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A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. —Henry David Thoreau
Prose consists of ... phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. —George Orwell
Whether it invokes hard work or merely a hen-house, a good simile is like a good picture—it's worth a thousand words. Packed with more than 16,000 imaginative, colorful phrases—from “abandoned as a used Kleenex" to “quiet as an eel swimming in oil"—the Similes Dictionary will help any politician, writer, or lover of language find just the right saying, be it original or banal, verbose or succinct. Your thoughts will never be "as tedious as a twice-told tale" or "dry as the Congressional Record." Choose from elegant turns of phrases “as useful as a Swiss army knife" and “varied as expressions of the human face".
Citing more than 2,000 sources—from the Bible, Socrates, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and H. L. Mencken to popular movies, music, and television shows—the Similes Dictionary covers hundreds of subjects broken into thematic categories that include topics such as virtue, anger, age, ambition, importance, and youth, helping you find the fitting phrase quickly and easily.
Perfect for setting the atmosphere, making a point, or helping spin a tale with economy, intelligence, and ingenuity, the vivid comparisons found in this collection will inspire anyone.
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. —William Shakespeare
A face like a bucket —Raymond Chandler
A man with little learning is like the frog who thinks its puddle a great sea. —Burmese proverb
Peace, like charity, begins at home —Franklin Delano Roosevelt
You know a dream is like a river ever changing as it flows. —Garth Brooks
Fit as a fiddle —John Ray's Proverbs
He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. —Arthur Miller
Ring true, like good china. —Sylvia Plath
Music yearning like a God in pain —John Keats
Busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. —Pat Conroy
Enduring as mother love —Anonymous
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 1, 2013 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781578594696
- File size: 1762 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781578594696
- File size: 1762 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 1, 2013
Containing a variety of classic and modern similes from literature, news media, performing arts, and electronic media, this work offers 16,000 broadly indexed similes classified by 1,300 categories. Sources range from the Bible, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Chandler, Margaret Atwood, Woody Allen, Noel Coward, and Tom Brokow. This second edition of a work originally published in 1988 includes editorial clarification when a simile appears vague as well as tips for creating and using the devices in one's speech and writing. The "Table of Thematic Categories" and author index provide additional and valuable access points. While cross-references appear in all three access points, they are inconsistent. For example, "crime" has see-also references to "dishonesty" and "evil," but "evil" refers to "action" and "cruelty." The author index could be stronger as some entries are missing (e.g., Babylonian Talmud and quotations from Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms). Although all entries are identified by author (e.g., Anon., Japanese Proverb; "Samuel Johnson, March 21, 1776"), it would be especially helpful if each one received full attribution. Currently, only those from Chandler's works, Shakespeare's plays and the news media are fully identified. VERDICT While this title would be a solid addition to a library's collection, it is not a replacement for Frank Wilstach's Dictionary of Similes for Speakers & Writers or Robert Baldwin and Ruth Paris's Book of Similes. Of interest to puzzle-solvers, authors, and speechwriters.--Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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September 1, 2013
If this book could speak, it would be a grand rolling voice, like the sound of an underground train in the distance. This dictionary is chock-full of this and 16,000 other creative entries, and users won't have a problem picking the perfect phrase. The book is compiled from more than 2,000 sources, from television shows to Shakespeare. It is arranged alphabetically by subject and includes a detailed author index. A good tool for writers, students, and those looking for inspiration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)
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