anger

See Also: EMOTIONS, IRRITABLENESS

1. Anger … flowing out of me like lava —Diane Wakoski
2. Anger … hard, like varnished wood —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
3. Anger … hot as sparks —Wallace Stegner
4. Anger is a short madness —Horace
5. Anger is as useless as the waves of the ocean without wind —Chinese proverb

   See Also: FUTILITY, USELESSNESS

6. Anger like wind is like a stone cast into a wasp’s nest —Malabar proverb
7. Anger like a scar disfiguring his face —William Gass
8. Anger like grief, is a mark of weakness; both mean being wounded and wincing —Marcus Aurelius
9. Anger … like Mississippi thunderstorms, full of noise and lightning, but once it passed, the air was cleared —Gloria Norris
10. The anger of a meek man is like fire struck out of steel, hard to be got out, and when got out, soon gone —Matthew Henry
11. Anger spreading through me like a malignant tumor —Isabel Allende
12. Angers … crippling, like a fit —May Sarton
13. The anger [of a crowd of people] shot up like an explosion —H. E. Bates
14. Anger … smoldered within her like an unwholesome fire —Charles Dickens
15. Anger … spreading like a fever along my shoulders and back —Philip Levine
16. Anger standing there gleaming like a four-hundred-horsepower car you have lost your license to drive —Marge Piercy
17. Anger surged suddenly through his body like a quick pain —Beryl Markham
18. (His) anger was quick as a flame —Phyllis Bottome
19. Anger welled up in him like lava —Frank Ross
20. Angry as a hornet —George Garrett
    A variation by movie critic Rex Reed: “Angry as a ruptured hornet.”
21. Angry as a wasp —John Heywood’s Proverbs
22. Angry as a bear with a sore head —Stanley Weyman

    Some variations of this popular simile are “Angry as a grizzly bear with a bad tooth” and “Cross as a bear with a sore head.”

23. Angry words fan the fire like wind —Epigram
24. Bounced with indignation, as if she had robbed him of his reputation, of the esteem of honest people, of his humor, of something rare that was dearer to him than life —Guy De Maupassant
25. (He was) burning like a boiler —Saul Bellow
26. Carried on as though he had uremic poisoning —Rita Mae Brown
27. Cold, vicious rage that covered every inch of me like a rank sweat —Jonathan Valin
28. Come boiling out like bloodhounds —Richard Ford
29. Could feel her fury buzzing and burrowing into the meat under my skull like a drill bit —Stephen King
30. Die in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole —Jonathan Swift
31. A draft of anger and deep hurt trailing her like a cheap perfume —Paul Kuttner
32. Feel as though I had swallowed a hand grenade —Erich Maria Remarque
33. Feeling mean … like a bull gator —Robert Campbell
34. A feeling of rage cut him as with a sharp knife and took possession of him —Mikhail P. Arzybashev
35. Felt furious and helpless as if she had been insulted by a child —Flannery O’Connor

    See Also: HELPLESSNESS

36. A fit of anger is as fatal to dignity as a dose of arsenic to life —Josiah Gilbert Holland
37. Fumed like champagne that is fizzy —Bliss Carman
38. Fumes like Vesuvius —Cole Porter, from “I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua,” one of the lyrics from Kiss Me Kate, the musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.

    Since Porter rarely used similes, it’s natural to wonder if working on a play by as prolific a simile creator as Shakespeare inspired not just this but the several other similes in this one song.

39. Fuming anger like a toaster with crust jammed against its heating coil —Ira Wood
40. Furious … like a wounded bull in an arena —Dumas, Pere
41. Fury pervading her like a bloat —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
42. Fury was running all through his blood and bones like an electric flood —Robert Campbell
43. Gall..like a crown of flowering thorn —W. D. Snodgrass

    The poem from which this simile is extracted is about a dead marriage and the narrator’s regret that his love has become a galling thing. He follows up the flowering thorn comparison with: “My love hung like a gown of lead that pulled you down.”

44. Getting angry is like worshipping idols —L’Olam Midrash
45. Growling like a fox in a trap —William Diehl
46. Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned —William Congreve
47. Her rage … dammed up regularly as water —Louise Erdrich
48. Her resentment was like a coagulant … she felt sullen, dull, thick —Nancy Huddleston Packer
49. He’s like a scalded cat —William Alfred
50. He was like the mule in the story that kept running into the trees; he wasn’t blind, he was just so mad he didn’t give a damn —Rex Stout
51. His cheeks quiver with rage —Walker Percy
52. Hissed like an angry kettle —Herbert Lieberman
53. (Barcaloo’s rage took about five seconds to boil up.) It was like dropping cold water into a pot of hot iron —Robert Campbell
54. Let it [anger at wife] all come out of him, like air from a tire —Bruce Jay Friedman
55. Like ice, anger passes away in time —Anon
56. Mad as a bobcat —James Kirkwood
57. Mad as a buck —William Shakespeare
58. Mad as a bull among bumblebees —Anon
59. Mad as a cat that’s lost a mouse —O. Henry
60. Mad as all wrath —Anon
61. Mad as a vexed sea —William Shakespeare
    Like many Shakespearian phrases, this one has fallen into common usage with ‘vexed’ usually changed to ‘angry.’
62. Mad as a wet hen —American colloquialism
    A variation from George Garrett’s novel, The Finished Man: “Mad as a doused rooster.”
63. Mad as hops —American colloquialism
    In Picturesque Expressions, Lawrence Urdang speculates that this is a twist on being ‘hopping’ mad.
64. On the warpath [against world’s injustices] like a materialistic Don Quixote —Clarence Day
65. Outrage which was like sediment in his stomach —Paule Marshall
66. Outrage … worked like acid in his temper —Frank Swinnerton
67. Puffed up with rage like a squid (my psyche let out angry ink) —Saul Bellow
68. Rage … as infectious as fear —Christopher Isherwood
69. Rage, as painful as a deep cut —Jean Stafford
70. Rage … burst in the center of my mind like a black bubble of fury —Lawrence Durrell
71. Rage sang like a coloratura doing trills —Marge Piercy
72. Rages like a chafed bull —William Shakespeare
73. Rage swells in me like gas —Marge Piercy
74. Rage whistling through him like night wind on the desert —Paige Mitchell
75. Raging back at her [an angry woman] like a typhoon —T. Coraghessan Boyle
76. Raging like some crazed Othello —Suzi Gablik describing Marc Chagall’s behavior in review of My Life With Chagall by Virginia Haggard, New York Times Book Review, August 17, 1986
77. (Enemy chase me) sore as a bird —The Holy Bible/Lamentations
78. Sore as a boil —American colloquialism
79. Sore as a crab —John Dos Passos
80. Stammering with anger like the clucking of a hen —Émile Zola
81. Stewing hostility and mordant self-pity … pooled like poison almost daily in his soul —Joseph Heller
82. Tempers boil over like unwatched spaghetti —Tonita S. Gardner
83. Turned crimson with fury —Lewis Carroll
84. When he is angry he is like those creatures that lurk in hollow trees. His glare … causes brave men to run like scalded cats —George F. Will
    The angry man described by Will is football coach Woody Hayes.
85. Words heat up the room like an oven with the door open —Anon

    See Also: WORD(S)

86. The young man’s wrath is like straw of fire, but like red hot steel is the old man’s ire —Lord Byron