater charms —Yehuda Amichai
Men deal with life as children with their play, who first misuse, then cast their toys away —William Cowper
The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected —Marcus Aurelius
Moved … through her life, like a clumsy visitor in a museum —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Much that goes on behind Life’s doors is not fixed like the pillars of a building nor preconceived like the structure of a symphony, nor calculable like the orbit of a star —Vicki Baum My life felt like a fragile silk chemise —Marge Piercy My life is like a stroll upon the beach, as near the ocean’s edge as I can go —Henry David Thoreau My life is like the autumn leaf that trembles in the moon’s pale ray —Richard Henry Wilde This begins the second stanza of the poem “My Life.” My life is like the summer rose that opens to the morning sky, but before the shade of evening closes is scattered on the ground to die —Richard Henry Wilde This simile from Wilde’s My Life, this one from the opening line. My life loose as a frog’s —Maxine Kumin Our days on earth are as a shadow —The Holy Bible/Job (I worry that) our lives are like soap operas. We can go for months and not tune in to them, then six months later we look in and the same stuff is still going on —Jane Wagner Our lives are united like fruit in a bowl —W. H. Auden Our lives run like fingers over sandpaper —Jaroslav Seifert
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Sometimes we do not become adults until we suffer a good whacking loss, and our lives in a sense catch up with us and wash over us like a wave and everything goes —Richard Ford
There was a dimension missing from his life, as though trees were flat and rooflines painted on the sky —Margaret Sutherland The vanity of human life is like a rivulet, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on —Alexander Pope Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Wear life like an old pair of shoes that’s easy on my feet —Ben Ames Williams When the highest stake in the game of living, life itself, may not be risked … becomes as flat, as superficial as one of those American flirtations in which it is from the first understood that nothing is to happen, contrasted with a Continental love-affair in which both partners must constantly bear in mind the serious consequences —Sigmund Freud Would that life were like the shadow cast by a wall or a tree, but it is like the shadow of a bird in flight —Palestinian Talmud
< LIFE DEFINED The course of life is like the sea; men come and go; tides rise and fall; and that is all of history —Joaquin Miller Each person’s life is like a mountain. And each person has to climb that mountain top alone —Rosamund Pilcher
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Life Defined Pilcher builds on the mountain simile by explaining that as a child you start in a warm and sunny valley, then you climb a somewhat steeper mountain with a wonderful view to make the end of the journey.
THE SIMILES It would be like trying to stop up the holes in our body, thinking them to be wounds. We should die of suffocation almost before we were cured.” Life is … a long series of challenges, like hurdles in a race —Rosamund Pilcher
A human life is like a single letter in the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be part of a great meaning —essay by National Panning Committee of Jewish Theological Seminary for Rosh Hashan, September 5, 1956
Life is a long strong twisted rope made up of a number of human relationships —Mary Borden
Human life may be regarded as a succession of frontispieces. The way to be satisfied is never to look back —William Hazlitt
Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along —E. M. Forster
Life … a formless lump like cold tea leaves from which goodness and badness and even the last tang of bitterness have been stewed out —Gerald Kersh The life being compared to cold tealeaves in Kersh’s novel, The Angel and the Cuckoo, is obviously deteriorating.
Life is a train constantly crossing the border from the past to the present —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Life is a big gambling game. Some are born lucky and some are born unlucky —Jack London Life is a blister on top of a tumor, and a boil on top of that —Sholom Aleichem Life is, after all, a kind of disaster through which we do what we can to keep each other’s spirits up —Thomas Mallon, New York Times Book Review, October 12 1986 Life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and evil events that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence or the want of it —Benjamin Franklin Life … is a kind of stage play, where men come forth, disguised one in one array, and one in another, each playing his part —Erasmus Life is a little like disease, with its crises and periods of quiescence, the daily improvements and setbacks —Italo Svevo In his novel, Confessions of Zeno, Svevo continues the simile as follows: “But unlike other diseases life is always mortal. It admits of no cure.
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Life is an incurable disease —Abraham Cowley
Life is but a day; a fragile dew-drop on its perilous way from a tree’s summit —John Keats Life … is like a beach covered with lots of pebbles, the faster we qualify ourselves to pick these pebbles the richer we will be —Evan A. Sholl Life is like a beautiful and winding lane —George Augustus Sala In its full context this continues as follows: “On either side bright flowers, beautiful butterflies, and tempting fruits which we scarcely pause to admire and taste, so eager are we to hasten to an opening which we imagine will be more beautiful still. But by degrees, as we advance, the tress grow bleak, the flowers and butterflies frail, the fruits disappear, and we find we have arrived to reach a desert waste.” Life is like a B-picture script. It is that corny —Kirk Douglas, Look, October 4, 1944 To add emphasis to his simile, Douglas added: “If I had my life story offered to me to film, I’d turn it down.” Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded —Fulton J. Sheen Life is like a cup of tea … needing love to make it sweet —Edward A. Guest
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THE SIMILES To show that the same basic simile can have different meanings, there’s this line from J. M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton: “Life, Crichton, is like a cup of tea; the more heartily we drink the sooner we reach the dregs.” Life is like a dissected map. If I could live a hundred years … I feel I could put the pieces together until they made a properly connected whole —Oliver Wendell Holmes Life is like a fire; it begins in smoke, and ends in ashes —Arab proverb Life is like a game of dice —Alexis The comparison of life to the roll of the dice has been an irresistible simile throughout history. Variations include “Life is like a game of tables,” the chances are not in our power but the playing is and “Life is like a game of roulette.” Life is like a game of cards —Edgar Watson Howe Howe built on the comparison as follows: “Reliability is the ace, industry the king, politeness the queen, thrift the jack. Common sense is playing to best advantage the cards you draw.” A 1978 poem by Diane Wakoski used the simile for its title and theme. Life … is like a grapefruit … sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle —Douglas Adams Life is like a jig saw puzzle with most of the pieces missing —Anon Life is like a kiss that does not last long enough for a fellow to ascertain how good it is —Dow Junior Life is like a mountain: after climbing up one side and sliding down the other, put up the sled —Josh Billings The word “is” has been changed from the dialect form “iz.” Life is like an onion, which one peels crying —French proverb Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after layer and then you find there is nothing in it —James G. Huneker
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Life Defined Life is like a school of gladiators, where men live and fight with one another —Seneca Life is like a scrambled egg —Don Marquis Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top —Tom Robbins Life is like drunkeness: the pleasure passes away, but the headache remains —Persian proverb Life is like music, it drunkenness imposed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule —Samuel Butler Life is like that, a cake-walk —Clifford Odets Life is not a game of chess, the victory to the knowing; it is a game of cards, one’s hand by skill to be made the best of —Jerome K. Jerome Life is very much like an arms race, each side waiting for the other one to put his stick down first —Merle Shain Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity —Percy Bysshe Shelley Human life is like the petals that fall from the rose and lie soft and withering by the side of the vase —Anon Persian poem The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it —J.M. Barrie The life of man is like a long journey with a heavy load on the back —Japanese proverb The race of men is like the race of leaves. As one generation flourishes another decays —Homer Life’s a library owned by an author. In it are a few books which he wrote but most of them were written for him —Harry Emerson Fosdick Life seems to me like a Japanese picture which our imagination does not allow to end with the margin —Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
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Lighting Life’s like a play: it’s not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters —Seneca A version made famous by the playwright Ben Johnson: “Our life is like a play.” Man’s life is like a candle in the wind —Chinese proverb The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic.… There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless we stand some distance off —Arthur Schopenhauer This mundane life is like a drink of salt water, which seems to quench, but actually inflames —Gaon Elijah The way of life is like a path between two forbidding roads, one of fire and one of ice. The slightest bend in either direction is fatal (Let him walk in the middle) —Judah Judah built on the simile with this advice: “The slightest bend in either direction is fatal. Let him walk in the middle.” A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view halfway up is better than the view from the base, and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands —William Lyon Phelps The whole of life of some people is a kind of partial death; a long lingering death-bed, so to speak, of stagnation and nonentity on which death is but the seal —Samuel Butler
< LIGHTING See Also: BRIGHTNESS, SHINING All lit up like warships in a foggy port —Amos Oz Everything lit up like a disco on Saturday night —Loren D. Estleman A glittering neon sign like wolves’ eyes —Elizabeth Bowen The gray light of the winter dawn lit the bedroom like a dreary fake impressionistic painting —Jerry Bumpus The house [with all lights on] blazed like a stage set —T. Coraghessan Boyle
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THE SIMILES Light as a paper airplane(and as elegant) —Marge Piercy Lighted windows [at dawn] were scattered like yellow diamonds on black velvet —Loren D. Estleman Lighting streaked the snow. Like the urine of dogs by trees —William H. Gass (Offices … in which) light is a kind of yellow fluid, like old shellac —Scott Turow In his novel, Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow uses this comparison to paint a picture of the “Dickensian” atmosphere in which the hero’s fellow lawyers work. The light seemed to be draining away like floodwater —Kenneth Grahame Lights glittered … like a diamond necklace round the neck of a lovely signorina —Donald Seaman Lights … pouring over us like scalding milk —Ira Wood The lights (of the bridge) were like strings of pearls hanging up in the air —Cornell Woolrich The light was golden like the flesh of women —Thomas Wolfe Like moons around Jupiter, pale moths revolved about a lone lamp —Vladimir Nabokov (The big glass window was) lit like a stage —Frank Tuohy (The place was) lit up like a birthday cake —Jayne Anne Phillips Lit up like a midway —Tom Robbins Lit up like a paper lantern —Willis Johnson Lit up like a whorehouse on Saturday night —Loren D. Estleman Lit up like skyscrapers or planes taking off —Marge Piercy [A truck] Plastered with lights like a beer-joint —Carlos Baker
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THE SIMILES Streetlights cast their shadows on the wall like a sharp, white condolence —Ariel Dorfman The streetlights shone like tiny beads on a string —David Huddle
Lightness as” variants include “light as a feather,” “light as wind,” and “light as air.” With them all, “lighter than” crops up as frequently as “light as.” Light as a milkweed puff —Richard Wilbur
When the lamps in the house are lighted it is like the flowering of lotus on the lake —Chinese proverb
[A racing jockey] Light as a monkey —Ernest Hemingway
Windows [of a building] glowing like those of a lighted cardboard house under a Christmas tree —Willa Cather
Light as a paper toy —Anon
< LIGHTNESS
(She is) light as a phantom —W. P. Kinsella
See Also: GAIETY, SOFTNESS Airy as the holes in Swiss cheese —Anon
Light as a seed —Theodore Roethke
As giddy as a drunken man —Charles Dickens This is the last of a whole string of similes uttered by a reformed Scrooge in A Christmas Carol: “I’m as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I’m as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.”
