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Jun 21, 2022 · Mixed Metaphors Explained: 8 Examples of Mixed Metaphors. A well-crafted metaphor uses consistent imagery ("hitting the nail on the head”); when you start mixing imagery ("hitting the nail on the nose"), you can create a type of malapropism known as a mixed metaphor. A well-crafted metaphor uses consistent imagery ("hitting the nail on the ...
The speaker uses a mixed metaphor to set out the evening sky. The first metaphor compares the evening sky to something that is “spread out.”. It describes a flat and expansive surface. The second metaphor compares the evening sky to a patient who has been anesthetized (etherized)and is lying on a table likely in preparation for surgery ...
Jun 6, 2019 · Updated on June 06, 2019. A mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. Also known—playfully—as a mixaphor. Although many style guides condemn the use of mixed metaphors, in practice most of the objectionable combinations (as in the examples below) are actually clichés or dead metaphors.
- Richard Nordquist
- Using Mixed Metaphors
- Examples of Mixed Metaphors
- Sources
In "Garner's Modern American Usage", Bryan A. Garner offers this classic example of a mixed metaphor from a speech by Boyle Roche in the Irish Parliament: This sort of mixed metaphor may occur when a speaker is so familiar with the figurative sense of a phrase ("smell a rat," "nip in the bud") that he fails to recognize the absurdity that results f...
"So now what we are dealing with is the rubber meeting the road, and instead of biting the bullet on these issues, we just want to punt.""[T]he bill is mostly a stew of spending on existing programs, whatever their warts may be.""A friend of mine, talking about the Democratic presidential candidates, tossed out a wonderful mixed metaphor: 'This is awfully weak tea to have to hang your hat on.'""The mayor has a heart as big as the Sahara for protecting 'his' police officers, and that is commendable. Unfortunately, he also often strips his gears by failing to engage the clutch when shiftin...Lynne Truss, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", 2003 Chicago Tribune, cited by The New Yorker, August 13, 2007 The New York Times, January 27, 2009 Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama, cited by The New Yorker, November 16, 1987 Bob Herbert, "Behind the Curtain," The New York Times, November 27, 2007 Thomas L. Friedman, ...
- Richard Nordquist
- Personification as Metaphor. Personification is a standard metaphor type. In literary terms, it gives the characteristics of a person to an object. The Velveteen Rabbit used personification.
- Extended Metaphor. An extended metaphor is more than a phrase or an English word. It’s often a type of poetry, such as Emily Dickenson’s Hope. An extended metaphor takes that comparison and discusses it for several sentences, stanzas, or an entire work.
- Dead Metaphors. Dead metaphors started as metaphors but have become so common that they no longer mean what they once did. George Orwell discussed dying metaphors at great length.
- Overused Metaphors. Dead metaphors are simply new phrases that no longer work as metaphors. But there is a space between original metaphors and dead metaphors that no longer work as that type of literary device.
A mixed metaphor, shortened as “mixaphor,” is a figurative device that occurs when two metaphors are mixed up creating an incongruous comparison. A mixed metaphor, sometimes also called a “malaphor,” is an implicit comparison, that is often overarching, contradictory, or incompatible, between two or more dissimilar metaphors, similes ...
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Aug 16, 2024 · A mixed metaphor is the combination of two or more unrelated and sometimes incongruous metaphors, resulting in a statement that is not logically consistent or, at times, unintentionally humorous. While some mixed metaphors are intentional and meant to catch the reader’s attention, others arise from carelessness or a lack of familiarity with the original idiomatic expressions.
