Simile in David Cooperfield
Similes are sometimes made without using the words "like" or "as." This often occurs when making comparisons of differing values.
"Norman was more anxious to leave the area than Herman Milquetoast after seeing ten abominable snowmen charging his way with hunger in their eyes."
"But this truth is more obvious than the sun--here it is; look at it; its brightness blinds you."
"Shall I compare thee to a summer 's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:" - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
"I 'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park." - Mater, Cars
A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the words "like", "as", or "than". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without using "like" or "as". For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet would go as follows: "Katrina was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "When Katrina ran, she was a speeding bullet racing along the track."
A mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike."
Similes have been widely used in literature for their expressiveness as a figure of speech:
Curley was flopping like a fish on a line.
The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.
Explicit Similes
A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis implicit. For instance, the following similes are implicit, leaving an audience to determine for themselves which features are being predicated of a target:
"My dad was a mechanic by trade when he was in the Army," Raymond Thompson said. "When he got the tools out, he was like a surgeon."
More detail is present in the following similes, but it is still a matter of
"Norman was more anxious to leave the area than Herman Milquetoast after seeing ten abominable snowmen charging his way with hunger in their eyes."
"But this truth is more obvious than the sun--here it is; look at it; its brightness blinds you."
"Shall I compare thee to a summer 's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:" - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
"I 'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park." - Mater, Cars
A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the words "like", "as", or "than". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without using "like" or "as". For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet would go as follows: "Katrina was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "When Katrina ran, she was a speeding bullet racing along the track."
A mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike."
Similes have been widely used in literature for their expressiveness as a figure of speech:
Curley was flopping like a fish on a line.
The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.
Explicit Similes
A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis implicit. For instance, the following similes are implicit, leaving an audience to determine for themselves which features are being predicated of a target:
"My dad was a mechanic by trade when he was in the Army," Raymond Thompson said. "When he got the tools out, he was like a surgeon."
More detail is present in the following similes, but it is still a matter of
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