as in dead metaphor
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Recent Examples of mixed metaphor
Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.
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Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 24 Dec. 2024
Yeah, that's probably a mixed metaphor, or actually a simile.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Jan. 2011
Fair warning: What follows is a mixed metaphor palooza.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 23 Jan. 2013
The triple-mixed metaphor says it all: Licht & Co. are struggling with the intractable problem of how to square the CNN brand’s promise — straight news — with the entertainment imperatives of nighttime television.
—Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2022
Excuse the mixed metaphor, but the Viper feels like a great white shark on the road.
—WSJ, 3 Dec. 2022
Yes, a mixed metaphor, but that essentially is what has been in play to this stage.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2022
Those smoldering embers of shortcomings, now and particularly in the postseason, always hover — a mixed metaphor, admittedly — over some and consistently haunt others.
—Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 Jan. 2022
Eye strain, like neck, back, or wrist strain, is nothing to be sneezed at, to use a very mixed metaphor.
—Maria Shine Stewart, cleveland, 28 Sep. 2020
Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 24 Dec. 2024
Yeah, that's probably a mixed metaphor, or actually a simile.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Jan. 2011
Fair warning: What follows is a mixed metaphor palooza.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 23 Jan. 2013
The triple-mixed metaphor says it all: Licht & Co. are struggling with the intractable problem of how to square the CNN brand’s promise — straight news — with the entertainment imperatives of nighttime television.
—Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2022
Excuse the mixed metaphor, but the Viper feels like a great white shark on the road.
—WSJ, 3 Dec. 2022
Yes, a mixed metaphor, but that essentially is what has been in play to this stage.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2022
Those smoldering embers of shortcomings, now and particularly in the postseason, always hover — a mixed metaphor, admittedly — over some and consistently haunt others.
—Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 Jan. 2022
Eye strain, like neck, back, or wrist strain, is nothing to be sneezed at, to use a very mixed metaphor.
—Maria Shine Stewart, cleveland, 28 Sep. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mixed metaphor
Noun
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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
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This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.Rob Nixon, Smithsonian, 23 Mar. 2018
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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Collision, as used by PST ART, is tech-bro speak, a euphemism, like the buzzword disruption, that promises the creation of new, exciting opportunities while minimizing the severity of moral quandaries and social ills.Michaëla de Lacaze Mohrmann, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2025
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For example, Walker explains to Juliette that people on the lower levels favor plain speaking over bureaucratic euphemisms.Noel Murray, Vulture, 15 Nov. 2024
Noun
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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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These circumstances conducive to socialization are most obviously available for young people on athletic teams, but the sports simile is easily applicable to young people in marching band, theater productions, student council, volunteer and community settings and the robotics club.Jeff Nelligan, Baltimore Sun, 4 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Additionally, the use of Cold War–era analogies—or even analogies from the war in Ukraine—might go out the window if the United States decided to deploy troops to defend Taiwan.Michael Poznansky, Foreign Affairs, 3 Jan. 2025
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Newton used the analogy of a cannonball, fired horizontally, following a similar curve back down to the ground.Keith Cooper, Space.com, 13 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Mixed metaphor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mixed%20metaphor. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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