metaphorically

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met·a·phor

(mĕt′ə-fôr′, -fər)

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).

2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven" (Neal Gabler).

[Middle English methaphor, from Old French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, transference, metaphor, from metapherein, to transfer : meta-, meta- + pherein, to carry; see bher- in Indo-European roots.]

met′a·phor′ic (-fôr′ĭk), met′a·phor′i·cal adj.

met′a·phor′i·cal·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.

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Adv.

metaphorically - in a metaphorical manner; "she expressed herself metaphorically"

Translations

إسْتِعاريّا، مَجازيّا

metaforicky

metaforiskt

metaphorisch

metaforával

myndrænt; á myndhverfîan hátt

metaforicamente

metaforicky

mecazî olarak

隐喻地

metaphorically

[ˌmetəˈfɒrɪkəlɪ] ADV → metafóricamente

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

metaphorically

[ˌmɛtəˈfɒrɪk^əli] adv [speak] → métaphoriquement

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

metaphorically

adv → metaphorisch; metaphorically speaking → metaphorisch ausgedrückt, bildlich gesprochen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

metaphorically

[ˌmɛtəˈfɒrɪk/əlɪ] adv → metaforicamente

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

metaphor

(ˈmetəfə) noun

a form of expression (not using `like' or `as')in which a quality or characteristic is given to a person or thing by using a name, image, adjective etc normally used of something else which has similar qualities etc. `He's a tiger when he's angry' is an example of (a) metaphor.

ˌmetaˈphoric(al) (-ˈfo-) adjective

of, like or using metaphors. metaphorical language.

ˌmetaˈphorically adverb

References in classic literature ?

'Often indeed as he turned his gaze to the Trojan plain, he marvelled at the sound of flutes and pipes.' 'All' is here used metaphorically for

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This thought hath been carried so far, and is become so general, that some words proper to the theatre, and which were at first metaphorically applied to the world, are now indiscriminately and literally spoken of both; thus stage and scene are by common use grown as familiar to us, when we speak of life in general, as when we confine ourselves to dramatic performances: and when transactions behind the curtain are mentioned, St James's is more likely to occur to our thoughts than Drury-lane.

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She gathered together her quack periodicals and her quack medicines, and thus armed with death, went about on her pale horse, metaphorically speaking, with "hell following after." But she never suspected that she was not an angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise, to the suffering neighbors.

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Steve tore his hair, metaphorically speaking, for he clutched his cherished top-knot, and wildly dishevelled it, as if that was the heaviest penance he could inflict upon himself at such short notice.

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Philander--" screamed Professor Porter, as, metaphorically speaking, he himself "threw her into high." He, too, had caught a fleeting backward glimpse of cruel yellow eyes and half open mouth within startling proximity of his person.

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It was this which made Dorothea so childlike, and, according to some judges, so stupid, with all her reputed cleverness; as, for example, in the present case of throwing herself, metaphorically speaking, at Mr.

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Wakem, to his certain knowledge, was (metaphorically speaking) at the bottom of Pivart's irrigation; Wakem had tried to make Dix stand out, and go to law about the dam; it was unquestionably Wakem who had caused Mr.

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Phoebe said to herself,--"How pleasant he can be!" As for Uncle Venner, as a mark of friendship and approbation, he readily consented to afford the young man his countenance in the way of his profession,--not metaphorically, be it understood, but literally, by allowing a daguerreotype of his face, so familiar to the town, to be exhibited at the entrance of Holgrave's studio.

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He is building a Big Barn, metaphorically, for the telephone and telegraph.

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Boys of fourteen are apt to think so, and perhaps it is a wise arrangement; for, being fond of turning somersaults, they have an opportunity of indulging in a good one, metaphorically speaking, when, three or four years later, they become the abject slaves of "those bothering girls."

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As the missletoe is disseminated by birds, its existence depends on birds; and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in order to tempt birds to devour and thus disseminate its seeds rather than those of other plants.

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'Putting himself forward and wringing the very nose off his own father's face!' exclaimed the parish-clerk, metaphorically.

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