as in simile
Related Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catachresis
Noun
-
An image may resonate with deeper meanings (that’s what great directors can bring about), but the compression and displacement that make the simile devastating on the page have no cinematic equivalent.
-
Dryden’s famous simile, from La Fontaine’s own century, likens a translator who copies too closely to a man dancing on ropes with fettered legs: careful, precise, but never graceful.
Noun
-
The Execution Crisis Defined Rasmus Holst, CEO of Zensai, describes it without euphemism.
-
Willmett and Harris are clearly uninterested in euphemisms, so there’s an exaggerated naivety to their lyrics.
Noun
-
This involves sharing only essential details, simplifying complex ideas with analogies, and prioritizing influencing action over mere information delivery.
-
An Iranian friend drew an analogy between Iranians who have experienced the Islamic regime to being a rape victim.
Noun
-
But in terms of its actual content, the statement was pretty thin gruel, bristling with public relations-style circumlocution and vagueness.
-
Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion.
Noun
-
Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.
-
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.
Noun
-
That is why a simple family code word can help stop panic before money changes hands.
-
When the MPKs didn’t know the Marines’ secret code word, the Marines slaughtered them and then shrugged and walked away from all their dead bodies to stay on mission (as in, kill more Marsies).
Noun
-
The creature has become a metaphor in the AI world, symbolizing the uncertainty around how AI models work under the hood.
-
Drawing on an astonishing wealth of references to the metaphor of two ships by figures from the early colonial era through the Civil War, Reynolds lops off the Quakers and the Scotch-Irish in favor of the groups that came first and seemed most antithetically opposed—Puritan and Cavalier.
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Catachresis.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catachresis. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