Light as cork —Henry James
As lightly as a cloud is blown —John Greenleaf Whittier Flippancy, like comedy, is but a matter of visual first impressions —Joseph Conrad (A light blue summer dress as) frothy as high tide —Jonathan Kellerman Hands were light as moths —John MacDonald Light as a hand among blossoms —Theodore Roethke (Mountains … ) light and airy like balloons on a string —George Garrett [Touch] light as a butterfly —Eleanor Farejons And lighter still, there’s a touch that’s “light as a butterfly’s kiss” from a John MacDonald novel. Light as a flight of tumbling birds —C. S. Lewis Light as a fly —John Ray’s Proverbs Light as a leaf —Anon An ancient simile which continues in use to describe lightness of heart, mind and body. “Light
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Light as an angel —Donald McCaig Light as a petal falling upon stone —Theodore Roethke
Light as breath —Robert Penn Warren Light as dandelion fluff —Mary Hedin [Snow] Light as dust —Amy Lowell Light as helium —Elizabeth Bishop [Snowflakes] light as milkweed —T. Coraghessan Boyle [Feathers on a hat] Light as mist in a breeze —Colette Light as sea-foam, strong as the tide —Slogan for underwear, Paris-Hecker Co. (Free and) light as the breath that clung to them like clouds —Arthur Gregor Light as thistledown —John Yount (We carry her indoors. She is) light as toast —Louise Erdrich Lightly … as a child skips rope, the way a mouse waltzes —E. B. White White on James Thurber’s writing. Lightly as a wisp of air —Harvey Swados Weightless as an ache —Sharon Sheehe Stark In Stark’s novel A Wrestling Season, the simile is used to answer what death might be like. (Her body was … ) weightless as a strip of cane —Eudora Welty
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Lightning Weightless as the notes rung out of bells at kindling dawn —George Garrett
THE SIMILES Hung around … like a herd of sheep with no sheep-dog —Ignazio Silone
< LIKELIHOOD
(The Fraziers had refused to leave his mind; they had stayed on) imposing themselves on his consciousness and his conscience like the troubling memory of a drunken evening —Elizabeth Hardwick
See: IMPOSSIBILITY
Languish like a mist at noon —Herbert Read
< LIKENESS
Lingered like heat, like poppy petals, like desert sand —Kay Boyle
< LIGHTNING See: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
See: SIMILARITY
< LIMBS See: ARM(S), LEG(S)
Lingered, like smoke after fire —Paul Kuttner Lingering like an unloved guest —Percy Bysshe Shelley Lingering like second thoughts —George Bradley
< LIMPNESS See: SOFTNESS
< LINGERING Brooded over … the way a plane caught in a fog hovers longingly over a blurred landing strip —Lynne Sharon Schwartz The days lingered like overripe fruit —Claire Messud, The Last Life
(Light) lingers like a lover’s tongue —Bin Ramke This simile concludes a poem entitled “What the Weather Is Like.” Lodged like a marble in a crack —James Crumley Loitered like a school child —Jean Stafford (A cold notion flew into my brain and) squatted there like a buzzard, patient, in a tree —George Garrett
(Haven’t you got anything better to do than) hang around here like a prairie dog in heat? —line from the movie Bronco Billy
Stalling like a Scotchman in front of a pay toilet —Harold Adams
Hang around like a rent collector or a man come to fix the faucet —Harvey Swados
< LIPS
Hang around like sullen clouds over the sun —John Ashberry
An upper lip shaped like a circumflex accent —Eric Ambler
Hanging around like a fart in a phone box —Australian colloquialism
See Also: MOUTH
Drew her lips into a thin wiggly line like fish bait —Sharon Sheehe Stark
[An idea]hang over … like a thunderstorm reluctant to break —Gavin Lyall
Full lips like a French movie star —Ira Wood
[The smell of circus lions] hangs like August heat —Delmore Schwartz
Her lips glistened as if she’d just eaten a pound of Vaseline —Sarah Bird
Hover like a moth intoxicated with light —John Galsworthy
Her lips looked … delicious, as though if you bit them it would be like biting into a sweetmeat, one of those candies which are filled with a pleasant warming liquid —Ben Ames Williams
Hover like butterflies —Lee Smith Hover over like an ugly bird of prey —Anon
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THE SIMILES His lips, like those of all men who work, were puckered up like a bag with the string drawn tight —Honoré de Balzac His lips were tightened in a thin line, as if he had them sewn together to keep from vomiting —Robert J. Serling
Logic Lips that, like a ventriloquist’s, scarcely stirred —Katherine Bush Lips that looked as if she were permanently whistling —Mike Fredman Lips that shine wetly, just like a Cosmo girl —George Garrett
His lips were too red, as if he had a hangover —Louise Erdrich
Lips that stand out from his skin like two thick weals —Aldous Huxley
His long lips tightened, as if he sought to conquer pain —Frank Swinnerton
Lips tighter than any knot —Tim O’Brien
Lips always compressed as if to keep back a swarm of curses —George Garrett Lips as bloodless as lips of the slain —John Greenleaf Whittier
Lips trembling like elastic stretched too taut —George Garrett A long blue upper lip, like a priest —Joyce Cary
Lips … as glossy as ripe cherries —Anton Chekov
The muscles of her chapped lips were broken and loose like the snap of an old purse —Gerald Kersh
Lips delicate as peach-toned porcelain —Jayne Anne Phillips
Set her lips as though she would never speak again —Dorothy Canfield
Lips … drawn in a tight line like the lips of a child not quite ready to take a dose of bad-tasting medicine —George Garrett
Sharp-pointed lips stretched out like a slingshot —Bobbie Ann Mason
Lips … dry and faint as her tea leaves —Shirley Ann Grau Lips full as thighs —Lyn Lifshin Lips like a thread of scarlet —The Holy Bible/ Song of Solomon Lips like lilies —The Holy Bible/Song of Solomon
Thick lips … like lozenges of hard rubber —Jonathan Valin Thin lips fitted tightly together, as though they were parts of a very well-made piece of furniture —Aldous Huxley An upper lip that twitched softly, like a cow’s in a fly-ridden summer —Penelope Gilliatt
Lips … like pale velvet —Jimmy Sangster Lips like sausages —John D. MacDonald
< LITERATURE
Lips … like the petals of a red flower —Oscar Wilde
See: ART AND LITERATURE, BOOKS, WRITERS/WRITING
Lips like wet cherries —Virginia Woolf Lips moved noisily, smacking like a three-day thirst —Sharon Sheehe Stark Lips … red as two buds —Louise Erdrich Lips … set in exasperation, as if she had just been about to say something and found out her voice was snatched in death —Louise Erdrich Lips … shining like rain on night streets —Jayne Anne Phillips
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< LIVELINESS See: ACTIVENESS, ENTHUSIASM, ENERGY
< LOCALITIES See: PLACES
< LOGIC See: SENSE
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Loneliness
< LONELINESS See: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS A day without you is like a year without rain —Selena Gomez, “A Year without Rain”
THE SIMILES Felt his eyes slide over her like a steamy wet cloak —Joseph Wambaugh Gaze at me like chastened children sitting silent in a school —Thomas Hardy
And I sat by myself / Like a cobweb on a shelf —Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, also known as She & Him, “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”
Gazed at the pair with nudging, sympathetic smiles, like grandmothers watching babies in a play-pen —Mary McCarthy
The immense, throbbing loneliness that was only now closing like a vise on my internal organs —Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I Leave You
Glance as vacant as the smoothness of the pond —David Ignatow
< LONGING See: DESIRE
Glance … like a needle’s flash —Frank Swinnerton
< LONG-WINDEDNESS
Glowered back like a sullen watchdog —Frank Swinnerton
Gaze … fixed like a snake’s —Donald MacKenzie
Glanced at one another like tigers taking measure of menacing new rival —Erich Segal
See: TALKATIVENESS
Her flat dark eyes moved down Melinda like a smudge —Jessamyn West
< LOOKS
Her gaze moved like a prison searchlight —Michael Dorris
See Also: FROWNS AND SCOWLS, SCRUTINY, STARES Accusing look … as Cotton Mather might have looked at a Salem woman in the stocks —Mary Gordon
Her gaze was like a magnet that drew towards it my will-less secret —Jean Stafford His eyes glowed on me like a warm hand —Borden Deal
Always looked at you as if you had interrupted him in the performance of some slightly tedious but nonetheless necessary task —Louis Auchincloss
His eyes on me as hot as a bare hand —R. Wright Campbell
Black glance like ice —Jean Garrigue
His eyes slewed round to meet yours and then cannoned off again like a pool-ball —Sean Virgo
Contemplate … with a kind of quiet premeditation, like that of a slow-witted man fondling an unaccustomed thought —Beryl Markham Disdainful look like that of a coffee drinker sipping a cup of instant —Anon Exchanged fidgeting looks like a pair of consternated hamsters —Sarah Bird Exchanged wide-eyed looks that clinked in the air like fine glassware —Sharon Sheehe Stark Eyeing me … like a starved hog watching the trough get filled —Harold Adams
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His eyes set on Linda’s open shirtfront like a cat sighting a fat bird —Gloria Norris
His glance came back across mine like saw teeth across a nail —Wallace Stegner His icy-blue gaze would fall and cut you like a blade —Faith Mortimer, The Assassins’ Village His look was like a hand in the scruff of Bruce’s neck —Wallace Stegner Like swallows darting about a barn her deep blue eyes flickered from one to the other —F. van Wyck Mason
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THE SIMILES (Gave me) a long [forgiving] look like Christ crucified —Clare Boylan Look at him as if he were a lamppost —Leo Tolstoy Looked about him like the fallen archangel whose only wish was for eternal enmity —Honoré de Balzac Looked around her at the crowd, with eyes smarting, unseeing, and tearful as if an oculist had put caustic eye-drops into them —Boris Pasternak Looked at each other like schoolboys caught masturbating —Lawrence Durrell Looked at each other in a flicker fast as a snake’s tongue —Rosellen Brown Looked at her like she was some kind of Italian sports car and he was ready to drive her —dialogue from “Murder She Wrote episode,” television drama, broadcast March 19, 1987 The look thus described is attributed to a jealous husband. Looked at her like a bird that has been shot —D. H. Lawrence Looked at him as a guinea pig looks at a big dog —Frank Swinnerton Looked at him as a sergeant in the United States Marines would look at a recruit who had just called a rifle a gun —Norman MacLean Looked at me as if I were a mongrel that had suddenly said, “Hi” —Harold Adams Looked at me as though I had suddenly broke out with a filthy disease —M. C. Blackman Looked at me expectantly as a poodle —Erich Maria Remarque
Looks Looked at Whistler [character in novel] as if she’d like to crush him with her thighs or smother him with her tits —Robert Campbell Looked at … with an awakened air, as if she were pricking up her ears like a trooper’s horse at the sound of a trumpet —Honoré de Balzac Looked at you without really seeing you, like a TV broadcaster reading the teleprompter —Elyse Sommer Looked him up and down like a sergeant inspecting the ranks —George Garrett Looked knowing and quizzical, like someone smiling with a mouthful of salts —George MacDonald Fraser Looked through us like glass —Alan Williamson Looked towards me as towards a jury —F. Scott Fitzgerald Looking about him as if he had a score to settle —Romain Gary Looking at him with something cold as dislike —Rebecca West (She was) looking at us … like she had emptied her eyes, like she had quit using them —William Faulkner Looking from face to face like he was judge —Jayne Anne Phillips Looking on one another, sideways and crossways, and with lowered eyes, like guilty criminals —Anzia Yezierska A look passed between them, like the silent exchange of two doctors who agree on a simple diagnosis without having to put it in words —Marilyn Sharp Looks black as thunder —J.R. Planche
Looked at me intently, as if trying to recall something —Mikhail Lermontov
Looks … like the lizard watches the fly —Leslie Silko
Looked at me keenly, like a smart boxer stung in the first round and cagily reappraising the character of his opposition —Robert Traver
A look that burned like live coals on our naked bodies —Anzia Yezierska
Looked at me like she was ready to carve my liver —Larry McMurtry
