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metaphor

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The definition of a metaphor is a word or phrase used to compare two unlike objects, ideas, thoughts or feelings to provide a clearer description.

(noun)

An example of a metaphor is calling the dependable father a rock.

See metaphor in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another (Ex.: the curtain of night, “all the world's a stage”)

Origin: Fr métaphore < L metaphora < Gr < metapherein, to carry over < meta, over (see meta-) + pherein, to bear

Related Forms:

metaphoric adjective or metaphorical
metaphorically adverb

See metaphor in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a stage” (Shakespeare).
One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” (Neal Gabler).

Origin:

Origin: Middle English methaphor

Origin: , from Old French metaphore

Origin: , from Latin metaphora

Origin: , from Greek, transference, metaphor

Origin: , from metapherein, to transfer

Origin: : meta-, meta-

Origin: + pherein, to carry; see bher-¹ in Indo-European roots

Related Forms: