Posts tagged as:

metaphor

MUCK: a highly organic, dark or black soil

February 7, 2013

We passed a muck farm in Pennsylvania the other day and it brought back a flood of memories.   Muck farms are common in the area of west-central New York State where we once lived. The first time I was introduced to the term muck I took it to mean something negative.  It’s a word that [...]

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FINAL STRETCH: the last straight portion of the racetrack from the last curve to the finish line

October 18, 2012

As an old racetrack junkie, having grown up just a stone’s throw from Saratoga Springs, the strategies of the race have always intrigued me.   Some people may have the idea that a horse race is just a bunch of thoroughbreds who bolt from the gate and run as fast as they can around the track [...]

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CRIPPLED: impaired, prevented from progressing*

June 15, 2012

  Once upon a time there lived a boy named Roger who couldn’t wait to get to school.   From the time he was three years old he begged his parents relentlessly to be able to  enter the first grade, believing that kindergarten would be a complete waste of time.  He had taught himself to [...]

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LETTING GO: the act of releasing one’s self, whether by intention or by necessity

November 6, 2011

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning with an extra hour of sleep time.   I’ve been sitting at my computer writing for the past hour, occasionally stopping just to gaze at the beautiful sight outside our sun room windows.   Golden maples ablaze with autumn color, the sun shining through them to create the kind of scene a [...]

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TURGID: swollen, inflated

June 9, 2011

A fellow blogger began her posting describing a turgid morning, the day after a dinner party on her patio.   My imagination pictured a sultry, damp morning, the dew from the night hanging on the patio furniture, a mist suspended above the moistened grass on the fresh-cut lawn, the sun barely breaking through the fog-like mist [...]

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WHITE CHRISTMAS: a weather condition or a metaphor?

December 25, 2010

I found myself listening to Bing Crosby’s recording of White Christmas this afternoon, realizing that because I was in the hospital for the past couple of weeks I haven’t heard much Christmas music.  I was surprised to discover that I actually missed the seasonal music; I thought I hated it after it would appear around [...]

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PICALILLI: a pickle of mixed vegetables, esp onions, cauliflower, and cucumber, in a mustard sauce

July 28, 2010

It’s not a word that compares in significance to others I have chosen for comment.  It won’t approach the national economy, the war in Afghanistan, or the machinations of the members of Congress.  I doubt that it occurs in the daily language of the President of the United States, the coach of the Boston Red [...]

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MEPHITIC: a really, really bad odor

July 11, 2010

It is odd to find such an ordinary meaning for such a lofty-sounding word, but that’s exactly the case with the word mephitic. Try to find a more literary meaning for it and you’ll fail.  It means that something stinks.  Oh, it can be used in a more formal way, like referring to a mephitic [...]

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CATACHRESIS: misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect.

June 5, 2010

I am not a trained linguist. If anything, I’m just an amateur wordsmith. I enjoy words, and I get a kick out of editing pieces.  I pay attention to the way words are used, and get the kind of appreciation from good usage the same way an art buff gets appreciation from the clever use [...]

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FLIP SIDE OF THE PILLOW: a metaphor referring to a quick change from boring to interesting

May 18, 2010

I doubt if it’s a foreign idea to you that when your pillow gets uncomfortably hot in the middle of the night, you can flip it over and there’s a sudden rush of a more comfortable cool.  But who would have guessed that this phenomenon, which most people assume is something they alone have discovered, [...]

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