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky —Pink Floyd, “Sing on You Crazy Diamond”
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Looseness
THE SIMILES
Playing his eyes over the other’s face like the feelers of insects —Arthur A. Cohen
(The gear worked) loose as a hound’s shoulder —Elizabeth Spencer
Regarded her with raised brows like a doctor who is considering how fully to answer a layman’s question —Saul Bellow
Loose as a gossip’s tongue —Anon
Regarded me somberly but warily, as you might examine a particularly ferocious gorilla from the other side of a set of flimsy bars —Harvey Swados She looked at him with that cunning which those who profess unworldliness can wield like a club of stone —Francine du Plessix Gray She took him in as if he were frozen in a block of ice or enclosed in a cage of wires —Louise Erdrich That look that seemed to enter him like an enormous jolt of neat whiskey —Daniel Curley The each-for-himself look in the eyes of the people about her were like stinging slaps in the face —Anzia Yezierska Their eyes creamed off each other like the balls on a table —Ed McBain Their eyes rolled like marbles toward one another —Mary Hedin Their glances crossed like blades —Stephen Crane Triumphant look, like the fallen angel restored —D. H. Lawrence
Loose as ashes —Anon Loose as eggs in a nest —Walter Savage Landor Loose as windblown sand —Mark Helprin Slack as a toad —Barbara Howes Sprawled … lax as a drowned man —George Garrett
< LOUDNESS See: NOISE
< LOVE See Also: FRIENDSHIP; LOVE, DEFINED; MEN AND WOMEN Absence in love is like waters upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it —Hannah More All loving emotions, like plants, shoot up most rapidly in the tempestuous atmosphere of life —Jean Paul Richter Amorous as Emma Bovary —James G. Huneker Could love forever run like a river —Lord Byron
A true-felt look … laden with sweetness, white, mesmerizing, like the blossom that hangs from the cherry trees —Edna O’Brien
Falling in love is something you forget, like pain —Nina Bawden
Turned to me in blank apprehension like a blind woman taken by surprise —Ross Macdonald
First and passionate love, it stands alone, like Adam’s recollection of his fall —Lord Byron
Uncomprehending gaze … like an anxious monkey —Mary Stewart Watching me as though trying to work out a puzzle —C. J. Koch
< LOOSENESS (Muscle) lax as a broken shade —Diane Ackerman (Face) lax as a wax work —Daniel Berrigan
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Felt love like a lottery prize —Geoffrey Wolff
The force of her love … is bulky and hard to carry, like a package that keeps untying —Louise Erdrich Going through life without love is like going through a good dinner without an appetite; everything seems flat and tasteless —Helen Rowland Her love was like the swallow’s, whose first thought is for its nest —Italo Svevo
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THE SIMILES If love were what the rose is, and I were like the leaf, our lives would grow together —Algernon Charles Swinburne I love you as New Englanders love pie —Don Marquis Infatuation like paralysis, is often all on one side —Helen Rowland It [love] could, like grief, grow forgetful and weary and slowly wear away —Alice McDermott I touch your hands / And my heart goes strong, / Like a pair of birds / That burst with song —Oscar Hammerstein, “Younger than Springtime,” South Pacific Just a Love Nest, cozy and warm / Like a dove —Otto Harbach, “The Love Nest,” Mary Knew as much about love as a pig knows about St. Valentine’s Day —Harry Prince Like a flower / Waiting to bloom / Like a light bulb / In a dark room / I’m just sitting here waiting for you / To come on home and turn me on —Norah Jones, “Turn Me On” Like the water of a deep stream, love is always too much —Wendell Berry This line from a poem entitled “The Country of Marriage” continues as follows: “We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst we cannot have it all, or want it all.” I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach. —William Shakespeare, As You Like It Love burst out … all over our bodies, like sweat —Yehuda Amichai Love can die of truth as friendship of a lie —Abel Bonard Love … comes as a butterfly tipped with gold —Algernon Charles Swinburne Love comes into your being like a tidal wave … sometimes it withdraws like a wave, till there isn’t such a thing as a pool left, and every bit of your heart is as dry as seaweed beyond the wave’s reach —Phyllis Bottome
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Love Love comforts like sunshine after rain —William Shakespeare The original simile as used in Venus and Adonis uses “comforteth” rather than “comforts.” Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new —Ursula K. Le Guin Love … entered the room like a miracle —Milan Kundera Love had seized her as unexpectedly as would sudden death —Elizabeth Taylor (Our cook is in love.) Love hangs on the house like a mist —Phyllis McGinley Love hung still as crystal over the bed —Louis MacNeice Love is fierce as death —The Holy Bible/Song of Songs Love is flower-like —Samuel Taylor Coleridge Love is … fresh as dew when first it is new —British folk song, “The Water Is Wide” The complete refrain includes yet another simile: “Oh, love is sweet and love is fair, fresh as the dew when first it is new, but love grows old and waxeth cold, and fades away like morning dew.” Love is like a big fat bonus that you hope kicks in after you negotiate the rest of the term sheet —Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand Love is like a flame / It burns you when it’s hot / Love hurts —Boudleaux Bryant, from lyrics to song “Love Hurts” Love is like the moon; when it does not increase it decreases —Joseph Alexandre Pierre Segur Love is … lone as the sea, and deeper blue —Dorothy Parker Love … it makes him [the lover] fluent as a tin whistle, as limber as a boy’s watch chain, and as polite as a dancing master —Josh Billings Parts transcribed from the Billing phonetic dialect: “whissel” and “perlite” as a “dansing” master.
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Love Loveless as the multiplication table —Sylvia Plath Love life … just about as interesting as the love life of the desert horned toad —William Saroyan Love, like a tear, rises in the eye and falls upon the breast —Publius Syrus Love like chicken salad or restaurant hash, must be taken on blind faith or it loses all its flavor —Helen Rowland Love, like death, a universal leveler of mankind —William Congreve Love, like death, changes everything —Kahil Gibran Love, like fire, cannot subsist without constant impulse; it ceases to live from the moment it ceases to hope or to fear —La Rouchefoucauld Love, like money, is probably best kept in the family —William Gaddis, New York Times Book Review, May 24, 1987 Gaddis used this simile to conclude his review of Saul Bellow’s novel More Die of Heartbreak. Love passed between them like a field of light —Ellen Gilchrist Love … pricks like a thorn —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Love … roots up the will like a leaf —Gustave Flaubert Lovers are always in a hurry … like a racing river —Ben Ames Williams Lovers fail like seasons —F. D. Reeve Love’s dominion, like a king’s, admits of no partition —Ovid Love sometimes is like the flower of the wild poppy: you can’t carry it home —Jaroslav Seifert
THE SIMILES Love without grace is like a hook without bait —Anne de Lencos Love without respect is cold as a boa constrictor —Marge Piercy In her poem “Witnessing a Wedding,” Piercy continues as follows: “its caresses as choking.” Love without return is like a question without an answer —Anon Making love to a woman too many times is like scratching a place that doesn’t itch any more —Anon, Playboy, 1965 A man in love may behave like a madman but not like a dunce —François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld Man has been substituted for gentleman to give the simile a more modern tone. The man who is not loved hovers like a vulture over the sweetheart of others —Victor Hugo My heart simmered with angry love like chicken soup on grandma’s stove —James Atlas My love is like foliage in the woods. Time will change it as winter changes the trees —Emily Brontë The love described is Cathy’s for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Once love is purged of vanity it is like a feeble convalescent, hardly capable of dragging itself around —Sebastien Roch Nicolas de Chamfort Our love is like our life; there’s no man blest in either till his end —Shackerley Marmion Our love is like the misty rain that falls softly … but floods the river —African proverb
Love was a treadmill, like churchgoing —Elizabeth Hardwick
(What I want … is something organic … ) potato love, natural as earth, scruffy and brown, clinging to your roots, helping you grow fit and firm —Daphne Merkin
Love washes on me like rain on a dead man’s shoes —Ellen Gilchrist
Romance, like a ghost, eludes touching —G. W. Curtis
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THE SIMILES
Love, Defined
Romance, like alcohol, should be enjoyed but must not be allowed to become necessary —Edgar Z. Friedenberg
With true loves as with ghosts: everyone speaks of them, but few have seen them —François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Romantic love is ephemeral and occasionally unavoidable … like the viral flu —Marcia Froelke Coburn, New York Times Book Review, September 14, 1986
(I) wore my heart like a wet, red stain on the breast of a velvet gown —Dorothy Parker
A rush of love swamped her heart … like a tide —Vita Sackville-West The science of love demands delicacy, perseverance, and practice, like the piano —Anatole France The simple accident of falling in love is as beneficial as it is astonishing —Robert Louis Stevenson (She was long married … but she had recently) stepped out of the country of love briskly, and without a backward glance, as if she had spent too much time in its steamy jungles —John Cheever This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes —Ernest Hemingway Threw herself into love like a suicide into the river —Guy de Maupassant To love a woman who scorns you is like licking honey from a thorn —Welsh proverb To talk of honour in the mysteries of love, is like talking of Heaven or the Deity in an operation of witchcraft, just when you are employing the devil: it makes the charm impotent —William Wycherley Trapped in love … like a great tortoise trapped in a heavy death-like shell —Joyce Carol Oates It [being loved by affectionately possessive wife] was like being loved by a large moist sponge —Phyllis Bottome Without love our life is … unprofitable as a ship without a rudder … like a body without a soul —Sholem Aleichem
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Your love is like bad medicine —Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Desmond Child, from lyrics to song “Bad Medicine”
< LOVE, DEFINED Falling in love is like being thrown from a horse; if you let yourself go it doesn’t hurt as badly as if you try to save yourself —Edwin L. Blanchard It’s [love] very like a lizard; it wines itself around your heart and penetrates your gizzard —Anon rhyme A love affair is like a work of art —Laurie Colwin Love is a hole in the heart —Ben Hecht Love is a science where great erudition and great application are needed —Anatole France Love is like a child that longs for everything that he can come by —William Shakespeare, Two Getlemen from Verona Love is like a cigar, the longer it burns the less it becomes —Punch, 1855 Love is … like a coconut which is good while it’s fresh, but you have to spit it out when the juice is gone, what’s left tastes bitter —Bertolt Brecht Love is like a cold. Easy to catch but hard to cure —Anon Love is like a dizziness —James Hogg This is the title and first line of a poem. Love is like a dream that’s too good to be true —Langston Hughes Love is like a friendship caught on fire —Bruce Lee Love is like a lovely rose —Christina Georgina Rossetti
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Love, Defined
THE SIMILES
Love is like a wild rose-briar —Emily Brontë
Love is like the devil; he whom it has in its clutches it surrounds with flames —Honoré de Balzac
Love is like butter, it goes well with bread —Yiddish proverb
Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it —Jerome K. Jerome
Love is like electricity. It flares up for a second and is soon extinguished —Isaac Bashevis Singer
See the comment with Josh Billings love/measles simile above.
