Entrances

en·trance ¹

 (ĕn′trəns)

n.

1. The act or an instance of entering.

2. A means or point by which to enter.

3. Permission or power to enter; admission: gained entrance to medical school.

4. The point, as in a musical score, at which a performer begins.

5. The first entry of an actor into a scene.

6. Nautical The immersed part of a ship's hull forward of the middle body.

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[Middle English entraunce, right to enter, from Old French, from entrer, to enter; see enter.]

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en·trance ²

 (ĕn-trăns′)

tr.v. en·tranced, en·tranc·ing, en·tranc·es

1. To put into a trance.

2. To fill with delight, wonder, or enchantment: a child who was entranced by a fairy tale. See Synonyms at charm.

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en·trance′ment n.

en·tranc′ing·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Entrances/Exits

 

See Also: BEGINNINGS/ENDINGS, DEATH, EXITS

1. (A large man in white) appeared like a cuckoo out of a clock —Madison Smartt Bell
2. (Children don’t) appear and disappear like toadstools in a lawn —Miles Gibson
3. Barged in … like a Rugby forward —Frank Swinnerton
4. Blew in like a boisterous breeze —Cole Porter, from “You’ve Got That Thing,” one of the lyrics for the 1929 musical Fifty Million Frenchmen
5. Came and went, like bees after honey —Wright Morris
6. Came as silent as the dew comes —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
7. Came in like a swan swimming its way —Virginia Woolf
8. Came like swallows and like swallows went —W. B. Yeats
9. Came like water —Edward Fitzgerald
10. Comes and goes, like hearts —Elizabeth Bishop
11. Coming in like a kite on a string —Clive Cussler

    In his novel, Cyclops, Cussler used the simile to describe the entrance of a vessel.

12. Entered like a wind —Ruth Suckow

    For added emphasis there’s “Come in like a high wind” as used by Aharon Megged in his novel, Living on the Dead.

13. Enter … tiptoeing like somebody trying to sneak in late to a funeral —George Garrett
14. Flitted in and out of the house like birds —Anne Tyler
15. Hopped in, light as a bird —Harvey Swados
16. Light upon the scene like a new-made butterfly —George Garrett
17. Like hoodlums come … with neither permits nor requests —Carl Sandburg
18. Like Santa Claus he came and went mysteriously —Frank O’Connor
19. Materialize … like a policeman presiding over an accident —Wilfrid Sheed
20. Plunged into it like a rabbit into its hole —Ben Ames Williams
21. Popped up here and there like bubbles in a copperful of washing —Frank Swinnerton
22. Rolling through the front door like a drunken bear —James Crumley
23. Rushed into the room like a cannon-ball —Romain Gary
24. Rush in like a gust of wind —Anon
25. Slinking in like a little ailing cat —Jean Stafford
26. Slipped in like a cat or the wind —John J. Clayton
27. Strode in like a conquering prince returning to his lands —Alice Walker
28. Sweep in here like Zeus from Olympus, with his attendant nymphs and swains —Brian Clark
29. Swept vivaciously in … like a champion ice-skater —Frank Swinnerton
30. Was into the living-room … and out again with such speed that she might have been one of the mechanical weather-people in a child’s snow-globe or a figure on a medieval clock, who zooms across a lower balcony as the face shows the hands on the hour —Rachel Ingalls

Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.