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Used in a sense that is tropical, as a metaphor; not literal; -- applied to words and expressions.

To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize. Whose white vestments figure innocence. Shak.

unnatural, or untimely action; to produce by unnatural effort; as, to force a consient or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits. High on a mounting wave my head I bore, Forcing my strength, and gathering to the shore. Dryden.

o prevent pestilential effluvia. In the New Testament the name is transferred, by an easy metaphor, to Hell. The pleasant valley of Hinnom. Tophet thence And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. Milton.

Metaphorically used for what is transitory. Surely the people is grass. Is. xl. 7.

or carriage; to wear out in common service; to make trite or commonplace; as, a hackneyed metaphor or quotation. Had I lavish of my presence been, So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men. Shak.

often taken from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject; usually, an extended metaphor. Brande & C.

Figuratively, anything which enlightens intellectually or morally; anything regarded metaphorically a performing the uses of a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Ps. cxix. 105. Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared. Cowper.

According to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a phrase. It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the owls can not abide. Tyndale .

The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations ! Is. xiv. 12. Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Is…

A bombastic literary style marked by the use of metaphors and antitheses characteristic of the Italian poet Giambattista Marini (1569-1625). -- Ma*ri"nist (#), n.

each stake, that which has been lost on the preceding stake; also, the sum so risked; -- metaphorically derived from the bifurcation of the martingale of a harness. [Cant] Thackeray.

d, over, about, reversely; as, metachronism, the error of placing after the correct time; metaphor, lit., a carrying over; metathesis, a placing reversely.

The dorsal portion of the metaphorax of insects.

characterized by plethora or excess of blood; as, a plethoric constitution; -- used also metaphorically. "Plethoric phrases." Sydney Smith. "Plethoric fullness of thought." De Quincey.

der, represent, or embody (something unreal) as fact; to materialize. [R.] "A pragmatized metaphor." Tylor.

equired, either stretched or cut of their legs to adapt them to its length; -- whence the metaphorical phrase, the bed of Procrustes.

s virtue; that the Bible was to be interpreted by human reason; and that its language was metaphorical, and not to be taken literally.

A figure of speech by which a word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense at the same time.

The use of a word in a figurative or extended sense; ametaphor; a trope. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.