Love is like a repeating decimal; the figure is the same but the value gets less and less —Anon
Love is like fire … wounds of fire are hard to bear; harder still are those of love —Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen Love is like growing pains; something we all have to experience for ourselves —Anon Love is like heaven, a brief possession, unsearchable, hard to reconstruct with two-by-fours and building blocks —Leonard Casper In Casper’s story “Sense of Direction,” the simile is in the past tense and the word “building” is spelled without the last letter. Love is like learning to walk; we all have to go through it —Anon Love is like linen, the more often changed, the sweeter —Phineas Fletcher The word “changed” was written as “chang’d” in the original. Love is like malaria. You never know when you’re going to catch it —Rita Mae Brown Love is like measles; you can get it only once, and the later in life it occurs the tougher it goes —Josh Billings The simile in Billings’ dialect: “Love iz like the meazles; we kant have it bad but onst, and the later in life we have it the tuffer it goes with us.” Medical science has made this much quoted comparison obsolete, though another illness, mishap or a necessary learning experience could easily be substituted.
Love is like a well: a good thing to drink out of, but a bad thing to fall into —Anon Love is like the wild rose-briar, friendship like the holly tree —Emily Brontë Love is like those shabby hotels in which all the luxury is in the lobby —Paul Jean Toulet Love is trembling happiness —Kahil Gibran Love is very much like a tennis match … you’ll never win consistently until you learn to serve well —Dan P. Herod Love is what is called the Milky Way in Heaven, a brilliant mass formed by thousands of little stars of which each perhaps is nebulous —Stendhal One wonders what he might have added had he known about black holes in space and their gravity so enormous it sucks up everything surrounding itself. Love … it’s like an ocean: if you’re no good, if you begin a make a bad smell in it, it just spews you up somewhere to die —William Faulkner Love, like a poker game starts with a pair; with her getting a flush, him showing a diamond and both ending up together with a full house —Anon Love, like death, a universal leveler of mankind —William Congreve
Love is like quicksilver in the hand … leave the fingers open and it stays in the palm; clutch it, and it darts away —Dorothy Parker
Lovers are like drunkards; once a drunkard always a drunkard, once a lover always a lover. It is simply a matter of temperament —Guy de Maupassant
Love is like soup; it cools when the fire dies out —Anon
Love’s like the measles, all the worse when it comes too late —Douglas Jerrod
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THE SIMILES
Lust
See comment following the Josh Billings love/ measles simile above.
Devoted and caretaking as a cat with her kittens —Katherine Anne Porter
Love without return is like a question without an answer —Anon
(In the end, people’s) devotion hung like rocks around your neck —Alice Munro
Loving, like prayer, is a power as well a process. It’s curative. It is creative —Zona Gale
Endless devotion … like a straitjacket —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
The moods of love are like the wind —Coventry Patmore
Faithful (to each other) as the Canada goose, more or less —Laurie Colwin
My love is as a fever —William Shakespeare, “Sonnet #147” Another famous author, Stendhal, also likened love to a fever, adding: “it comes and goes without the will having any part in the process.”
Fickle as spring sunlight —Carolyn Kizer
My love is like a red red rose —John Burns This is the first line and title of Burns’ famous poem, in which the word “love” was spelled “luv.”
Like a woman in her first love affair, he insisted on unconditional commitment —Ariel Dorfman
An old man in love is like a flower in Winter —Portuguese proverb
Loyal, like a dog —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Romance is the poetry of circumstance —Robert Louis Stevenson True love is like seeing ghosts: we talk about it few of us have ever seen one —François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld Some quote de La Rochefoucauld as linking the ghost comparison to perfect instead of true love. A woman’s love is like the dew. It falls as easily on the manure heap as on the rose —Donald McCaig Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable —Henry Ward Beecher
A heart true as steel —William Shakespeare Shakespeare gave this comparison from Midsummer Night’s Dream a slight twist in Romeo and Juliet: “my man’s as true as steel.”
Loyalty … small and hard, like buckshot lodged in her stomach —Sarah Litsey To say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will continue burning as long as you live —Leo Tolstoy True to her husband as the dial to the sun —Henry Fielding
< LUCIDITY See: CLARITY
< LUCK See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
< LUNACY < LOYALTY/DISLOYALTY
See: MADNESS
See Also: FRIENDSHIP, LOVE Always at her side like a Great Dane —Carlos Baker
< LUSHNESS
As the rolling stone gathers no moss, so the roving heart gathers no affection —Anna Jameson
< LUST
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
See: ABUNDANCE
See: DESIRE, SEX
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Lying
< LYING See Also: BEARING, BENDING/BENT, IMMOBILITY, POSTURE, SITTING, SLEEP, STANDING
THE SIMILES Sprawled like a man who had been threshed —Stephen Crane Sprawling like an exhausted dog —Mary Hedin
Lay … as if chloroformed —Wallace Stegner
< MADNESS
Lay as still as a fallen doll —George Garrett
As crazy as a baboon chasing shit around a tree —American colloquialism
Lay in bed like a tree stump —Charles Johnson Lay lifeless as if spellbound —Herman Melville Lay like an aimlessly flung sack of bones —Harvey Swados Lay on his back … rigid and ruined, like some stained window mannequin —Davis Grubb Lay on the sofa like cast-off silk stockings —Delmore Schwartz In his journal entry Schwartz followed this with two additional comparisons: “Like fallen buildings … like a car over turned.” Had he been writing forty years later, he would have been apt to refer to pantyhose instead of silk stockings.
As crazy as a loon —American colloquialism Popular variations include “Crazy as bats” and “Crazy as a bed bug,” the latter said to make its first appearance in Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. Crazy as owl shit —Pat Conroy As mad as a brush —Julia O’Faolain
Lay perfectly still, as if dead with fear —D.H. Lawrence
As mad as a March hare —English phrase Even though Lewis Carroll didn’t coin the phrase as many people think, its appearance in Alice in Wonderland probably contributed towards its common and continued usage to describe irrationality. The same is true of “Mad as a hatter” which alluded to the symptoms of madness due to chemical exposure by workers in the hat industry.
Lay … rigid, as if she were dead —Elizabeth Taylor
As mad as a serpent —Carolyn See, New York Times, July 3, l986
Lay rigidly still, as still as if he were in his coffin —Dorothy Canfield (Fallen and helpless, he) lay there like a pine tree that has been torn up by the roots —Ellen Glasgow
As nutty as a fruitcake —American colloquialism In vogue since around 1935 this has seeded such twists such as “You’re as nutty as a Mars bar” (Tom Robbins) and “Nuttier than a Hershey bar with almonds” (Ed McBain). Departing from the candy and cake comparison altogether, there’s as “Nutty as a squirrel’s nest” (Mike Sommer).
