as in code word
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Recent Examples of dead metaphor
Many of our emotion terms are references to states of the body—we’re downcast, bent out of shape, head over heels, shaken up, down in the mouth—which have slowly rigidified into dead metaphor.
—
Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.
—Rob Nixon, Smithsonian, 23 Mar. 2018
Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.
—Rob Nixon, Smithsonian, 23 Mar. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dead metaphor
Noun
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Rana recommends coming up with a secret code word to use with your family.—
Audrey Nguyen,
NPR,
24 Dec. 2024
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The guidelines had the opposite effect, encouraging streamers to lead with the code words they’d been barred from: a push against standards meant to actually censor players.—
Megan Farokhmanesh,
WIRED,
20 Dec. 2024
Noun
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When Russia targets other European neighbors, though, the West resorts to its own euphemisms to avoid directly acknowledging what Putin is doing.—
Phillips Payson O’Brien,
The Atlantic,
13 Jan. 2025
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Even now, with no way to hide behind my usual euphemisms or analogies, emoting still feels at times too frank and candid.—
Hannah Seo,
New York Times,
7 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Bednar likes to use an analogy involving fixing holes in a boat.—
Corey Masisak,
The Denver Post,
21 Jan. 2025
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Use metaphors, anecdotes and real-world analogies to give your story depth and grounding.—
Sherzod Odilov,
Forbes,
19 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Balloons are a potent metaphor for the series, according to Latta.—
Esther Zuckerman,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Jan. 2025
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Perhaps, their lack of synchronization serves as a quiet metaphor for the division within our nation.—
Kristen Waggoner,
Newsweek,
21 Jan. 2025
Noun
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This is what Thadeus loves: a test of his store of poetic similes, even if, these days, his poetry-writing is notional.—
Han Ong,
The New Yorker,
12 Jan. 2025
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The simile is novel and yet the sort of thing a young woman would think; there is assonance and consonance seesawing across the sentence, which is slow and gorgeous rather than quick and thrilling.—
Joanna Biggs,
Harper's Magazine,
2 Feb. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Dead metaphor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dead%20metaphor. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.
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