Simile

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A simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. Frequently, similes are marked by use of the words like or as or so. "The snow was like a blanket". However, "The snow blanketed the earth" is also a simile and not a metaphor because the verb blanketed is a shortened form of the phrase covered like a blanket. A few other examples are "The deer ran like the wind", "The raindrops sounded as popcorn kernels popping", and "the lullaby was like the hush of the winter."

The phrase "The snow was a blanket over the earth" is the metaphor in this case. Metaphors differ from similes in that the two objects are not compared, but treated as identical, "We are but a moment's sunlight, fading in the grass." Note: Some would argue that a simile is actually a specific type of metaphor. See Joseph Kelly's The Seagull Reader (2005), pages 377-379.

Examples of Similes from Literary Works

Suspicion climbed all over her face, like a kitten, but not so playfully —Raymond Chandler
Love is like the devil; whom it has in its clutches it surrounds with flames —Honoré de Balzac
Exuding good will like a mortician's convention in a plague year —Daniel Berrigan
Guiltless forever, like a tree —Robert Browning
Idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
As good as gold —Charles Dickens
Yellow butterflies flickered along the shade like flecks of sun —William Faulkner
Woo the moon like the tide —Vladimir Mayakovsky
Death has many times invited me: it was like the salt invisible in the waves —Pablo Neruda
Solitude...is like Spanish moss which finally suffocates the tree it hangs on —Anaïs Nin
Jubilant as a flag unfurled —Dorothy Parker
Wide sleeves fluttering like wings —Marcel Proust
Death lies on her, like an untimely frost —William Shakespeare
The trees wavered their stark shadows across the snow like supplicating arms —Leo Tolstoy
A mouth drawn in like a miser's purse —Émile Zola
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle; Irina Dunn, 1970
Happy pigs in mud — David Eddings

Examples of Similes from Songs

I'm starvin' like Marvin' y'all ... - Nelly
Cheaper than a hot dog with no mustard - Beastie Boys
I love you like a fat kid loves cake - 50 Cent
You are as subtle as a brick to the small of my back - Brand New & Taking Back Sunday
Put your arms around me like a circle 'round the sun - Will Shade (Memphis Jug Band)
My heart is like an open highway - Jon Bon Jovi
Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull
She got dumps like a truck - Sisqo
These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall - Led Zeppelin
Like a June Bug in December - Jason Jones
It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog - The Beatles
He started howlin’ like a monsoon wind - Bruce Springsteen
A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle - U2
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Free as a bird - Lynard Skynard

Examples of Similes

There are countless examples of similes used in everyday speech. Below is a list of examples, but not by any means an exhaustive account, as there are too many examples to list.

busy as a bee
busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest
clear as a bell
cold as ice
cute as a button
dry as a bone
dead as a doornail
dumb as a post
easy as pie
as fast as lightning
fit as a fiddle
free as a bird
happy as a clam
high as a kite
larger than life
light as a feather
mad as hell
plain as day
proud as a peacock
as loyal as a dog
quick as a wink
right as rain
sharper than a tack
sick as a dog
smooth as silk
snug as a bug in a rug
solid as a rock
sure as eggs
tough as nails
white as snow
working like a dog
it burned like a eucharist on a vampire

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