Lay there … stretched like a corpse —Hugh Walpole
< MANIPULATION
Lay side by side like fish —Lawrence Durrell
Lay where she was for a few minutes like a flake of foam —Vicki Baum
See: POWER
(We’d) lie … like two sticks in bed —Elizabeth Spencer
< MANKIND
The lovers like great scissors lay —Delmore Schwartz Sprawled around … like shepherds in a frieze —Julia O’Faolain
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See Also: HELPLESSNESS, LIFE As the clay is in the potter’s hand, to fashion at his pleasure: so man is in the hand of him that made him —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha Every man is like his affliction —André Malraux
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THE SIMILES Extraordinary men, like the stones that are formed in the highest regions of the air, fall upon the earth only to be broken and cast into the furnace —Walter Savage Landor He [man] bolts down all events, all creeds, and beliefs, and persuasions … as an ostrich of potent digestion gobbles down bullets and gun flints —Herman Melville Human as a kiss —Vance Thompson Human beings are like timid punctuation marks sprinkled among the incomprehensible sentences of life —Jean Giraudoux Humanity is like people packed in an automobile which is traveling down the highway without lights on a dark night at terrific speed and driven by a 4-year old —Lord Dunsany It is with men as with horses; those who do the most prancing make the least progress —Baron de Stassart Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found, now green in youth, now withering on the ground —Homer Like the hours in the day, people come in two classes: the happy and the sad —Bin Ramke Like the irresponsible black water bugs on summer ponds, they [people in cities] crawl and circle and hustle about idiotically, without aim or purpose —O. Henry Man … cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower —The Book of Common Prayer Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman, a rope over an abyss —Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Man is as full of potentiality as he is of impotence —George Santayana
Mankind A man is like all earth’s fruit, you preserve him dry or pickled —Hayden Carruth Man is like a musical box. An imperceptible jolt, and he plays a different tune —Ludwig Boerne Man is like a precious stone: cut and polished by morals, adorned by wisdom —Isaac Halevi Satanov Mankind is like the Red Sea: the staff has scarcely parted the waves asunder, before they flow together again —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe A man like a watch is to be valued for his goings —Turkish proverb Man’s like a bird all the days of his breath, and pleasures are nets that allure him to death —Judah Al-Harizi Man’s like a candle in a candlestick made up tallow, and a little wick —John Bunyan Men are like bricks, alike but placed high or low by chance —John Webster Men are like ciphers: they acquire their value merely from their position —Napoleon Bonaparte Men are like ears of corn: the emptier the head the more and the lower they stoop —Moritz Gottlieb Saphier Men are like nuts; you can’t tell what they’re like till they’re broken —Phyllis Bottome This simile marks the opening of Bottome’s story A Lost Leader. Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow —Michel Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur
Man is like a ball tossed betwixt the wind and the billows —J.C. F. Schiller
Men are like the herbs of the field, while some are sprouting, others are withering —Babylonian Talmud
A man is like a letter of the alphabet: to produce a word, it must combine with another —Benjamin Mandelstamm
Men are like strange dogs … walk right up to them, bold as life, and they’re as gentle as ducks —Owen Johnson
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Manners Men are like the stars: some generate their own light while others reflect the brilliance they receive —Jose Marti Men are like trees … each one must put forth the leaf that is created in him —Henry Ward Beecher Men are like weasels: weasels drag and lay up and know not for whom, and men save and hoard and know not for whom —Talmud Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Others are to us like the “characters” in fiction, eternal and incorrigible —Mary McCarthy People are like planks of wood, soft until seasoned —St. John De Chevecoeur People are mostly layers of violence and tenderness, wrapped like bulbs —Eudora Welty People are somewhat like novels, we operate on beginnings, middles, and ends —Charles Johnson In Johnson’s novel, Faith and the Good Thing, the simile includes this parenthetical comment: “Don’t make too much of that simile.” People are very much like flagstaffs. Some flagstaffs are very tall and prominent and some are small —Harry Emerson Fosdick Fosdick’s simile continued with the following observation: “But the glory of a flagstaff is not its size but the colors that it flies. A very small flagstaff flying the right colors is far more valuable than a very tall one with the wrong flag.” The race of men is like the race of leaves. As one generation flourishes another decays —Homer Some individuals are like a brush heap, a helterskelter, miscellaneous pile of twigs and branches —Harry Emerson Fosdick
THE SIMILES narrow as they reach the sky —Henry Ward Beecher Some men are like rifles with plenty of powder but no bullet … a great flow of language but no thought —Sylvanys Stall So much of a man walks about dead … like a pianoforte with half the notes mute —D. H. Lawrence Strong men are made by opposition; like kites they go up against the wind —Frank Harris, Reader’s Digest, June,1936 The study of human nature is a good deal like the study of dissection, you find out a good many curious things, but it is a nasty job after all —Josh Billings Billings wrote this in dialect which read as follows: “The studdy ov huymin natur is a gooddeal like the studdy ov dessekshun, yu finde out a good menny curis things, aut it is nasty job after awl.” To the Gods we are as flies to wanton boys —William Shakespeare, King Lear We are all like vessels tossed on the bottom of the deep —Pietro Mestastasio The simile continues: “Our passions are the winds that sweep us impetuously onward; each pleasure is a rock; the whole of life is a wide ocean.” We are like sun that rises and sheds light upon things, and then falls and leaves them in darkness again —William Goyen We run to and fro upon the earth like frightened sheep —Robert Louis Stevenson What a piece of work is a man! … in action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! —William Shakespeare, Hamlet
< MANNERS
Some men are like Einstein’s theory of relativity; nobody at home understands them —Anon
See Also: BEHAVIOR, PROPRIETY/IMPROPRIETY As chatty and polite as Rotarians —Richard Ford
Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow
Decorously polite as patients in a dentist’s waiting room —Francis King
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THE SIMILES Evil manners will, like watered grass, grow up very quickly —Plautus While bad manners might no longer be looked upon as evil, Plautus’ simile in relation to how they spread remains true. Had the manners of a disobliging steamroller … and he was rather less particular about his dress than a scarecrow —George Bernard Shaw His speech sounds like a spoken bread-andbutter note —W. P. Kinsella Manners are like spices, you can’t make a meal of them but they add a great deal to the meal’s enjoyment —Anon Manners are like the cipher in arithmetic; they may not be of much value in themselves, but they are capable of adding a great deal to the value of everything else —Anon Manners … as soft as wool —Lorenz Hart This is part of the refrain of a song named “Moon of My Delight” written for “Chee-Chee.” Our manners, like our faces, though ever so beautiful must differ in their beauty —Lord Shaftesbury The pleasure of courtesy is like the pleasure of good dancing —Alain Polite as pie —F. van Wyck Mason Politeness is like an air-cushion; there may be nothing it, but it eases our jolts wonderfully —Samuel Johnson Rudeness (to Mrs. Dosely) was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate, it slid and melted away —Elizabeth Bowen Sedate as a judge in court —Rhys David Sit bolt upright and smile without cease like a well-bred dinner guest —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala To be cordial is like roughing a man’s head to jolly him up, or kissing a child that doesn’t want to be kissed. You are relieved when it’s over —George Santayana Ungracious as a hog —Tobias Smollett
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Marriage Ungracious … like a child who opens a birthday gift and barely glances at it before reaching to unwrap the next —Barbara Lazear Acher An ungracious man is like a story g at the wrong time —The Holy Bible
< MARRIAGE See Also: MEN AND WOMEN, RELATIONSHIPS Adultery in a house is like a worm in poppy seeds —Babylonian Talmud Adultery’s like the common cold —if one bedfellow contracts it his companion automatically does —Robert Traver Alimony is like buying oats for a dead horse —Arthur Baer, New York Journal American Bridesmaids in their flowery frocks bloom round the bride like hollyhocks —Ogden Nash The death of a man’s wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion —Alphonse de Lamartine Divorced men are like marked-down clothes; you get them after the season during which they would have made a sensation, and there is less choice, but they’re easier to acquire —Judith Martin Divorce is like a side dish that nobody remembers having ordered —Alexander King For an artist to marry his model is as fatal as for a gourmet to marry his cook: the one gets no sittings, and the other no dinners —Oscar Wilde For an old man to marry a young girl is like buying a new book for somebody else to read —Anon Getting married is like a healthy man going into a sickbed —Isaac Bashevis Singer Getting married is serious business. It’s kinda formal, like funerals or playing stud poker —William Gargan to Charles Laughton in movie They Knew What They Wanted, 1940
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Marriage He [husband of long-standing] is like an old coat, beautiful in texture, but easy and loose —Audrey Colvin, New York Times, July 17, l986 A husband, like religion and medicine, must be taken with blind faith —Helen Rowland This has been modernized from “Like unto religion.” Husbands, like governments, must never admit they are wrong —Honoré de Balzac Husbands are like (motor) cars; all are good the first year —Channing Pollock Husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended —Zsa Zsa Gabor Husbands should be like Kleenex, soft, clean and disposable —Madeline Kahn, television news interview, December 1985 A husband without ability is like a house without a roof —Spanish proverbs It [a second marriage] is the triumph of hope over experience —Samuel Johnson It [marriage] resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them —Sydney Smith It’s [the permanence of marriage] like having siblings: you can’t lose a brother or a sister. They’re always there —Germaine Greer, Playboy, January, 1972 It [marriage and motherhood] was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state —Sylvia Plath Like suicide, divorce was something that had to be done on a thoughtless impulse, full speed ahead —R. V. Cassill A man’s wife should fit like a good, comfortable shoe —Ukrainian proverb A man with a face that looks like someone had thrown it at him in anger nearly always mar-
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THE SIMILES ries before he is old enough to vote —Finley Peter Dunne Many a marriage has commenced like the morning, red, and perished like a mushroom … because the married pair neglected to be as agreeable to each other after their union as they were before it —Frederika Bremer Marriage may be compared to a cage: the birds outside frantic to get in and those inside frantic to get out —Michel de Montaigne The simile also appeared in a play by a sixteenth century dramatist, John Webster, beginning, “Marriage is just like a summer birdcage in a garden.” See the French proverb below for yet another twist in the same theme. Marriage from love, like vinegar from wine —a sad, sour, sober beverage —Lord Byron Marriage is a good deal like a circus: there is not as much in it as is represented in the advertising —Edgar Watson Howe Marriage is a hand grenade with the pin out. You hold your breath waiting for the explosion —Abraham Rothberg Marriage is like a 3-speed gearbox: affection, friendship, love —Peter Ustinov Marriage is like a beleaguered fortress; those who are without want to get in, and those within want to get out —Quitard French proverb Marriage is like a dull meal with the dessert at the beginning —dialogue from the movie, Moulin Rouge The dialogue was spoken by Jose Ferrer as Toulouse Lautrec Marriage is like a long trip in a tiny rowboat: if one passenger starts to rock the boat, the other has to steady it; otherwise they’ll go to bottom together —Dr. David R. Reuben Marriage is like a river. It is easier to fall in than out —Anon Marriage is like a ship; sometimes you just have to ride out the storm —L. A. Law, television drama, 1987
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THE SIMILES Marriage is like buying something you’ve been admiring for a long time in a shop window … you may love it when you get home but it doesn’t always go with everything else in the house —Jean Kerr Marriage is like life in this … that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses —Robert Louis Stevenson Marriage is like panty hose. It all depends on what you put into it —Phyllis Schlafly Marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings or eating with chopsticks; it looks so easy till you try it —Helena Rowland Marriage like death is nothing to worry about —Don Herold Marriages are like diets. They can be ruined by having a little dish on the side —Earl Wilson Marriages, like houses, need constant patching —Nancy Mairs, New York Times, July 30, 1987 The simile was the highlighted blurb to capture reader attention. Actually it was a capsulized phrase from Mrs. Mairs’ own concluding words: “Marriages, like houses, haven’t got ‘ever afters’. The stucco chips off and the cat fall through the screen and the bathroom runs slow. If you don’t want the house falling down round your ears, you must plan to learn to weld a trowel and a hammer and a plunger.” Marriages were breaking up as fast as tires blowing in a long race —Norman Mailer A marriage that grew like a great book, filling twenty-five years with many thousands of elaborate and subtle details —Larry McMurtry A (seventeen-year) marriage that had been patched like an old rubber tire gone too many miles on a treadmill —Paige Mitchell (She had decided long before that) marriage was like breathing, as soon as you noticed the process, you topped it at peril of your life —Laura Furman
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Marriage A married man forms married habits and becomes dependent on marriage just as a sailor becomes dependent on the sea —George Bernard Shaw Married so long … like Siamese twins they infect each other’s feelings —Mary Hedin Marrying a daughter to a boor is like throwing her to a lion —Babylonian Talmud Marrying a woman for her money is very much like setting a rat-trap, and baiting it with your own finger —Josh Billings In Billings’ phonetic dialect: “ … munny is vera mutch like … with yure own finger.” Matrimony, like a dip in the sea, first stimulates, then chills. But once out of the water the call of the ocean lures the bather to another plunge —Anon Middle-aged marriages in which people seem stuck like flies caught in jelly —Norma Klein (I am as) monogamous as the North Star —Carolyn Kizer The sickening cords of their marriage drying everything like an invisible paste —John Updike A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day —André Maurois They [bride and groom] looked as though they belonged on top of their own enormous cake —Paul Reidinger Wartime marriage … it’s like being married on top of a volcano —H. E. Bates Wedlock’s like wine, not properly judged of till the second glass —Douglas Jerrold What she mostly pretends, even to herself, is that her marriage was like a birthmark that turned malignant and had to be excised —Francine Prose, A Changed Man Wife swapping is like a form of incest in which nobody’s more guilty than anybody else —Germaine Greer, Playboy, January 1972
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Mathematics and Science
< MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head —Carl Sandburg Every science, like a recurring decimal, has a beginning and no end —Anton Chekov In his story “On the Way,” Chekhov elaborates on this “similistic” theory as follows: “Zoology has discovered thirty-five thousand five hundred different species of insects; chemistry can count sixty-five elements; if you were to add ten zeros to the right of each of these figures, zoology and chemistry would be no nearer the end of their labors than they are now.”
