Metaphor Examples: Definition and Types

If I were a bit dramatic, I’d start this piece with the following line: chaos is a friend of mine.

Except, chaos isn’t a friend of mine – there’s no chaos wherever I go (thankfully). And, I’m also not as dramatic. What I want to do though, is to introduce you to a metaphor in the first line itself.

It got your attention, didn’t it?

Because that’s how metaphors work. They stroke your imagination, drawing beautiful comparisons between two apparently unrelated things or ideas. Here are a few more simple metaphor examples:

• Her heart is gold.
• The snow is a white blanket.
• The falling snowflakes are dancers.

Like them? We’ve a lot more metaphor examples to share with you. So read on as we share examples, dive into the definition of metaphor, and show you how to use this literary device. We’ll also clear the air around metaphor vs simile vs analogy.

What Is a Metaphor?

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.

• A word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing to show or suggest that they are similar.
• An object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else.

Metaphors are a form of figurative language, which refers to words or expressions that mean something different from their literal definition. In the case of metaphors, the literal interpretation would often be pretty silly. For example, imagine what these metaphors would look like if you took them at face value:

• Love is a battlefield.
• Silas is a couch potato.

If you don’t take them at face value, the result is a much more powerful description of people or events than you’d get with phrases like “love is difficult” or “Silas sits around a lot.”

Types Of Metaphors

Altogether we’ve four types of metaphors plus 2 more that you need to be familiar with:

1. Standard Metaphor

Standard, direct, and explicit are all names for a simple metaphor where the comparison is obvious and direct. All other types are defined based upon the understanding of a standard metaphor.

For example:

• Laughter is the medicine of the soul.
• The snow was a white blanket warming the forest ground.
• Love is a fragile flower waiting for the first day of spring.

2. Implied Metaphor

Implied metaphor departs from the “thing A is thing B” formula and allows you to make a more sophisticated and subtle type of comparison through—you guessed it—implication.

Example: The commander barked an order to the troops to stand alert.

Explanation: With this implied metaphor, the commander’s order is compared to that of a bark, suggesting it as harsh. 

3. Visual Metaphor

A visual image compares something to a visual image of another. This type of metaphor is common in advertising where a product is visualized with another object. For example, spicy Cheetos being compared to fire.

There’s also another way to see visual metaphors as metaphors that compare something to another to give a visual identity. For instance, in her poem Hope is the thing with feathers, Emily Dickinson gives the visual image of a bird to hope.

4. Extended Metaphor

An extended metaphor uses descriptive language to elaborate a comparison. It’s the type of metaphor that you find referenced throughout a stanza, a full poem, a couple of paragraphs, or an entire blog post.

Example: This post that explains how to use the Swiss cheese productivity method to get things done references food items throughout the piece.

Here’s a peek:

• You started by taking a snack-able piece from your cheese block (the overwhelming project)
• You poked holes in the cheese chunk by continuously doing small tasks one at a time throughout your workday.
• You created so many holes in the cheese block that you finished it

5. Mixed Metaphor

A mixed metaphor is exactly what it sounds like—a combination of two unrelated metaphors.

For Example:

• “Early bird gathers no moss. Rolling stone catches the worm, right?” — The Truman Show
• “Does the Pope shit in the woods?” — The Big Lebowski
• “The shoes on the other… table, which has turned” — The Social Network
• “That’s awfully thin gruel for the right wing to hang their hats on.” — MSNBC, September 3, 2009
• “I knew enough to realize that the alligators were in the swamp and that it was time to circle the wagons.” — Rush Limbaugh
• “Sir, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I’ll nip him in the bud.” — attributed to Sir Boyle Roche, 1736-1807

6. Dead Metaphor

A dead metaphor is a cliché that has become so commonplace that imagery has lost its power. Examples of dead metaphors include: “raining cats and dogs,” “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” and “heart of gold.”

With a good, living metaphor, you get that fun moment of thinking about what it would look like if Elvis were singing to a hound dog (for example). But with a dead metaphor, the original image has already receded into the background.

Using too many dead metaphors will cause your reader to lose interest. Reach a little further for an original image or think about ways to use a familiar metaphor in an unconventional way.

Common Metaphor Examples

Many metaphors are so common that they’ve almost become idioms, which are nonsensical expressions we use all the time. But unlike idioms, metaphors still compare two things to make their point.

Common metaphors include:

• Heart of stone
• The Zoo metaphor
• The classroom turns into a zoo during recess.
• Time is money.
• Time is money, my friend!
• He is a tall tree.
• The wind screamed in his face while he was riding the bike.
• Go for a walk or you’ll become a couch potato.
• Her heart of stone was the result of the previous unfortunate events in her life.
• Her mom warned her about the monsters in the world.
• You’re sitting on a winning lottery.
• He was a cheetah in the race.
• You’ll be left in the dust.
• The professor was a guiding light for him.
• The curtains of life fell.
• Life is a maze.
• There’s a rat among us.
• Her heart sank on hearing the terrible news.
• Laughter is the best medicine.
• India’s culture is a salad bowl.
• His heart was made of gold.
• She was drowning in grief.
• The mind is an ocean.
• Her heart melts when she sees him.
• Your words cut deeper than a knife.
• His lawyer is a shark.
• He thinks that the world revolves around him.
• The mind is a computer.
• Sarojini Naidu is the nightingale of India.
• A friend is a treasure.
• Love is a rose.

