simile

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Related to simile: metaphor, figures of speech

sim·i·le

(sĭm′ə-lē)

A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in "How like the winter hath my absence been" or "So are you to my thoughts as food to life" (Shakespeare).

[Middle English, from Latin, likeness, comparison, from neuter of similis, like; see similar.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

simile

(ˈsɪmɪlɪ)

(Linguistics) a figure of speech that expresses the resemblance of one thing to another of a different category, usually introduced by as or like. Compare metaphor

[C14: from Latin simile something similar, from similis like]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sim•i•le

(ˈsɪm ə li)

n.

a figure of speech in which two distinct things are compared by using “like” or “as,” as in “She is like a rose.” Compare metaphor.

[1350–1400; < Latin: image, likeness, comparison, n. use of neuter of similis similar]

simile

1. A comparison of one person or thing with another by saying that the first is like the second, as in “She sang like an angel.”

2. Likening one thing to another.

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Noun

simile - a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as')

figure of speech, trope, image, figure - language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense

Translations

تَشْبيه

přirovnání

lignelsesammenligning

hasonlat

líkingsamlíking

similitudine paragone

salīdzinājums

vergelijking

сравнение

prirovnanie

liknelse

benzetmeteşbih

明喻

simile

[ˈsɪmɪlɪ] N → símil m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

simile

[ˈsɪmɪli] n → comparaison f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

simile

n → Gleichnis nt; his use of simile → sein Gebrauch m → von Gleichnissen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

simile

[ˈsɪmɪlɪ] n → similitudine f, paragone m

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

simile

(ˈsiməli) noun

a form of expression using `like' or `as', in which one thing is compared to another which it only resembles in one or a small number of ways. `Her hair was like silk' is a simile.

References in classic literature ?

Mrs Deborah is introduced into the parish with a simile. A short account of Jenny Jones, with the difficulties and discouragements which may attend young women in the pursuit of learning.

The sagacious reader will not from this simile imagine these poor people had any apprehension of the design with which Mrs Wilkins was now coming towards them; but as the great beauty of the simile may possibly sleep these hundred years, till some future commentator shall take this work in hand, I think proper to lend the reader a little assistance in this place.

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Suppose that when a person asked you this question either about figure or colour, you were to reply, Man, I do not understand what you want, or know what you are saying; he would look rather astonished and say: Do you not understand that I am looking for the 'simile in multis'?

SOCRATES: I can tell why you made a simile about me.

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The involuntariness of the figures and similes is the most remarkable thing; one loses all perception of what constitutes the figure and what constitutes the simile; everything seems to present itself as the readiest, the correctest and the simplest means of expression.

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the tree at whose foot I lay had opened its rocky side, and in the cleft, like a long lily-bud sliding from its green sheath, stood a dryad, and my speech failed and my breath went as I looked upon her beauty, for which mortality has no simile. Yet was there something about her of the earth-sweetness that clings even to the loveliest, star-ambitious, earth- born thing.

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In his gambling simile, his conclusion was that Luck had dealt him the most remarkable card in the deck, and that for years he had overlooked it.

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"Weathercock can without the wind," suggested Jo, as he paused for a simile. Jo had grown quite her own saucy self again since Teddy came home.

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He had never before seen a woman's lips and teeth which forced upon his mind with such persistent iteration the old Elizabethan simile of roses filled with snow.

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But shows, and species virtutibus similes, serve best with them.

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Both Imagination and Fancy naturally express themselves, often and effectively, through the use of metaphors, similes, and suggestive condensed language.

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In poetry, they must be allowed to excel all other mortals; wherein the justness of their similes, and the minuteness as well as exactness of their descriptions, are indeed inimitable.