THE SIMILES A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that eye placed in the back of his head —Samuel Taylor Coleridge Maxims are like lawyers who must needs see but one side of the case —Gelett Burgess Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions —Ralph Waldo Emerson A proverb without wisdom is like a body without a foot —Moses Ibn Ezra Rustic sayings which she [mother] threw, like flowers, into the conversation —Anatole France
Science is, like virtue, its own … great reward —Charles Kingsley
A saying is like a fruit; one has first to eat it … before one can know its taste —Sholem Ash
Science is love with seeing eyes —Elbert Hubbard
Sayings by wise men are like burning glasses, as they collect the diffused rays of wit and learning in authors, and make them point with warmth and quickness on the reader’s imagination —Jonathan Swift
The study of mathematics is like climbing up a steep and craggy mountain; when once you reach the top, it fully recompenses your trouble, by opening a fine, clear and extensive prospect —Tryon Edwards
< MATRIMONY See: MARRIAGE
< MAXIMS, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS Browsing through a book of proverbs … is like taking a turn in a garden … full of roses and fruit, where the bushes speak to you; and I come back rested, with smiles in my mind —Anatole France Figures of speech are risky; for in art, as in arithmetic, many have no head for figures —G.K. Chesterton Genuine proverbs are like good (kambrick) needles, short, sharp, and shiny —Josh Billings The first word originally in Billings’ phonetic dialect: “Ginowine.” His sayings are generally like women’s letters; all the pith is in the postscript —William Hazzlitt The man with the postscripts was Charles Lamb.
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Sayings by wise men … they are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the sparks of diamonds —John Tilletson Similes are like songs in love: they much describe; they nothing prove —Mathew Prior Similes dangle like baubles from me —William H. Gass A word [that’s been overused] … lost its identity like an old coat in a second-hand shop —Anais Nin
< MEANINGFULNESS/ MEANINGLESSNESS See: MEMORY, IMPORTANCE/UNIMPORTANCE, NECESSITY
< MEANNESS See: CRUELTY
< MEEKNESS See Also: MODESTY
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THE SIMILES (Quivering and) abject … like some unfortunate dog abasing itself before its master —Jean Rhys The quivering is being done by a young woman in the embrace of a lover, in Rhys’ novel Quartet. (Why do you sit there) apologizing to him, as if he were a fuehrer or something —Leslie A. Fieldler
Meetings Obedient as a sheep —Robert Browning Obediently as a trained seal —Anon The trained seal comparison has become a common cliché with many variations such as “obediently as a puppet on a string” or “obediently like a trained elephant” spotted in Aldous Huxley’s After Many a Summer Dies the Swan.
Complied like hostages with a gun trained on them —Louise Erdrich
Servility is like a golden pill which outwardly gives pleasure but inwardly is full of bitterness —Narun Tate The word ‘gives’ has been modernized from ‘giveth.’
Exist unthinkingly like a slave, like a working animal —Iris Murdoch
Waiting upon her whims like a footman —O. Henry
He’s like a bell, that will go for everyone that pulls it —Thomas Fuller
Went meekly off … like a repentant boy led away to reform school —Harvey Swados
Humble, friendly eyes looked up timidly, like the yes of a dog that is uncertain whether he is about to receive a pat or a blow —Ellen Glasgow
Yield like a foolish mother —Emily Brontë
Bowed to them like a tree in a storm —Edith Wharton
Like an ox, his head bent meekly, he waited for the blow of the axe which was raised over him —Leo Tolstoy
< MEETINGS Come together as inevitably as the key to the magnet —Hugh Walpole Converge like pulsars —Diane Ackerman
Like a victim, she waited: meek, like a sacrifice —Margaret Drabble
Face each other [across table] like partners at bridge —Thomas Pynchon
Looked humbly about him like a dog slipping into a strange kitchen and afraid of kicks —Honoré de Balzac
Like driftwood spars, which meet and pass upon the boundless ocean-plain, so on the sea of life, alas, man meets man —meets and quits again —Matthew Arnold
Meek as a hen —Fyodor Dostoevsky Meek as the dew —Dylan Thomas Meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing, but swallowing them down —Sir Thomas Browne A meek soul without zeal, is like a ship in a calm, that moves not as fast as it ought —John M. Mason Obedience simulates subordination as fear of the police simulates honesty —George Bernard Shaw Obedient as a partner in a dance —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
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Like mountain streams we meet and part, each living in the other’s heart —Oliver Wendell Holmes Like two doomed ships that pass in storm we had crossed each other’s way —Oscar Wilde The simile, from The Ballad of Reading Goal concludes as follows: “but we made no sign, we said no word, we had no word to say.” Met [briefly] … like a couple of trucks, side-swiping each other —Robert Emmet Sherwood Meet like enemy generals, knocking your sabers against the table, bluffing each other —Scott Spencer
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Melancholy There are some meetings in life so useful, so truly wonderful, that they seem like visible interventions of Providence —Ernest Hello
< MELANCHOLY See: DESPAIR
< MEMORY See Also: PAST, THE As bare of memories as a grain of sugar —Vina Delmar As fixed in my memory … as the flash of light that is followed by the thunder of pain when your shoulder is pulled out of its socket —Norman Mailer Both memories give him a pleasant buzz, like a swarm of mellow bees humming between him —Francine Prose, A Changed Man A breeze like the turning of a page brings back your face —John Ashberry [Memories] came back to run through his mind like a reel of color film —Carlos Baker (I am) clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind —Book of Common Prayer Could be forgotten as quickly and painlessly as a doubting of Jesus or a fear of death from the measles —Peter Taylor [Memory] Drifted into my mind like a bit of weed carried in a current and caught there, floating but fixed, refusing to be carried away —Katherine Anne Porter Eventually I thought about him [a once close friend] only once a week or so, as if he were a relative who had died years ago —Richard Burgin Faded memories worn as a buffalo head a nickel —A. D. Winans
THE SIMILES Follow one after the next like cars out on the street, memories, there is just no stopping them —Tony Ardizzone For a person blessed with a memory as full of holes as an Iran-scam scenario, life can be a continuous state of astonishment —Donal Henahan Henahan uses this simile to introduce his comments about a revival of the musical South Pacific. The editorial blurb writer uses a simile from the musical’s lyrics “as corny as Kansas in August” to highlight to article. Forgotten as quickly as warm days in winter or cool days in summer —Ellen Glasgow Forgotten like a station passed through on a train —Elizabeth Spencer (Be) forgotten like spilt wine —Algernon Charles Swinburne Gather memories like dry twigs, thorns and thistles —Yehuda Amichai The ghosts of our remembrances throng around us like dead leaves whirled in the autumn wind —Jerome K. Jerome His memory could work like the slinging of a noose to catch a wild pony —Eudora Welty His memory lifted its skirts … and hurried convulsively, like an old lady picking her way barefoot across a shingly beach —Noel Coward His memory was something like his appendix —a vestigial repository —John Cheever (He never forgets a face.) His mind is like a video camera —Ilie Nastase If only there could be an invention that bottled up memory, like a scent —Daphne du Maurier
Felt old memories stir in him like dead leaves —Helen Hudson
The image [of remembered scene] … is like a photograph on my memory —Richard Maynard
Fettered to a pack of useless memories like a living person to a corpse —Ouida
An incident would suddenly crop up in her memory, like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle that seemed
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THE SIMILES
Memory
to have come from the wrong box —Mary McCarthy
Memories … no two sets exactly the same, like fingerprints —Daphne Merkin
It isn’t a thing one forgets overnight, like losing a pencil —Mary Stewart
Memories … pierced by moments of brightness, like flashes of lightning —Yasunari Kawabata
It was as though an endless series of hangars had been shaken ajar in the air base of his memory and from each, like a young wasp emerging from its cell, arose the memory of a plane —Ralph Ellison
Memories [when a lot of people one knows die] return to life as grass grows on graves —Lael Wertenbaker
I’ve blanked it out, like a car crash —David Nicholls, One Day Like a dull actor … I have forgot my part —William Shakespeare, Coriolanus Memories are like books; a few live in our hearts through life, and the rest, like the bills we pay, are read, and then forgotten —Gerald Bendall Memories are like stones, time and distance erode them like acid —Ugo Betti Memories … began to play across the surface of his mind like movies on a screen —Richard McKenna Memories bursting in her mind like forsythia buds on the first warm day of the year —B. S. Johnson
Memories swept over her like a strong wind on dark waters —Carl Sandburg Memories turned up like bills you thought you’d never have to pay —Hugh Leonard In Leonard’s play Da, the memories are evoked as a character sorts through family memorabilia. Memories were like tomb paintings, thought the Major, the colors still vivid no matter how many layers of mud and sand time deposited. Scrape at them and they come up all red and blazing —Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand Memory … as good as a bulldog’s handshake —Loren D. Estleman In Estleman’s mystery novel, Every Brilliant Eye, the character with the bulldog-like memory is a policeman. Memory broke, like an old clock —Karl Shapiro
Memories [troublesome] … flitted like unexplained shadows across her happier thoughts —George Eliot
Memory can be like a dream, cause and effect non-existent —Gordon Weaver
Memories … floated like gossamer through her thoughts —Frank Swinnerton
Memory … crawling to the surface like a fat worm after rain —Harvey Swados
Memories … like worms eating into the flesh —William Golding Memories lurk like dust balls at the back of drawers —Jay McInerney Memories … no two sets exactly the same, like fingerprints —Daphne Merkin Memories of embarrassing things he had done and said, of mistakes he had made, buzzed and flitted in his mind like annoying little gnats —Dan Wakefield Memories of the bad covered the good, as snow covers grass in the fall —Ann Jasperson
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The memory … fell upon him like a weight of black water —Willa Cather The memory [of a man] glimmered in her thoughts like a bright thread in the pattern of a tapestry —Mazo de la Roche Memory is a rare ghost-raiser. Like a haunted house, its walls are ever echoing to unseen feet. (Through the broken casements we watched the flitting shadow of the dead, and the saddest shadows of them all are the shadows of our own dead selves) —Jerome K. Jerome
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Memory Memory is fully as chimerical as forgetfulness, deceptive as any other work of the imagination —Madison Smartt Bell Memory is like a noisy intruder being thrown out of the concert hall … he will hang on the door and continue to disturb the concert —Theodore Reik, Saturday Review, January 11, 1958
THE SIMILES Depending upon who’s talking, the comparison would be as appropriate if attributed to men. The memory of our lost friends is welcome to us like the bitter taste in wine that is very old —Michel de Montaigne The memory of past favors is like a rainbow, bright, vivid, and beautiful, but it soon fades away —Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Memory, is like a purse, if it’s too full, it can’t be shut, and everything will drop out of it —Thomas Fuller
Memory [of something unpleasant] … pokes at him like a nightmare in the womb —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Memory is like the moon … it has its new, its full, and its wane —Duchess of Newcastle The word “has” modernized from “hath.”
