Rocking and Rolling See Also: MOVEMENTS, UNSTEADINESS, VIBRATION
- Bobbed like a duck —F. van Wyck Mason
- Bobbed like a ten-cent toy —John Updike
Like the nickel pickle and cigar, the ten-cent toy is an endangered species, but fond remembrances are likely to have comparisons like this show up for a bit longer.
- Bobbing like milkweed —W. D. Snodgrass
- Bobbing up and down like a barometer on an April morning —Clifford Mills
- Bobbing up and down … like an apple in a bowl of toddy —Edgar Allan Poe
- [Stomach from laughing hard] bounced like a cat in a sack —Gerald Kersh
- Bounce … like a basketball —Raymond Chandler
- Bounces like an india-rubber ball —G. K. Chesterton
- (I was) bouncing around (in my seat) like a pellet of quicksilver in a nervous man’s palm —Dashiell Hammett
- (Testicles) bouncing … like peas in a colander —Richard Ford
- The bus rocked like a cradle —Carson McCullers
See Also: VEHICLES
- Rocking back and forth like Jews praying —Irwin Shaw
- (Franklin stood) rocking from side to side like a man on the deck of a ship in an angry sea —Wilbur Daniel Steele
- Roll about … like a pea —Frank Swinnerton
- Rolled down the hills like marbles —Boris Pasternak
- Rolled like a stone in a riverbed —Muriel Rukeyser
- Rolled like tropic storms along —Edgar Allen Poe
In Poe’s poem ‘rolled’ was spelled ‘roll’d.’
- Rolled off the bed like a rolling pin off a kitchen table —Rita Mae Brown
- Rolled over and over like a shot rabbit —P. G. Wodehouse
- [A drunk] rolling about like a ball-bearing —Mark Helprin
- Rolling around like a cannon ball in a high sea —Hank Searls
- [Baby in pregnant woman’s body] rolling around like a basketball —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
- (The words) roll on like bells —Alastair Reid
- Rolls over … like surf —Lawrence Durrell
- Swayed like a bird on a twig —Arnold Bennett
- (A tipsy fellow,) swaying like a wind-rocked palm —Beryl Markham
- Swaying like cobras about to strike —Robert Silverberg
- Sways as a wafer of light —Carl Sandburg