Common Metaphors Examples in Literature

Metaphors are used by authors, writers, speakers, and poets as interesting devices. They used such metaphors to emphasize an event, situation, or a sensitive matter by using a much stronger concept fit for comparison.

• “The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight-thirty and still light.”—Fault in Our Stars, John Green
• “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”—As You Like It, William Shakespeare
• “Her mouth was a fountain of delight.”—The Storm, Kate Chopin
• “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”—Mother to Son, Langston Hughes (the entire poem is an example of an extended metaphor)
• “I’m a riddle in nine syllables”—Metaphors, Sylvia Plath (each line of the poem is a different metaphor, but the metaphors are all describing one thing.
• “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”—Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
• “The frosted wedding cake of the ceiling”—The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart.”—The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Examples Of Metaphors for Life

Some examples of metaphors for life include:

• “Life is a song; we each get to write our own lyrics.”
• “Life is a puzzle; you can only see the picture when you put all the pieces together.”
• “Life is a garden; with care and love you can cultivate beautiful flowers.”
• “Life is a classroom; you’ll always be learning new things.”

Metaphor examples in music

So many songs hold hidden meanings behind their seemingly simple lyrics. Metaphors are everywhere in popular music, here are a few powerful examples.

• “Third floor on the West Side, me and you. Handsome, you’re a mansion with a view”—” Delicate,” Taylor Swift.
• “Even when it’s rainy all you ever do is shine. You on fire, you a star just like Mariah”—” Mine,” Bazzi.
• “Life is Monopoly, go cop me some land and some property”—“Stir fry,” Migos.
• “You were the light for me to find my truth. I just wanna say, thank you”—“These Days,” Rudimental.
• “My lover’s got humor. She’s the giggle at a funeral”—“Take me to Church,” Hozier.

Common Examples of Metaphors

Anger bottled up inside	He was a Lion on the battlefield	Scapegoat
A shot across the bows	High and dry	Sea of bees
An endless night	His eye on the Sparrow	Sea of fire
Apple of my eye	Home was prison	Sea of ghosts
Batten down the hatches	Homework is a breeze	Sea of knowledge
Battle of egos	House of cards	Sea of love
Belling the cat	Hungry ghost	Sea of sadness
Belt was a snake	Ideas are water	Sea of smiles
Better half	Ideas are wings	Sea of sorrows
Birds of a feather flock together	Ideas in motion	Sea of umbrellas
Blanket of air	Infinite crisis	Sea of uncertainty
Blanket of bullets	Infinite spectrum of possibilities	Shades of excellence
Blanket of clouds	Intimate relationship	Shades of hope
Blanket of exemption	Jumping the shark	Shake a leg
Blanket of flowers	Know the ropes	Shaking the dust from the feet
Blanket of ghosts	Law of the horse	She felt her gorge rising
Blanket of hope	Legs were wax	Shipshape and Bristol fashion
Blanket of indifference	Life is a journey	Shiver my timbers
Blanket of insurance	Life is a mere dream	Shooting the messenger
Blanket of love	Light of my life	Shot down an idea
Blanket of roses	Loose cannon	Silken lies
Blanket of secrecy	Love is a battlefield	Simmer down!
Blanket of snow	Love is a bond	Slippery slope
Blanket of stars	Love is a camera, full of memories	Smell of death
Blow one’s trumpet	Love is a fine wine	Smell of fear
Boiling frog	Love is a garden	Smell of rain
Boiling mad	Love is a growing garland	Smoking gun
Broken heart	Love is a journey	Snake oil
Butterfly economics	Love is a thrill ride	Social organizations are plants
Cabin fever	Love is an experiment	Spherical cow
Camel’s nose	Love is an ocean	Stable economy
Choices are crossroads	Melting pot	Stable marriage problem
Close quarters	Moral compass	Standing on the shoulders of giants
Cloudy memory	Necessity is the mother of invention	Sticky wicket
Cold feet	Night was falling	Storm of swords
Consumed by love	Night owl	Strength and dignity are her clothing
Copper-bottomed	Noisy neighbors	Stubborn stains
Cotton candy words	Noisy stomach	Sweet dreams
Couch potato	On your beam ends	Sweet smell of success
Crop of students	Panic stations	Tell it to the marines
Deep dark secret	Path of exile	The bitter end
Disaster area	Path of glory	The cut of your jib
Domino effect	Peace of mind	The evening of one’s life
Early bird	Plain sailing	The sea bit my ankles
Eyes were fireflies	Point of no return	Their ideas are difficult to swallow
Eyes were saucers	Profits fell last year	Thoughts are a storm, unexpected
Flogging a dead horse	Puppet government	Three sheets to the wind
Food for thought	Push the boat out	Tiger Cub Economies
Fork in the road	Rainbow of challenges	Time a thief
Full to the gunwales	Rainbow of flavors	Turkeys voting for Christmas
Give a wide berth	Rainbow of hope	Walk the plank
Go by the board	Rainbow of love	Wave of donations
Hand over fist	Raining cats and dogs	Wheels of justice
Hard and fast	Reality an enemy	Work has dried up

Metaphors vs. similes

So what is the difference between a metaphor and a simile? They both serve the same purpose in English, so why are they separate ideas? It’s very simple: a simile uses “like” or “as” to compare two things, whereas a metaphor does not. So in the examples above, He could sell sand to a desert dweller is a metaphor and she sings like a lark is a simile.