Memory returned like fire —Frank Swinnerton
The memory is salty, like sweat, like the emissions of love-making, like the sea —Lael Wertenbaker
The [unpleasant] memory … stuck like a fishhook in her brain —Stefan Zweig
Memory, like a drop that, night and day, falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away —Thomas More
Memory’s like an athlete; keep it training; take it for cross-country runs —James Hilton
Memory transparent as a dream you strain to recall —Harryette Mullen Memory unwound within me like a roll of film in which I played no part —Heinrich Böll
Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away —Oscar Wilde
A memory, very beautiful and delicate like a flavor or a perfume —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Memory, like a juggler, tosses its colored balls into the light, and again receives them into darkness —Conrad Aiken
Had a mind like a mainframe memory bank —William Beechcroft
Memory … like an old musical box it will lie silent for long years; then a mere nothing, a jerk, a tremor, will start the spring, and from beneath its decent covering of dust it will talk to us of forgotten passion and desire —Thomas Burke A memory like a powerful microchip —Anon A memory like a telephone directory —William McIlvanney A memory like a well-ordered cupboard —Anon A memory like flypaper —Nora Johnson Memory, like sleep, has powers which dreams obey —William Wordsworth Memory, like women, is usually unfaithful —Spanish proverbs
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The moment hung like crystal in Meredith’s mind —Babs H. Deal More than 130 years have passed since the Great Fire, but its memory lived on like a scar —Alaa Al Aswany, Chicago My memory is like camphor. It evaporates with time —Dominique Lapierre My memory kicked in; one of those wonderful little mental jolts, like a quick electric shock when a plug’s gone bad —Sue Grafton My memory’s like a policeman. Never there when you want it —Ronald Harwood This line is spoken by the main character in Harwood’s play The Dresser. Picking over the shames and humiliations … like an invalid mulling over a plate of unwanted food —Harvey Swados
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THE SIMILES Pulled up at it [gap in memory] as if his advance had been checked by a chasm in the pavement at his feet —Edith Wharton
Men and Women Unremembered as old rain —Edna St. Vincent Millay
Recollections … collected like spit from an aging throat —Elizabeth Spencer
The world, like an accomplished hostess, pays most attention to those whom it will soonest forget —John Churton Collins
Recollections dropped over him like a noose —Laurie Colwin
< MEN AND WOMEN
Remembrance is a tripping stone in the path of Hope —Kahil Gibran Remembrance … tickles the end of his nose like the fingertips of a child —Hayden Carruth (I have) a retentive memory, a mind like flypaper to which facts stick —Desmond Begley Shameful memories grip me like an anchor —Delmore Schwartz She sank from his consciousness like one of those poor people encased in concrete who are heaved over the side and plummet to the bottom of the sea —William Styron Slipped out of her mind like a newspaper dropping from the hands of a sleepy woman —Erich Maria Remarque Some memories are like lucky charms, talismans, one shouldn’t tell about them or they’ll lose their power —Iris Murdoch
See Also: LOVE, MARRIAGE, SEXUAL INTERACTION Arm in arm … like a pair of loving turtle-doves —William Shakespeare, King HenryVI, Part I Court … as you would court a farm—for the strength of the silo and the perfection of the title —Josh Billings Like many Billings witticisms this one was written in phonetic dialect as follows: “as you wud court a farm—for the strength ov the sile and the parfeckshun ov the title.” Dating a grad student was like making hurriedup popcorn: lots of butter, high heat, instant noise —Will Weaver The distance between them is like a desert, or an unswimmable body of water —Hilma Wolitzer In her novel In the Palomar Arms, Wolitzer is describing an estranged husband and wife, lying far apart on a large bed.
Something one remembers as normal and pleasant in the past—like a very good photograph —Erik Larson, In the Belly of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
Felt my eyes going down across her mouth, her throat like fingers —Julio Cortázar
Stung by memories thick as wasps about a nest invaded —Edna St. Vincent Millay
Girls (on the Cripple Creek ’bout half grown) jump on a boy like a dog on a bone —American folk song, “Cripple Creek”
There are many moments I cannot forget, moments like radiant flowers in all colors and hues —Jaroslav Seifert Tries to remember like a deaf man remembering an opera he heard eleven years before —Lyn Lifshin As unremembered as bird shadows on the grass —Henry Bellamann
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Finding a man is like finding a job; its easier to find one when you already have one —Paige Mitchell
Handle a small woman like she’s made out of steel, and a big woman like she’s made out of glass —Paige Mitchell The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history —George Eliot He goes about the business of fondling you, like someone very tired at night having to put out
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Men and Women the trash and bolt-lock the door —Lorrie Moore He likes fat women the way a rat likes pumpkins —Rita Mae Brown He ran through women like a child through growing hay —Louis MacNeice A simile from a conversation overheard on a bus describes the woman as the sexual predator: “She runs through men like a fever.”
THE SIMILES I want to steep myself in you … as if you were a South Wind —Wallace Stevens, letter to his fiancée Just us two … like two roots joined and widening out into a flower —David Denby Like an animal, he was aware of me at once —Robertson Davies Like two mummies, we have been wrapped tight in love —Yehuda Amichai
He regarded women in the way that little girls regard their dolls, as toys to be dressed and undressed —Frank Swinnerton
Like two open cities in the midst of some vast plain their two minds lay open to each other —Katherine Mansfield
Her responsiveness was something that fed him as wood fed the fire —Paul Horgan
Like Ulysses tying himself to the mast to resist the song of the sirens, Jim had to brace himself to withstand the charm of Kate’s voice —HenriPierre Roché
He swept through her like a great ragged hawk on its journey to another prey —John le Carré He thought she’d fall like a ripe apple —Rita Mae Brown He was looking at me the way a butcher must size up a carcass of beef, like I was one of those drawings with the parts of the cow on it, all the choice cuts and the waste —Jonathan Valin He would always feel for her that impersonal admiration which is inspired by anything very large, like the Empire State Building or the Grand Canyon of Arizona —P. G. Wodehouse Holds her face in his cupped hands as carefully as a thirsty man would gather water —Hilma Wolitzer I dropped her like a bad habit —James Crumley It’s as natural for women to pride themselves in fine clothes as ’tis for a peacock to spread his tail —John Ray’s Proverbs A look at fashion, both past and present, would indicate that this could well be a unisex simile. I’ve never really looked at women. I find them a bit like water when you want beer. Or like a minimalist house with nothing in it, when you’re someone who’s really into stuff —Mike Bartlett, Cock
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Making love to women is almost as old as chess —Robert Traver A man is like a cat; chase him and he’ll run … sit still and ignore him and he’ll come purring at your feet —Helen Rowland Man without woman would be as stupid a game as playing checkers alone —Josh Billings Men like to pursue an elusive woman, like a cake of wet soap in a bathtub —even men who hate baths —Gelett Burgess A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town; not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away —William Wycherly My blood is singing in her system, like whisky —Irwin Shaw Paired off like the animals in the ark —Ross Macdonald She drained me like a fevered moon —Edgar Lee Masters She leaned easily against his shoulder … as if she had done herself up in a parcel, addressed to him, left on his doorstep from now on, his responsibility —Elizabeth Taylor She made the blood run round in my veins like horses on a track —Ross Macdonald
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THE SIMILES Sometimes being with her is like being caught in a tornado —Alvin Boretz, television drama, 1986 Some women learn, like slaves, to study men —Charles Johnson Take them [women] away and his (man’s) existence is as flat and secure as that of a moocow —H. L. Mencken (They hugged … ) their hearts shook them, like two people pounding at the same time on both sides of a very thin door —Eudora Welty To be intimate with a foolish man is like going to bed with a razor —Ben Franklin The trouble with being a woman is that you are supposed to enhance men; to add gaiety to their evening, like balloons, even if you feel heavy as stone —Daphne Merkin Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her something like a public building —Oscar Wilde Two couples living together and talking openly for a week … it was like a week in a bell jar —Joanne Kates, New York Times, October 2, 1986 Very gently, as to a wild animal, I reached out my hand and made her turn her head —John Fowles A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: the more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is —Alfred Hitchcock, Reader’s Digest, July 1963 Hitchcock topped off his simile with this bit of advice: “This should be her aim, to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.” A woman is like a salad: much depends on the dressing —Anon There’s also a saying, “clothes make the man,” so this simile need not be limited to one sex. A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
Men and Women —William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew A woman’s heart, like the moon, is always changing, but there is always a man in it —Punch A woman’s preaching is something like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all —Samuel Johnson Women preachers, unlike women in other careers, are still subject to frequent discussions, which prompted a Wall Street Journal reader to quote Johnson’s simile in response to a December 24, 1986 story on this subject. A woman without a man is like a garden without a fence —German proverb A woman without a man is like a wild rose which blooms fast and … falls apart with the wind —Diane Wakoski Women are always a touchstone … like litmus paper or dogs before an earthquake —Iris Murdoch Women are like flowers, a little dust or squeezing makes them the more fragrant —Josh Billings In Billings’ dialect the first part of this read as follows: “wimmin are like flowers, a little dust ov squeezing.” Women are like tricks to sleight of hand. Which to admire we should not understand —William Congreve Women are very much like religion; we must take them on faith or go without —F. Marion Crawford Women as compared to men are like point lace to canvas —Charles H. Hoyt Women follow him around like flies after garbage —Paige Mitchell Women’s hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two —W. Somer [Woman being addressed by a man] You’ve got an off-on switch like a circuit breaker —Will Weaver
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Mercy
THE SIMILES
See: VIRTUE
His mind [Oliver Wendell Holmes’] resembles a stiff spring, which has to be abducted violently from it, and which every instant it is left to itself flies right back —William James, letter to brother Henry from Cambridge, November 24, 1872
< MERRIMENT
His mind’s like the feet of a pre-civilized Chinese girl —Frank Swinnerton
< MERCY See: KINDESS
< MERIT
See: GAIETY, JOY
< METHOD See: PURPOSEFULNESS
< MIDDLE AGE
The human mind should be like a good hotel — open the year round —William Lyon Phelps It [his brain] felt like an immense dynamo running at top speed in an empty shed in the middle of the woods —Norman Mailer
See: AGE
Little minds, like weak liquors, are soonest soured —H. G. Bohn’s Hand-Book of Proverbs
< MIND
Mind, as clear as mountain water —Richard Wilbur
See Also: ATTENTION, INSULTS, MIND DEFINED, THOUGHT (You can’t concentrate. You’ve got) a brain like a hummingbird —Jane Wagner
Mind … blank and enclosed as a bubble of glass —Jean Thompson
Brain as heavy as a grandfather clock —Diane
Mind flapping like a rag on a clothesline in cold wind —Saul Bellow
A brain tooled like a twenty-jewel Swiss watch —Stephen Longstreet
Mind … fluffy as a baby’s crib —Louis Auchincloss
Emptied her mind, as if emptying a bottle —Mavis Gallant
(He stood for a moment outside the room, his) mind jerking spasmodically, like a severed nerve —Storm Jameson
Her mind flickered like a lizard —Elizabeth Bowen
Mind like a bent corkscrew —Roderic Jeffries
Her mind was like a one-way thoroughfare, narrow and flat, maintained in repair —Mavis Gallant
A mind like a puddle. Things fall in and float around in it and she fishes them up later when they’ve gotten soggy —Jean Thompson
Her mind was like a rushing stream, tumbling downhill over rocks and boulders, eddying, bouncing, shifting direction —Ward Just
A mind like a sieve —Anon
Her mind was strangely empty … an empty room through which vague memories stalked like giants —Jean Rhys His brain feels like a frail but alert invalid packed inside among a lot of deep pillows —John Updike His brain was like a brightly-lit factory, full of flying wheels and precision —Edith Wharton
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A mind like a sink —Agatha Christie Christie was thus quoted by her nephew as she spoke about Miss Marple’s dark view of humankind. Mind … like a sun-dial, it records only pleasantness —Anon A mind like a tattered concordance —Samuel Beckett A mind like a wedge of iron —Louise Erdrich
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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THE SIMILES Mind like dead ashes —Robert Silverberg Mind like moths —Anon
Mind Defined Some minds are like trunks, packed tight with knowledge, no air and plenty of moths —Life, January 31,1918
Mind … like some fertile garden —Edith Wharton
There is no sea as restless as my mind —Derek Walcott
The mind, packed away like a satin wedding dress even in blue tissue, yellowing, pressing itself into permanent folds —Diane Wakoski This simile carries through the theme and the title, also a simile: “The Mind, Like an Old Fish.”
When you have a creative mind it sometimes backs up on you like a sewer —John Farris
Minds fossilized like lava —Isak Dinesen Minds [of students] so earnest and helpless that it takes them half an hour to get from one idea to its immediately adjacent next neighbor. And when they’ve got the next idea, they lie down on it with their whole weight and can get no farther, like a cow on a door-mat, so that you can get neither in nor out with them —William James, letter to his wife, 1896
< MIND DEFINED As the fire-fly only shines when on the wing, so it is with the human mind; when at rest, it darkens —L. E. Landon The brain is like the hand. It grows with using —Judge Louis D. Brandeis The brain, like Rhenish wine, should be chilled, not iced to be at its best —A. J. Liebling
Minds stirring like poplars in a storm —Marge Piercy
The brain of man is filled with passageways like the contours and multiple crossroads of a labyrinth. In its curved folds like the imprint of thousands of images, recordings of millions of words —Anais Nin
(Eleanor’s) mind went whirling round like a wheel on the hub of this moment —Elizabeth Bowen
Brains to the sluggard are like wings to the ant, or a torch to the blind, an added load of no use or aid —Jediah Bedersi
A mind wide open to absorb all it could teach him as the flowers of the date-palm to receive the fertilizing pollen —Honoré de Balzac My brain is numb as a piece of liver —W. P. Kinsella (I seem to have read so little of late, that) my mind is like a desert, devoid of roses and leaves —Janet Flanner Our brains are like fruit stands; all the rubbish is in front and the good stuff is in the back —Carla Lane, dialogue from Solo, British television sitcom, June 23, 1987 Our unconscious is like a vast subterranean factory with intricate machinery that is never ideal, where work goes on all day and night from the time we are born until the moment of our death —Milton R. Sapirstein
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
A brilliant mind without faith is like a beautiful face without eyes —Shalom Cohen A child’s mind is like a shallow brook which ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education, and reflects here a flower, there a bush and yonder a fleecy cloud —Helen Keller The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of the subconscious from which it rises —Sigmund Freud The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man —Cicero The human mind is kind of like … a piñata. When it breaks open, there’s a lot of surprises inside —Jane Wagner The human mind … is like a pendulum, which the moment it has reached the limit of its
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Mind Defined
THE SIMILES
swing in one direction, goes inevitably back as far as the other side and so on forever —J. R. Lowell
The mind of the people is like mud, from which arise strange and beautiful things —Walter J. Turner
The human mind should be like a good hotel … open the year round —William Lyon Phelps
Minds are like parachutes … they only function when open —Lord Thomas
Many minds are like low-grade ores, there is gold in them, but it takes a vast deal of labor to get it out —John Alfred Spender
Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort —Charles Dickens
The mind is a city like London, smoky and populous —Delmore Schwartz This simile beings a poem entitled “The Mind Is an Ancient and Famous Capital.”
A mind without occupation is like a cat without a ball of yarn —Samuel Willoughby Duffield
The mind is an iceberg … it floats with only oneseventh of its bulk above water —Sigmund Freud, quoted in his obituary, New York Times, September 24, 1939 The mind is like a bow, the stronger for being unbent —Ben Jonson The mind is like a mechanical instrument that plays a great variety of tunes, but it must play them in succession —William Hazlitt The mind is like an ocean. The surface layers of the mind function actively while the deeper levels remain silent —Maharishi Mahesh Yogi The mind is like a sheet of white paper … the impressions it receives are oftenest, and retains the longest, are black ones —Julius Charles and August William Hare The mind is like a slate, one thing gets rubbed out for another —Sam Slick The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests —Albert Jay Nook The mind like any other organism gradually shapes itself to what surrounds it, and resents disturbance in the form which its life has assumed —Oliver Wendell Holmes The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be as constantly wound up —William Hazlitt
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Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order —John Adams Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them —Thomas Merton Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite —Quintilian The shapes which the mind assumes are like those great forms, born of undifferentiated water, which assail or replace each other on the surface of the deep; each concept collapses, eventually, to merge with its opposite, like two waves breaking against each other only to subside into the same single line of white foam —Marguerite Yourcenar Some minds are like concrete-thoroughly mixed and permanently set —Anon The state of a man’s mind is as much a fact as the state of his digestion —Baron Charles Synge Christopher Bowen The simile was used in reference to the legality of intent in an 1885 law case. A weak mind is like a horoscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones —Lord Chesterfield The letter to Chesterfield’s son from which this was culled, addresses the question of taking a balanced view towards keeping track of expendi-
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
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THE SIMILES tures. The comparison of the weak mind to a horoscope is used to underscore the author’s statement that “a strong mind sees things in their true proportions.”
< MIRTH See: GAIETY
< MISERLINESS
Modesty Mist thick as cotton batting —William Faulkner A pure white mist crept over the water like breath upon a mirror —A. J. Cronin A thick gray mist covered the countryside, as if to conceal the mysteries of the changes that were taking place in nature —Leo Tolstoy
< MISTAKES
See: KINDESS
See: ERRORS
< MISERY
< MISTRESS
See: DEJECTION, GLOOM
See: MEN AND WOMEN
< MISFORTUNE
< MIXTURES
See: FORTUNE/MISFORTUNE
See: CONNECTIONS
< MIST
< MOANS
See Also: FOG The hot mist … mixed with the sun like cloudy gin —David Denby
See: GROANS AND WHISPERS
A light morning mist like grain on film —Clive Irving
See Also: MEEKNESS, PERSONAL TRAITS As humbly as a guest who knows himself too late —Hart Crane
Like a blanket, the mist came down —Jilly Cooper Mist arose on the plain and stood round about it like a guard of honor —Vladimir Korolenko Mist draped like ragged bits of cloth over a black line of distant hills —Alice McDermott [Thinning] Mist … drifted away like slow smoke —Howard Spring The mist, like love, plays upon the heart of the hills and brings out surprise of beauty —Rabindranath Tagore The mists like flocks of trooping sheep cloudily drifted here and there —John Hall Wheelock Mist so fine it was like cigarette smoke —Paul Theroux Mists, whirling and winding, like snakes —Mikhail Lermontov A mist that is like blown snow —W. B. Yeats
SIMILIES DICTIONARY
< MODESTY
Humility is like underwear, essential but indecent if it shows —Helen Nielsen, Reader’s Digest, March, 1959 If you really were a hero … you made it sound routine and unglamorous, like shrugging off a ninety-yard touchdown run as “good luck and good blocking” —Dan Wakefield I looked as if I were trying to melt into the scenery and become invisible, like a giraffe standing motionless among sunlit leaves —Christopher Isherwood Modest as a flower —Ella Wheeler Wilcox Modest as justice —William Shakespeare, Pericles Modesty is like virtue; suspected only when it is advertised —Douglas Malloch Modesty like a diver gathers pearls by keeping his head low —Punch
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Monarchy
THE SIMILES
Modesty’s at times its own reward, like virtue —Lord Byron
He that is without money is like a bird without wings —Thomas Fuller
< MONARCHY
A man without money is like a ship without sails —Dutch proverb
See: GOVERNMENT
< MONEY
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience and truth may be drowned —Ivan Kozloff
See Also: COST, GREED, RICHES Ate up money like Crackerjacks —Robert Campbell
Money is a muscle in our society like that of a leg or arm of a man with a shovel, and both muscles must have a wage —Janet Flanner
Bargain like a gipsy, but pay like a gentleman —Hungarian proverb
Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant —P. T. Barnum
The euro is like a bumblebee. This is a mystery of nature because it shouldn’t fly but instead it does. —Mario Draghi Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, is quoted from July 2012 on his opinions about the troubled euro that this institution wanted to preserve. Mr. Draught ran with the metaphor, declaring that it flew very well for a while but has now stopped flying and graduated “to a real bee.”
Money is like an arm or a leg, use it or lose it —Henry Ford, New York Times, November 8, 1958
(There ain’t a chance of putting the bee on me.… I’m) flat [broke] as a ballroom floor —H. C. Witwer Getting money is like digging with a needle; spending it is like water soaking into sand —Proverb Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls —Antoine Rivarol An instinct like a water diviner’s where money’s concerned —John Braine Loses money the way a … balloon loses air —Martin Cruz Smith In Smith’s novel Stallion Gate, a character is talking about nightclubs, likening a great club’s money loss to a beautiful balloon’s air loss. Making money … is, in fact, almost as easy as losing it. Almost but not quite —H. L. Mencken A man without money is like a bird without wings; if he soars he falls to the ground and dies —Romanian proverb
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Money is like an eel in the hand —Welsh proverb Money is like a sixth sense, and you can’t make use of the other five without it —W. Somer